Book Blog – nigeladamsbookworm

Mimik. Sebastian Fitzek

Adverts for this book kept appearing on my timelines, and after reading the gumph, and some reviews on Amazon I decided to give it a go.

I wasn’t disappointed, at first.

I read on a kindle so page numbers don’t really mean anything but at 85% into the book things started to go rapidly downhill.

The pretext of the book is that a woman, Hannah Herbst, has confessed to killing her family; her husband and their son, and her step daughter.

She is a consultant that works for the Police examining facial expressions and reading lie tells.

The problem is she cannot look at her own face in the mirror, scared of what she might see in her own personality.

It is a real problem when she wakes up with short term memory loss having suffered a self inflicted knife injury following the attack.

She’s been arrested and has made a full confession, on video.

The man showing her the video of her confession is also a serial killer, and he has taken Hannah hostage when he escaped.

All this might sound very confusing but it’s actually the backdrop to a really good story, up until that last 15% of the book.

It becomes evident quite early on that Hannah probably didn’t carry out the attack that left her husband and step daughter dead and her son missing presumed taken and killed.

But that last 15% basically shifts through every character named in the book being identified as the killer only for each hypothesis to be wiped out by the next.

Each is more fanciful than the previous and as a reader I was left giddy by the amount of twist and turns the last few chapters took.

I don’t do star rating but if I did, the first 85% would be a 5 star rating, the last 15% a generous two star.

Pages: 341. Publisher: Head of Zeus

Black Dog. Stephen Booth

Every now and then a TV series will hit the screens stating it’s based on the books of a best selling author.

If the series looks good I’ll try to read the book before watching the program, especially if I’ve never heard of the book series.

This was the case with the Copper and Fry series that recently started on Channel 5 (UK November 2025). The previews looked really good so I looked up the books. I was surprised I’d never heard of Stephen Booths books, there’s 18 in the series, and it’s my favourite genre.

Black Dog introduces DCs Ben Cooper and Diane Fry. Who police the Peak District.

Cooper is a local man. He is well respected and thought highly of by his peers and bosses, and is favourite to be promoted into the upcoming vacancy for a DS.

Fry is a fast track graduate who has just transferred from the West Midlands Police.

They are polar opposites in their professional approach, private lives, and attitudes.

Cooper is very much the local lad cop, he knows everybody and everybody knows him, the problem is many civilians only know him as his father’s son, a well respected Police Officer who died on duty.

And that really annoys him.

He has problems at home, his mother is suffering severe mental illness, and it’s taking its toll on him and his extended family, all of who live on the family farm.

Fry is battling her own problems, her and her sister had been in care since she was very young, her sister, already a drug addict, hasn’t been seen since she was sixteen.

Then there’s the reason she left the WMP, a dark secret she is desperate to keep from her new colleagues.

Set in 1999 the police are still plagued by old attitudes, especially towards fast tracked graduates, who have come from a Met force, and just happen to be young attractive females.

The story of the murder which is investigated in the book almost seems secondary to the setting the scenes of the two main characters and preparing the reader for what is to come.

For what it’s worth the murder is that of a young girl. The daughter of a couple that moved into a large house in the peaks. Rumours abound that orgies and sex parties are regular occurrences at the house.

Three old men, World War Two veterans are at the centre of the investigation. Arrogant doesn’t begin to describe these characters and they quickly become frustrations to the police, and the reader.

Fry and Cooper work together as DCs and in a way there is a begrudging respect beneath a simmering contempt. Expected a will they, won’t they, thread in the series.

I enjoyed the story and the characters, but, and for me it’s a big but, there is way too much spurious writing. As an example Fry leaves the Police Station after one of her first shifts, and goes straight home to her flat. That journey takes eight pages and contributes nothing to the story, and there are a lot of examples of that throughout the book.

There were times I found myself speed reading through five or six pages that held no relevant content.

Will I read more of the series. Yes, it will be one of those I dip into occasionally but it won’t be one I binge read.

Pages: 537. Publisher: Harper Collins

Unbound. Penelope Bloom

A couple of years ago I was looking for a new genre and was getting a lot of reviews on my timelines about Fantasy Fiction, and mainly Academy Fantasy fiction.

Having read a few of these over the last few years I found that they fall into two camps for me. Either really good, or really awful.

Unbound falls firmly in the first category, and not only that it sits right at the top.

One of the reviews I’ve seen stated that it deserves to be read a much as Rebecca Yarros’ Fourth Wing, I couldn’t agree more.

Nessa Thorne enters the Confluence Academy as a volunteer, and volunteers are seen as the lowest of the low.

The Academy trains people to fight for the Empire against the Red Kingdom.

Students are placed into one of four affinities depending on their mystical skills. Fire, Earth, Water, and Air.

The problem for Nessa is that she is Unbound, she has no particular affinity, but she can call on all four.

This makes her very dangerous, the problem is, is that she is totally naive to the fact her skills are sought after by all of the powerful people in the academy. It also means that those that can’t have her as a weapon need her dead.

Nessa pretends to be a water bound, but her close friends soon realise she is more than a water channeller. Unlikely alliances and friendships are formed.

A close bond with a Fire has everybody talking. His affinities want her dead but not as much as some of her own affinity do.

But who, or what is the driving force.

As with all the books I’ve read in this genre nobody is what they first seem to be.

It’s a mystery in itself as to who is really a friend and ally, and who are really deadly enemies.

And just like many other books in the genre there’s a nasty twist at the end, leaving a nice cliff hanger for the second book in the series, Unveiled.

But as much as this book follows a familiar format, and as much as I wasn’t surprised by the twists at the end, the journey to get to the last paragraph was a great read.

Yes the characters will be familiar, yes the story follows the usual template, but the fact that I enjoyed it so much speaks volumes for the quality of the story telling.

Pages: 576. Publisher: Mountain Leopard Press. Audiobook length: 22 hours 3 minutes. Narrator: Rachel Leblang

Mr Wilman’s Motoring Adventure

Andy Wilman

There’s a picture on the cover of this book. Three men, with their backs to the viewer, standing on an open road with an arm, extending towards them from a car, a hand holding a white envelope.

The three men are instantly recognisable, even though the picture is a simplistic watercolour with no facial features.

As recognisable as the men is the identity of the TV series that they starred in.

I struggle to think of any other TV trio, or TV series that could be so simplistically represented, yet so easily recognised.

The majority of people who will make the connection will be middle aged men, there will also be many younger men and women who know exactly what the contents of this book is going to look at without reading the dust jacket, and anybody who does will want to read this account of Jeremy, Richard, and James and their time on Top Gear and Grand Tour, as told by a man that was with them through it all. Thick and thin.

Andy Wilman was a school friend of Jeremy’s, at a private school that was on its last legs. Neither were what you might call part of the popular gang. Each had their own uniqueness that set them apart. But they became firm friends.

There is no doubt that Wilmans career was guided, if not pulled along by Clarkson. So when Top Gear was shelved in the early 2000’s it was no surprise that Clarkson turned to Wilman to help get it back on its feet, even if he had little or no experience as a TV producer. The rest, as they say, is history.

In 2002 the Clarkson and Hammond era started, May joined in the second series of the reconstituted of Top Gear.

The book covers how Wilman and Clarkson planned the formula of the new version of Top Gear over a pint in a London pub, a recurring theme throughout.

How they decided, after very nearly turning him away, that Richard Hammond should be one of the presenters. Why they decided to replace the original third presenter, Jason Dawe with James May in the second series, the decision that led to the formulation of the trio that remained together for two decades.

It’s recounts the ideas that led to the birth of the Stig, and the reasons why the Stigs character was changed, including how and why Ben Collins fell out with the production team.

It looks at the way all of the favourite sections of the programs were initially thought up, often by accident, or happy coincidence.

Talking of accidents it gives a producers view of both of Hammonds big crashes, the rocket car that nearly killed him, and rolling a performance car down a Swiss Hill, which also nearly finished him off.

James May’s crash in a Scandinavian tunnel is also covered, and how it was one of the factors that started the decision to bring the series to and end.

The end of the trios career presenting Top Gear, following Clarkson’s altercation with a member of the production team is quickly followed by the process of moving to Amazon and the invention of Grand Tour.

The book covers the big shows that we all remember, the Specials. Where the three have motoring, and occasional nautical adventures.

The most telling, and revealing part of the book is the section on the Patagonia Special, the angry mob of Argentinian Veterans and locals that brought filming to an end and drove the film crews out of Argentina. The three presenters and a few of the crew escaped by plane but Wilman and the majority of the crew fled by road, escaping over a river into Chilli. A journey that they very nearly didn’t get out of in one piece.

As witty and informative as this book is, and there are quite a few laugh out loud moments, I also found it a bit of a tease.

It’s not a short book, at just over 400 pages, but and it covers over two decades of two of the best, and sometimes controversial television programs, mentioning everything a viewer would remember.

But for me it doesn’t go deep enough into some of the big things that happened.

Wilman wasn’t there when Clarkson had his altercation. But it’s almost brushed over, an actual account of what really happened would have been really good.

The three crashes are mentioned, but the rocket car crash, and its aftermath warrant only half a dozen pages, the other two even less.

I think a whole series of books could be written on the Top Gear Specials but again only quick mention is made of each.

Andy Wilman was in an envious position that has seen him at the heart of two of the most successful TV franchises of the 21st century. For me, as good as this book is. I’d really have liked a lot more.

Pages: 416. Publisher: Penguin, Michael Joseph

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.

Nobody’s Girl. Virginia Roberts Giuffre

I’m writing this review the morning after the news broke the Prince Andrew has lost his royal title and has been removed from his Royal home.

And I have to say that this is the side of the story I brought this book to read more about. I don’t do gossip columns and I tend not to take much notice of what the Royal Family are doing, but Andrew’s behaviour has intrigued me over the last few years.

But I got so much more from this book, and it’s left me feeling conflicted

Virginia Roberts Guiffre is undoubtedly a victim and tells gives her account of her life of abuse in a no holds barred manner.

Abused by her dad and a neighbour, raped by two boys, rapped by another older man and abusing drugs and alcohol before she even left school. At this point I see her clearly as a victim.

She’s uncertain of her age when she first encounter Ghislaine Maxwell, who recruited her as a masseuse for Jeffery Epstein. Throughout the book she seems to think she was 15 but towards the end she agrees that she was probably 16, either way moralistically what happened to her is wrong.

But from that first encounter she shows little or no resistance to what happened to her. She was paid and walked away, only to return the next day.

Yes she was influenced by a very manipulative couple, yes she was used for sex by both of them.

Later in the book she describes how she was asked to perform the same “services” for other men, all of them much older than her, many of them rich and influential.

She also describes the lavish life style that Epstein and Maxwell lived. The mansions, the private planes, the Caribbean Island.

But she also describes walking freely around these places and the cities the mansions stood in.

She states she always carried a disposable camera and documented her travels, some of the pictures used in the book are from these cameras, as is the infamous Prince Andrew image.

Some of pictures seem like family snapshots.

She describes how she went from being used for sexual services to recruiting new girls for Epstein pleasure. Stating that she knew these girls were either underage or barely of legal age for sex.

She states she knew the nightmare she was leading these girls into.

When she finally makes her escape, on a trip to Thailand where she was training to be a qualified masseuse paid for by Epstein, she met her husband, and this is where she starts to rebel and fight back against the couple who have had such a strong hold over her.

She talks of starting a family in Australia, during which time she becomes aware that Epstein is being investigated. It is then that she starts to look for her own justice.

This is where a brave young woman emerges. A woman with strength and tenacity which is so contrary to the late teenage, early twenties woman she describes earlier in the book.

She is a tower of strength that, although well recompensed financially, only seems to want to bring her abusers to justice and see them in prison where they cannot hurt any more young girls.

So why am I conflicted.

I am full of sympathy for Virgina the young girl who was raped by her father, a family friend, two young local boys and another man before she was sixteen.

I found myself doubting her innocence and naivety’s during her early time with Epstein and Maxwell.

I started to think of her as complicit when she started to recruit new girls to Epstein world, and take part in sexual activities with them.

In fact some of the people that have since been prosecuted, or investigated about crimes committed with, and alongside, Epstein and Maxwell, only did what Virginia did, before and after her arrival in Epstein’s orbit.

During this period I can’t say I felt empathy with her.

But when she starts her legal battles she is a tour de force. Brave does not begin to describe her. The intimidation she suffers would have had most people running for the hills but she stayed strong, and was determined to see justice.

So yes my feelings for her are conflicted. Is it a middle aged man’s point of view. My daughter has just started the book, I’m going to be interested in her thoughts.

The one big thing that I have taken way from this book is a thirst to find out more about Epstein and Maxwells empire. The influence that they had over high society, politicians, major business leaders, law makers and a Royal Family member across the world.

How did the college drop out Epstein fund his lavish life style with and estimated wealth of half a billion dollars, as reported in the book.

How did he end up having such an influence over such highly respected, and important people.

Was Maxwell an equal, or was she actually the driving force in the relationship.

This book is a tough read in places, and it has got material that could act as triggers to people who have suffered abuse, but it is a book that had me held tightly in its grip, leaving me with a lot more questions than I had before I started reading it.

Pages: 367. Publisher: Doubleday

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

The Hallmarked Man Robert Galbraith

I’ve been with this series from the start and with the exception of one of the books I’ve loved them all.

This is book 8 and quite possibly the best so far.

The hallmarked man in the headline is the body of a man found in a silver vault. His hands, ears and…….well other body parts are either missing or have been deformed.

Each of the missing or deformed parts could have been used to identify him but have been conveniently removed. Coincidentally several men could be the victim, all of which would have been identified by one of the missing, mutilated parts.

The police are convinced they’ve identified who the man is but his, but haven’t said they are 100% sure it is who they say.

The “alleged” victim has left behind a girlfriend and a baby. She wants to be sure it is him, because she can’t bear the thought that he’d just upped and left her and the baby.

It’s the girlfriend who employs Strike and Robin’s agency to prove that it was him in the vault.

The more the detectives investigate the more they become convinced that the body is not the woman’s boyfriend.

The victim had been killed during a silver heist. The police haven’t had any success in finding the perpetrators or whether the victim was part of the gang or just somebody who got in the way.

By digging deeper Strike and Robin start to uncover a very complex plot which makes up the main crime in this book.

The plot is excellent.

The other hook in this book is the ongoing will-they-won’t-they between Strike and Robin.

I would usually say this was tedious and irritating, usually. But I’m that engaged with these characters that I think it was actually this part of the book that kept me reading late into the night.

When I wrote about Ink Black Heart, the book I really didn’t like, I called the blog, Ink Black Heart. An Honest Review By A Fan, because I really didn’t want to sound like one of those haters who jump on the band wagon.

In the spirit of balance I should really say, as an honest review from a fan, this book is really good

It follows Galbraith’s usual formula. The agency is busy and the other investigations are a nice distraction from the main plot.

The main investigation is basically tagged onto an ongoing, or recently closed Police investigation, that realistically gives Strike and Robin the legal ability to take on the investigation.

Galbraith is very clever at pitching the story believably on the fringe of a proper criminal investigation

And of course there’s the ongoing Strike and Robin relationship. He, with his past has finally admitted he’s in love with his business partner Robin, but she’s in a steady, and growing relationship with with a senior Police Detective.

But, although she looks happy on the outside, in reality it’s not all happy families and roses.

As readers we begin to hear her doubt in her own mind. We begin to hear the inward battle she’s having with herself about the way she actually feels about Strike.

This book will have fans of the series on the edge of their seat for more reasons than one.

And the ending, well …………….

Pages 912 pages. Publisher Sphere. Audiobook length 31 hours 7 minutes. Narrator Robert Glenister