Category: books

Relentless Pursuit. Our Battle with Jeffrey Epstein

Bradley J. Edwards with Brittany Henderson

My last review was Nobody’s Girl by Virginia Roberts Giuffre. I started that book because I was intrigued by the actions of the then Prince Andrew, who immediately after that book was published lost his Royal titles.

That book sent me down a rabbit hole of research. I had heard of Jeffrey Epstein, and was vaguely aware of the crimes he was ultimately arrested for. But I had no idea of the Epstein empire, the type of person he was, and the high level relationships he incubated, and the reach those relationships had.

As fascinating as Nobody’s Girl was it was a single persons account and I was desperate to find other accounts of Epstein’s activities.

Relentless Pursuit stood out. Written by two of the people that were involved in trying to prosecute Epstein and get him in prison.

Edwards, and the book, are mentioned by Giuffre in her book, and she was full of praise for his tenacity in prosecuting a man many people thought was untouchable. So what better place to start my extended reading.

In June 2008 Edwards was a young lawyer opening his first law firm. He had never heard of Jeffery Epstien. A young 20 year old woman, Courtney Wilde was referred to him by a friend. She stated she had been sexually abused by Epstien from the age of 14.

And so it began.

What follows is years of tenacity on Edwards’ side, and years of lies and deception on Epsteins.

As Edwards’ investigations gather momentum more witnesses start to come forward, one of which is Jane Doe 102, Virginia Roberts Giuffre. Although a star witness, and a person who does as much to bring down the Epstien empire as anybody, a person who Edwards finds himself admiring for her bravery in standing up, it’s very telling that his first emotion was excitement at getting one of “Epstiens inner circle” to testify against him.

That line in the book, the one of Epstiens Inner Circle, exhibits the depth of her involvement.

Epstien’s only defence is attack

In fact he attacked every lawyer, and every victim those lawyers represented with either lawsuits or intimidation tactics, and often both.

The sphere of Epstein’s influence is clearly displayed when he made a Plea Deal in 2008, which saw him serve a minor sentence, during which time he spent nearly every day in a charity foundation office next to the jail. A foundation he set up so that he could spend his days in relative comfort.

This deal saw him convicted of relatively minor crime but the deal he struck was a none prosecution deal for all of the major charges he could have been charged with, including sex trafficking and rapping underage girls.

The frustration Edwards and his team felt at this is palpable in the book. The only avenue they now had was civil suites.

But Epstein was in full attack mode. Edwards had been employed for a short time by a law firm whose director was found to be running one of the world’s biggest ponzie schemes, that’s a whole other story worth looking into.

Epstein accused Edwards of not only being involved in the scheme but also being the main orchestrator. A fact he knew from the start to be false.

This tied Edwards and his team up, distracting them for years.

All the time Edwards and Epstein had occasional off the record meetings in, of all places, a Starbucks coffee shop, no other lawyers or representatives being present. Edwards likens his dealings with Epstein as a complicated game of chess. During these meetings he relates how Epstein is cheerfully friendly, as if he is talking to a friend, but every meeting held an alluded to, or indirect threat that Edwards was going to be ruined professionally and financially, because he hadn’t got the resources or money that Epstein had available to him.

Neither did Edwards have judges, politicians, senators, and many other highly placed people in his pocket.

When the direct fight against Epstein seems impossible the team go after his close associates. In particular Ghislaine Maxwell.

Maxwells is as close to a girlfriend as you can associate with Epstein, but is also his chief recruiter. A woman that finds underage girls and cons them into sexual activities with Epstein, often taking part in the sessions and abusing the girls herself.

This is when the castle walls around Epstein start to crumble.

The accusations made against Maxwells opens the possibility of new charges against Epstein.

Still the civil cases continue, as does Epstien attacks in the victims and their lawyers.

Until the final day of reconning, the day of Epstien ultimate arrest and his eventual death in prison. Another story that needs reading into.

Throughout the book there are allusions to Epstien real status. Was her working for governments, American, Israel, or both, or more.

He was certainly protected at very high level in America and had such people as Bill Clinton amongst his closest associates.

Evidence is presented in the book suggesting the Epstein facilitated large a money transfers between America and Israel. A former Israeli Prime Minister is mentioned in this book as being one of his associates, and in Nobody’s girl Giuffre recounts being viciously assaulted by a foreign politician, it’s not hard to make the connections.

Why did Epstein get away with what he was getting away with for so long. This book establishes, with information that is now freely available, that he was above the law for a long time.

It also establishes connections between him and high ranking officials in America.

Was he working for governments, was he establishing dark routes for money transfers. It’s still all very vague and still really intriguing.

Will this be the last book I read on this subject. Certainly not.

What started for me as a passing interest in what “Randy Andy” had been up to has developed into a fascination about a very dark period in recent history.

This book, and the story it contains, reads like a Grisham thriller mixed in with a Clancy espionage book. But as fanciful as those two authors stories are, this is pure fact.

The link below is to my review of Nobody’s Girl. Whichever you read first the other compliments it.

https://nigeladamsbookworm.com/2025/10/31/nobodys-girl-virginia-roberts-giuffre/

Pages: 399. U.K. Publisher: Simon and Schuster.

Cop Hater. Ed McBain

I’ve recently been in a bit of a reading slump.

Modern crime fiction seems to be following an all too familiar formula with many of the stories being very samey.

I recently resorted to rereading one of James Elroy’s books, classic crime fiction set in the 1960s, and having enjoyed it and looked for inspiration on Amazon.

The name Ed McBain came up and I remembered people reading his books when I was on the ships in the late 70s. I don’t know why I never picked one up then.

I’m sort of glad I didn’t because now I’ve found a rich vane of new books to make my way through.

Cop Hater is the first in a very long series, of over 50 books in the 97th Precinct series set in the fictional city of Isola, which is very obviously New York.

Written and set in the mid 1950s it’s an excellent study of not only policing in that era, but also of how people lived, their styles and attitudes. The language used, the thoughts and behaviour are very much of that era.

The city is no stranger to serious crime but when the Detectives end up investigating the murder of one of their own no stone is going to be left unturned.

The way they pull in known criminals, and the quick back stories associated with each, are mesmerising.

A second detective is killed and some forensic evidence is left. The Criminologists, Crime Scientist of the day are the early forerunners of today’s Crime Scene Investigators, but have little proven science to help them.

Blood matched only by types, no national shoe database, finger prints sent to the FBI for analysis, and DNA is decades away, as is CCTV, and personal phone data which so much of today’s policing relies on.

So who is killing detectives, and why. There are some nice observations and twists in this plot. There is the still, and ever present, hinderance of the journalist trying to get the “scoop” on the story. The reliance of information from an informer, who I hope has numerous appearances during the series, an early Huggy Bear, type character.

But the big draw is the cast of police officers, their professional and personal lives giving great depth to each character.

One of my favourite tactics that writers employ is to kill of protagonists or main characters in series. It means that the reader is always on the edge of the seat, as no one is safe. McBain sets his stall out early and kept me right on the very edge of the seat.

I won’t be reading all fifty plus books in one binge, but much like Elroy, McBain’s stories are now going to be my default books when I’m looking for a good, no holds barred, original, none woke story to read.

Pages: 226. Publisher: Thomas & Mercer Included in Kindleunlimited

Chapter One. Michael Wood

A clever thriller that had me convinced I knew who the killer was, until I didn’t, and then I realised just how dark this story is.

Reclusive author Aiden Cullen hasn’t left his house for years.

The day his first book was published should have been a huge celebration, but it was the day that changed his life for the wrong reason.

Stabbed multiple times and left for dead the previously shy man, who was leading a normal life, turned into a recluse during his rehabilitation. Now he never leaves his home.

Writing from home he has become a successful author writing murder based crime thrillers.

His life is turned upside down when a murder is committed close to the rear of his house. He has to answer the door to the police, he has to let strangers into his house, even if they are Police Officers, and that really freaks him out.

When he becomes aware of other crimes, all of which are frighteningly similar to the murders in his books he has to tell the police.

Then strange things start to happen in his house.

The list of suspects is short and the top of the list is Aidens best friend and occasional lodger, Luke.

Aiden fights the police’s assumption it’s Luke, it can’t be, it’s his best and only friend.

This is a cracking story written by a brilliant story teller.

I’ve struggled with how to describe it, and I don’t think this does it justice but, if Stephen King wrote Cosy Crime, this is what he’d come up with.

The cosy part first, it’s set predominantly in a nice country family home.

The Stephen King bit. The story is a psychological mind twister.

To be honest, as good as the story is from the start, it’s not until the killer is revealed that I realised just how good the whole plot was, and it elevated my enjoyment of the book even further.

What a cracker of a read.

Pages: 380. Publisher: One More Chapter.

The Night Collector. Victor Methos

One of my best reads this year. Brilliantly written Crime Thriller with believable characters and a storyline that had me hooked from the start

One of my finds of last year was The Silent Watcher by Victor Methos. Now book two in what is now called the Vegas Shadows Series has just landed on Amazon and it’s a cracker.

The Night Collector brings back together the two main protagonists of the first book.

Detective Lazarus Holloway and Piper Danes, a former attorney now acting as a guardian ad litem, a legal representative that looks after the interests of minors during investigations and court cases.

Unlike a lot of stories there is no will they, won’t they relationship between the pair, just hard grafting investigations.

In this book the pair are investigating the kidnap of two 15 year olds who were getting married when they were snatched in spectacular style.

The kicker is that the girl, Keri, is the daughter Lazarus wasn’t aware that he had.

The kidnappers are nasty characters that have been brilliantly written, and the tension that Methos creates in the scenes where they, and the young couple, are together is tangible.

Piper is representing Keri, whilst the investigation into the kidnapping, and hunt for her and her boyfriend, are going on.

But there’s more to play out in this than just this investigation.

Why was Keri and her boyfriend targeted.

Was it purely by chance. No ransom is sent, nobody knows what’s happened to them.

The favourite theory is that they have been taken to be trafficked into the sex or slavery trade, but they don’t fit the usual profile for that.

Now that Lazarus knows she’s his daughter, and that a terrible fate is awaiting her he ups his game.

As with the previous book the criminal investigation is over just over halfway through the book, the story then switching to the court room.

And that’s when things start to take a real twist.

And the twist keep coming right up to the last page.

I said that The Silent Watcher was one of my favourite reads last year.

Well. The Night Collector is definitely one of my favourites this year

I’ve included a link to my review of Silent Watcher below just in case you want to look at that book first

https://nigeladamsbookworm.com/2024/12/01/the-silent-watcher-victor-methos/

Pages: 363. Publisher: Thomas & Mercer

All the Colours of the Dark. Chris Whitaker

If ever the word epic was appropriate for a story, it’s for this book

At 580 pages it’s a tomb of a book but not one word is wasted.

Spread over three decades, and full of unpredictable but realistic twist, this is one hell of a story.

Two young misfit kids find themselves attracted to each other because they are almost outcast from the other children their age.

Patch, a one eyed boy who lives his childhood as a pirate, and Saint the geeky late developing girl.

A childhood friendship built on being two outsiders.

When Patch goes missing protecting a young girl from attack the police investigation soon peters out.

He’s alive and being kept in a dark cellar, but he’s not alone. There’s a young girl with him. A girl he can’t see in the dark, a girl that asks him to imagine her features by touching her face. She talks in strange quotes and try’s to educate him with her cryptic stories.

Her name is Grace.

Saint never gives up on Patch and through her amateur, childish investigations finally thinks she’s found him.

In the commotion that follows the Saint and the Police find Patch but there’s no sign of the girl he says was in the cellar with him.

Over the next three decades Patch devotes his life to finding Grace.

Over the same three decades Saint, who joins Law Enforcement tries to keep Patch out of trouble, and independently looks for Grace for her own reasons.

There’s no real spoilers in what I’ve written above. Patch’s abduction and his release happen fairly early in the book, the real story is what follows.

The characters in the book weave in and out of the plot around Patch and Saint.

The relationship between Patch and Saint is never really a “will they, won’t they” get together, it’s more the story of two best friends who love each other unconditionally but more as brother and sister.

It’s all about what each of them will do to prove that Grace existed. Patch because he thinks he loves her, and Saint because she is on the trail of a long dead killer.

This is my first Chris Whitaker book but, coincidentally, whilst I was reading it he was recommending to me by a fellow book worm.

She was talking about a book I’d read, a gothic fantasy novel, and I had said the second in that series was the same story as the first. We both love crime fiction and she said to me, aren’t all crime stories basically the same.

Many of them are, but this one definitely isn’t like any I’ve read before.

She’d found it and pointed me in Chris Whitakers direction.

Now I’m looking at his back catalogue.

Pages 580. Publisher Orion. Audiobook length 14 hours 37 minutes Narrator Edoardo Ballerini

Little Children Angela Marsons

In one of my very first book blogs I said I didn’t like authors that published a book every 6 months or so. Well this series by Angela Marsons is the proof that I was very wrong to say that.

This series is the one I look forward to reading as soon as the book is available to me.

22 books in and this one is so original that I had no idea that this type of crime existed, but now that I’ve read about it I’m sure that was down to my own naivety.

In this book Stone and her team are seconded to another force, overtly to help with the search for a missing boy, covertly to hunt out bad practices, and a bad apple, in the major investigation team.

The investigation into the missing boy has been run badly and Stone and her team start to identify major issues within the other force.

The clash of personalities isn’t just based on the policing methods and it’s a fascinating read to see how the influence of one or two people can affect a whole team.

That alone as a story would have been brilliant, but throw in the actual crime they are there to investigate and you have one of the best crime books I’ve read for a long time.

Boys going missing around the country. Some of them are a bit rough around the edges and not unknown to the Police, but just because they’ve got a history, and have “run away from home” before, shouldn’t mean they should be treated flippantly.

When Stones team uncover a link it almost unthinkable about what these boys are going through.

The hard part for the team is proving it, and then finding out not only who is responsible, but where they are keeping the boys.

When it becomes evident that at least one of the boys has died, in a horrible manner, the investigation becomes even more highly charged.

And with the investigation getting off to a bad start in the other force Stone is playing catch up from the start.

There are not many books that sit this far into a crime series that I would recommend as a standalone story, but this one is a must read and can be read as a one off.

If anybody hasn’t read any of the others in the series, but picks this one up I’m sure they’ll go back to the beginning and start from book one. I’m almost jealous of the fact I can’t start over and read them all for the first time again.

Pages 371. Publisher Bookouture Audiobook length 8 hours 16 minutes. Narrator Jan Cramer

Good People. Patmeena Sabit

I think a better title for this book would have been Perspectives

Ultimately that is what this book is all about.

The story unfolds in a series of statements from numerous people who have known the Sharaf Family, or have been part of the investigation into a crime that centres around the family.

There is no narrative to string the statements together, the whole book is a story told through observations, thoughts, and hypotheses of the general community, an investigative journalist, and various professionals such as teachers, and attorneys. All looking back, with hindsight, into events leading up to…….I can’t really say without including a book spoiling, spoiler.

The “occurrence” doesn’t happen until about halfway through the book. But even then not everything is as it first appears.

So what can I tell you without spoiling the book.

The story centres around an Afghan family who escaped the violence of their country by moving to America

The father arrives in America with nothing but ambition and eventually works his way up to becoming a very successful business owner.

His family, two elder children, a son and a daughter, and two younger children are not just the apple of his eye, but also his status symbol of what he wants to achieve.

He tries everything to get them into the best schools and colleges, no matter what their ability.

In the Afghan community he is seen to be a normal parent with high ambitions for his children, outside of that community he is seen to be a pushy parent.

The eldest daughter Zorah is the fulcrum for the different opinions. To her friends she is the girl trying her hardest to live a normal life as an American teenage girl.

To the Afghan community she is a wild child that her father should reign in.

As the story continues people on both sides of that argument seem to change their perspectives on Zorah.

She is the catalyst for the events at the centre of the story.

Her “rebellion” against the aspirations her father has for her.

Her bucking of the traditions of the Afghan community.

Her families reactions

The opinion of her friends.

The opinion of the Afghan community, many of whom have never met her.

Opinions turn to reactions, as the chronological accounts reach the event the book centres around.

Throughout the book I was waiting for a narrator, somebody to stitch all of the personal accounts together. But the lack of the narrative is what held me, and kept me reading.

As far as books go this is as close as I’ve ever read to a voyeuristic experience.

I felt like I was in a room full of people gossiping.

It’s the fact that it’s written in hindsight, with everybody giving their thoughts having known what has happened, and all the time I was the only one in the room who didn’t know.

I have never read a book written in this manner before.

At first I found it frustrating, and dare I say amateurish.

But I was hooked from very early on.

I think Patmeena Sabit hit on a great, and to me original, way to hook the reader.

FOMO, fear of missing out, it’s that thing we all have lurking in our psyche. The fact I was the only one in the room listening to the gossip but having no idea hat people were on about.

In my working life I have dealt with similar situations. Parents living their life vicariously through their children.

Immigrants working hard for every hour they can to give their families the best life. Only to see their children become westernised, and ditch the beliefs and work ethos of their parents.

It’s a matter of opinion whether this is right or wrong.

Like I wrote at the beginning of this review it’s a matter of perspectives.

I think different people will get different things out of this book, depending on their perspective.

What I will say is that it’s a really good, thought provoking book.

Pages: 464. Publisher: Virago. Publishing Date: 12 February 2026

The Girl In Cell A.  Vaseem Khan

 

To start this review I have to say that I really enjoyed this book, up until the last two or three chapters.

So to start with the plot is brilliant. 

Orianna, the girl in cell A, has been in prison for 18 years. She was convicted of killing a member of the family that founded Eden Falls. A family that still lords it over the town.

The man she killed was, like the rest of the family, a law onto himself.

She maintains her innocence and claims to have no memory of the attack.

Annie Leddit is a Forensic Psychologist who is part of the prison team that is looking at the potential release of Orianna. But to be released she has to show remorse, and to show remorse she must first admit guilt. 

It is Annie’s job to unlock the memories and let Orianna have to opportunity to show remorse.

The book is written from two first hand points of view, in two different times. 

The present is written from Orianna’s point of view as she returns to Eden Falls four years after her release. She has gone back to confront the family of her victim, to find the truth and clear her name.

The past is written from Annie’s point of view as she conducts her interviews with Orianna, and tries to pick the locks which hold her memories repressed.

Both are brilliantly written. The story flies along and its one of those books where you have to read the next chapter, I found it really hard to put it down.

Until the last three chapters.

The book for me should have ended before those chapters.

There is an unexpected twist, its good, and it’s in context but…….

It left me with the feeling that the author had two endings in mind, and decided to add the alternative right at the end.

Did it spoil the book for me?

No, I just didn’t get see the point.

Would I recommend it?

YES.

Pages: 592.      Publisher: Hodder Paperbacks

Hidden Daughters. Patricia Gibney

I used to worry about long series losing there impact or running out of ideas. The Lottie Parker series by Patricia Gibney is one I really don’t have to worry about

Every new addition to the series jut seems to get better, and the bar was high from the start.

I read this book as a recent story about the discovery of a lot of human remains, those of young children, was found in an old school in Ireland, run by the church for unmarried women and their babies

This not only brought a credibility to an already brilliant book, but somehow underlined everything about the story.

When two, seemingly unrelated murders take place, both involving young women with sad stories that include attending the Sisters of Forgiveness Convent Lottie Parker can’t help but get involved but the emotional attachment to this casenearly unhinges her.

Emotionally she has always struggled to keep her family, and partner, separated from her work. Although that’s hard when you’re in a relationship with another Officer.

But the one has always been a refuse from the other.

This case seems like its make or break for her career and her relationships

Lottie will do anything to get justice, and in this case get news of the women’s demise to any family that they might have.

All the time the threat of another murder hangs over her and her team.

This is a timely and very suspenseful story, told by one of the best crime fiction writers on the shelves at the moment

It’s also one of those books I would only pick up if you’ve got nothing else to do for a couple of days because once you start it you are not going to want to put it down.

Pages: 464. Publisher: Bookouture. Audiobook length: 13.25. Narrator Michele Moran

What The Dark Whispers. M.J Lee

The DI Ridpath books are right up there in my favourite reads, and are always the next-to-read, as soon as they are available to me.

Ridpath is a brilliantly conceived character. Employed by Greater Manchester Police, and posted within the MIT, he has, from the start of the series, been on secondment to the Coroners Office, allowing him a greater range of deaths to investigate.

His secondment was intended to give him an easy ride back to work following a battle with cancer, but over the years he has been involved in some serious murder investigations. He has become a single parent who is struggling to bring up his now teenage daughter, and balance his home life with work. A typical cop his work often comes first.

Now, with GMP under increasing scrutiny , and with staff shortages being exacerbated by increased crime levels the Police want more and more of Ridpath’s time.

So when he is called in by his boss (police) to look at a serious crime that another DI and his team have already wound up Ridpath is put into conflict with one of his peers.

The crime, a young girl accused of killing her mother, a seemingly open and shut case following the girls confession. But she is a minor, and the interview was not carried out well.

Did she really killer mother.

In a separate case Ridpath is tasked by the coroner to look into the death of a man who set himself on fire on a petrol station forecourt.

Suicide? Everything points to it.

But why did both victims, who died hours apart, say the same thing insinuating they are dying in order to save others.

As the investigations continue more similarities are uncovered.

Add to this another team investigating the murder of a family of four, which in isolation seems unrelated. And that’s the problem if these crimes were looked at in isolation nobody would ever get caught.

Can the connections be made.

Are there more deaths to come.

The pace of the book is none stop. M.J Lee’s cadence in his writing just keeps me hooked every time I pick one of his books up.

This one, in my opinion, is one of the best in the series.

Could it be read as a standalone, yes, there is enough mention of previous happenings to leave new readers with no doubt as to how Ridpath, and his family, have got to where they are.

Nicely, for those of us that have read the previous books there’s not too much rehashing and it certainly doesn’t detract from the story, it more reminds us of what has gone before.

But, if I was to be asked, I’d say read the series in order. It really is that good.

Pages: 351. Publisher: Canelo Crime. Release date: 03/07/2025