Recommended Book – nigeladamsbookworm

All She Burns. Charlotte Essex

What happens when the person who investigates the cause of a fire is actually an out of control deliberate fire setter themselves.

Dr Catherine (Red) Carter is known to the Police Officers, and Fire Investigators, she works with as the Fire Guru.

She has the ability to read fire patterns and work out which direction the story travelled so that she can ultimately identify where the fire started.

She has the ability to look closely at the seat of the fire and scientifically work out what caused the fire.

This is why she works for an independent Fire Investigation firm in London.

Most people think that she honed her skills when she was a Firefighter, whilst studying for her Forensic qualifications and writing her doctoral thesis.

What they don’t know is she has a psychological fascination with, and for fire.

She is a fire setter. She has set numerous fires but never knowingly put anybody in danger.

Until now. She had been planning a fire in a boarded up council house. She’d cased the building, gone in an and set the scene, but she wasn’t meaning to start the fire that night.

She hears a voice in her head, Scarlett is the personality driving the fire setting. Usually Red can keep her under control but in a moment of weakness she goes to the house and sets it alight.

The next day she is surprised to be asked to attend the scene to investigate the cause of the fire. It should have been a simple cause diagnosis for the Fire Service.

The problem is the fire didn’t go as she planned it, and worse, there was a body found in the upstairs bedroom.

Now she is tasked with investigating a fire she set. But the deeper she looks the more convinced she becomes that the fire the Fire Service encountered when they arrived at the scene, was not the one she’d set.

As the guilt of killing somebody is replaced by the knowledge that somebody else set a bigger fire, after she set hers, she begins to worry that she may be a target.

I’m going to have to review this book in two parts, firstly as a crime fiction fan, reader and book blogger, and secondly as a Fire Investigator.

As a Crime Fiction Reader.

I loved the story and Red is a great character.

The weaving of the narrative to take the reader on a route that brings all sorts of suspects to the fore, without ever actually giving us a firm reason to suspect them, elevates the story to another level.

Red herself may be one of the best characters I’ve encountered for a while. She is flawed, and there is no way I should have felt any empathy with her, but I just couldn’t help myself liking her.

She drinks too much, she’s self destructive, she’s a fire setter, yet somehow she comes out of this as a good person.

As a Fire Investigator

I spent thirty years in the Fire Service, nineteen on fire engines at all ranks, and eleven as a dedicated Fire Investigator, all in a busy Metropolitan Brigade, so forgive me for being picky.

There are too many procedural errors to overlook, things that just either don’t happen or wouldn’t happen, and yes I understand the need for license in fiction but to me the basis of a good story is being as accurate to real life situations as you can.

There are some technical issues about the observations made at the scenes which I found too much of a stretch.

For example I would imagine every firefighter, or Fire Investigator will have the same thoughts as me about the fact Red thinks it unusual for a fire setter to start multiple fires at the same incident. Multi seated fires are one of the main indicators of deliberately started fires.

But as I said, I’m being picky. It’s just that a lot of people who read my blogs would be surprised if I didn’t bring these things up.

Does this put me off recommending this book.

No it doesn’t. I would recommend it as a great story with a great character.

In fact, I’m hoping for a second instalment.

Pages: 320. Publisher: Wildfire. Publishing Date: 25th March 2027

All The Sinners Bleed. S.A Cosby

Titus Crown is a newly elected Sheriff in a small town in Southern Virginia, and he’s about to have a very bad day.

When a young black boy walks into a high school and kills a popular white teacher Crown and his small team rush to the scene.

The boy is coming out, holding a gun, when they arrive and he is shot dead on the school steps.

That alone is enough to rile the white minority in the community but what Titus discovers during the early stages of the investigation is going to send the town into meltdown.

Spearman, the teacher, was not as good a man as most people seem to think. Disturbing images on his computer show him to be part of a trio that has been abusing, and killing young, black, early teenage boys and girls.

Was Latrell, the shooter, a victim, a willing participant of the trio, or something in between. He is implicated, but him and Spearman are dead, and the one part of the trio that is still alive is an absolute monster.

With the town divided along racial lines, the whites not believing that Spearman was guilty, but the blacks too scared to talk to the police, the investigation is tough.

I’m a big fan of John Grisham and Greg Iles, and now that I’ve found S.A Cosby he’s joined the list.

There is something disturbing about the fact there is still a big divide between some communities, along racial lines, in some states in America.

The fact that this book, like the ones penned by Grisham and Iles, bring it to life, and highlight the issue with such believable realism, belies the issues but makes for great stories.

There seem some graphic scenes in this book, especially around the description of disposition scenes, but nothing that should put the reader off.

The story is brilliant, though provoking, and definitely worth reading.

The characters are well written and it’s great to see an author showing the frustrations of investigating a crime, and the mental and emotional effects the scenes, and the investigation have on the Sheriff.

Pages: 353. Publisher: Headline. Audiobook length: 13.05 hours. Narrator: Alex Lazarre-White

Crimson Thaw.

Bruce Robert Coffin

I think I may have found my new favourite American Crime Fiction series

This is book one of four so far published in the Detective Brock Justice series, and the good news for those that have it, its on kindleunlimited.

Set in a small rural community in the north of the state of Maine, close to the Canadian border, the story uses the countryside and lakes to produce a different type of suspense to that where the story is set in a city.

The isolation of each location, the small town everybody-knows-everybody community. The outdoor activities, including hunting and the use of all terrain vehicles, all add to the tension.

The investigation even starts with the recovery of a man, from beneath a remote site on a frozen lake, who had been handcuffed to a snowmobile.

The characters are just as good. The main protagonist is Detective Brock Justice. Once a city detective he has returned home under a cloud. Transferred from the city to his backwater home town force following a dubious shooting of a criminal during an arrest.

It wasn’t him that was accused of the bad shoot, but he was there, and it was partially his fault for not waiting for backup. But he committed the ultimate crime by testifying against his partner who did fire the fatal shot.

That reputation precedes him to his new post and he is never going to be the most popular man in the small team.

Because of his experience he is appointed lead detective on the case of the body recovered from the lake, and is partnered up with a brand new detective recently promoted from uniform. Chloe Wright may be a rookie detective but she has a brain on her, and despite Brock’s reputation she is keen to learn from him.

There may sound like there’s a lot of cliche character traits here but believe me the story, and the characters, are so well written that that is soon overlooked.

I’d describe this book as a cross between Michael Connelly’s Bosch books and C.J Box’s Joe Picket books.

A great I can highly recommend

Pages: 378. Publisher: Severn River Publishing

We Begin At The End. Chris Whitaker

This is one of those rare books that will stay with me for a long time.

The characters are incredibly well written with one in particular who managed to strike chord in me that no literary character ever has.

The story is set in a sleepy American town where, thirty years ago, a young girl was killed.

A youth, Vincent King, is tried as an adult, and given thirty years in prison, a term which is close to coming to an end.

The victim was the little sister of a girl he was in a relationship with. Her name is Star Radley and she is now a single mother with two children of her own.

It’s one of these children Duchess, a 13 years old girl who lives her life by the rules of the old Wild West outlaws that got to me. Quoting the outlaws way of life and history’s is the way she manages to put on a brave face, and boy does she need to.

Her mother is one of life’s victims, she drinks too much and has a bad taste in men, which often sees her returning home battered and bruised.

Duchess has a younger brother, and he is her world. She looks after him like his mother should.

Vincent Kings best friend growing up was “Walk” Walker, who is now Chief of the local police. He has always thought Vincent was hard done by, and that 30 years for murder was a harsh sentence for what was a drink drive hit and run.

But is he seeing things through rose tinted glasses. Was Vincent the kind youth that Walk remembers. Others certainly have a different opinion of him.

The sleepy little town hides a few secrets, and all of them seem to revolve around Star and Vincent.

Vincent still owns his childhood home, inherited after his incarceration. It may be run down but it sits on prime land. Land that a local businessman, Darke, is trying to develop.

Darke and Star have history.

When Star returns home one night having suffered another battering Duchess puts two and two together and seeks revenge on Darke.

From there on her life turns into a nightmare.

She tries to look out for her little brother but her revenge on Darke is coming back to bite her.

Meanwhile King is arrested for another murder shortly after his release from his thirty years in prison.

All the characters are good but there is something about Duchess that resonates with me. She is a captivating character who really pulls on the heart strings.

Again Walk is convinced of his innocence but he is the only one.

The story winds up to a fantastic end.

It’s a story of misguided loyalties, and misunderstandings, secrets and lies, and it is brilliant.

The entire story is good enough to recommend this book as one of the best I’ve read this year.

But Duchess’s story, within the book, is one that will stay with me.

Pages: 386. Publisher: Zaffre. Available Now. Audiobook Length 10 hours 29 minutes. Narrator: George Newbern

The Bone Stalker. Victor Methos

Book 3 of the Vegas Shadows series

A deprived serial killer is trying to get into the head of Detective Lazarus, but why.

There is a hierarchy of people that have reasons.

The white supremacist Phineas (Deadeye) Walsh.

Judge Hope Dawson, who is running for the Senate

Police Assistant Chief Harold Dubbs, a career desk jokey who has no courage and can’t stand up for himself.

All of these people, and many others have reason to take down Lazarus, but they also have reason to bring down each other. It’s a type of vicious circle that is spiralling around the detective.

His friend Piper Danes is inevitably caught up in his manic investigation, and along with helping him investigate, she is also trying to nurse him.

Still suffering from serious injuries sustained in a previous investigation. Lazarus is also going cold turkey from the lack of alcohol.

He wouldn’t class himself as an alcoholic, but he is a typical hard drinking cop, and with trauma damage to his liver, and the medications he is on he has to stop drinking, and its taking an effect.

His judgment is questioned and when the murders start to connect back to him Dubbs bans him from the investigation.

The trilogy of suspects are all connected, and all of them have reason to get to Lazarus.

So when his estranged daughter decides she wants to know her Dad, it just another worry for him, another distraction.

Distractions are something he can’t afford. This killer is different. He doesn’t make mistakes, he leaves subtle clues only Lazarus seems to be able to pick up on. He kills in a ruthless manner.

For fans of the series you might have expected me to mention Piper Danes a bit more. But to be honest, with the exception of a side story about her family, and the fact that she is nursing Lazarus, she doesn’t have much impact on this story.

If you haven’t read the previous two books, The Silent Watcher and The Night Collector, I would highly recommend reading those first.

This book would not read well as a standalone and relates back to both the previous ones.

My reviews are in the links below.

The Silent Watcher

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

The Night Collector

https://nigeladamsbookworm.com/2025/09/25/the-night-collector-victor-methos/

Conn Iggulden Nero Trilogy

Nero, Tyrant and Inferno

Taking nothing away from how Conn Iggulden writes, which is brilliant, but if you introduced a few dragons and a bit of magic into these books they could easily be in the same genre as books such as Game of Thrones.

For me this is a grown up version of the same type of stories found in those books.

Loosely based on history, and containing people who we know from Roman history, set immediately after the execution of Jesus, this series is a compelling read.

At the core of the series is a mother and her son. Agrippina is the granddaughter of a previous Emperor of Rome, Augustus. When we first meet her she has a young son, Nero who is no more than a toddler but already showing signs of his bullish future behaviour.

She is married to a man who was once a great Chariot racer but who is now a drunk living on his past fame.

Agrippina may have a bloodline to the past Emperor but it means nothing in the Rome of the early 1st Century.

Emperors are killed by those closest to them as power becomes the target of the people who hold important posts.

And although she holds no official post, there is nobody who has a craving for power more than Agrippina, and she will use whatever means she has to make sure she sits at the highest of tables.

She cannot become Emperor, so to get where she wants to be she either has to marry an Emperor, or ensure her son, no matter how tenuous his blood line, becomes Emperor.

Nothing will stop her and she turns to murder and incest in her relentless rise.

But will she succeed…………….it is no spoiler to say yes she does. History tells us Nero became a Roman Emperor, but she made enemies along the way, including her son.

Nero has seen her relentless push for power, he knows how dangerous she can be.

The way he deals with her is a big part of the plot of the second and third books and it is really interesting to see how Iggulden has weaved the plot around historical fact.

There are side stories throughout. Agrippina accompanies her Uncle/Husband Claudius on his invasion of Britain.

The size of the raiding army, and the logistics of its travel to, and ultimately invasion, of Britain is brilliant.

The in house politics of the Roman Empire, the nepotism of the leaders leading to ineptitude of duty is fascinating.

The underground rise of Christianity, with the one of the disciples, Paul, giving sermons and converting many to the new religion and away from following Roman Gods.

In the last book this really causes division as people start to look at the Emperor in a different way.

Nero doesn’t help himself with his erratic behaviour and stranger rulings.

His days are numbered but how will he ultimately meet his ending.

This is not my usual genre of book but I do occasionally dip into what I call proper historical fiction. Books by the likes of Ken Follett, CJ Swanson, and CS Forester.

These books always lead to a pleasant trip into the land of research and this series was no different.

The books are accompanied by forwards by Conn Iggulden where he notes that many of the characters are known to have existed, as did many of the events. But the way he has weaved the web of stories is extraordinary.

I would have blogged a review after the first book, but I just had to go straight to the second, and in the end did a back-to-back-to-back read of the trilogy over about a week.

Highly recommended.

Connie. Charlotte Duckworth

A simple cast of characters, a relatively simple plot, but a brilliant and absorbing story.

The characters, and there’s only really two, Connie and Olivia. Connie the serial killer and Olivia the middle aged mother of two twins.

But there’s much more to both characters.

From the start there is no doubt that Connie is a killer, in fact shes in prison serving a life sentence for killing seven people. She shows no remorse, and throughout the investigation, and still whilst in prison, she has never given any reason as to why she killed those seven random people.

Olivia is an ex detective. She took maternity leave when she had her twin boys, and never went back. Now, 18 years later, they have gone to university and she is bored. There is an emptiness in her life she tries putting down to empty nesting, or rather her husband puts does.

He’s a successful business man who earns enough for her to stay at home. But she has a bee in her bonnet, and it’s Connie Cross, the infamous killer.

Why?

Not only is she intrigued by the fact that Connie has never given a reason for the killings, but she also had dealings with her when Connie was a very young girl.

Olivia was the Family Liaison Officer assigned to Connie when her baby sister died suddenly at home.

The police would be involved in any sudden death but when Connie let it slip to a neighbour that she thought her Dad dad killed her the Police arrest him.

What had always been a bad relationship between father and daughter, as well as his abusive behaviour towards Connie’s Mom, make him an ideal suspect. But he is innocent and the relationships get even worse.

Olivia meets with an ex colleague, who is now a Detective Inspector and was part of the team that arrested Connie when her crimes came to light, and tells him shes thinking of writing a book about Connie. He tries to convince her to return to policing but helps her get access, as a visitor, to Connie.

What follows is Then-and-Now chapters as Connie’s story is told.

How she became a killer, why she killed the people she killed.

All the time Olivia is realising that her home life is not what she wants anymore.

But is that her choice, or is Connie manipulating her.

Because at the end of the day Connie just like to mete out justice in her own way.

You always hear the phrase on TV talent and reality shows. If you are going to do “simple” it has to be perfect.

This is the epitome of that.

It’s a simple story but it is written so well it is stunning.

It unfolds slowly, without being boring.

There are no shocks or twists that make it unlikely.

It is simply one of the best books I’ve read for some time.

Pages: 464. Publisher: Quercus. Audiobook length: 10h 7m Narrator: Susie Riddell

Dissection of a Murder. Jo Murray

I want to start this review with two quotes, of quotes, from the book.

Are we just to accept you’re either the victim or the killer, and there’s nothing in between

And

A jury consists of twelve persons chosen to decide who has the better lawyer

Two paragraphs from early in the book that sum up this story.

There are twist and turns, there are hidden clues, some of which were so obvious, but only with the benefit of hindsight, and there is one hell of an ending

Leila is a Barrister and she is about to defend her client, Jack Millman.

There are a few things that make this a tense situation.

It’s Leila’s first murder trial.

The Victim was a well loved Judge

Perhaps the worst, her Husband is the prosecution Barrister.

Oh, and there’s one other thing. Millman pleads innocent but he won’t give any information to help build his defence.

He was arrested at the scene and has gone given no comment as his answer to every question the police has asked him.

A tactic he continues when he has his first meeting with Leila.

She has defended him before, on an assault case. He was innocent but found guilty.

Why?

Because he gave the police information about the girl he was protecting during the alleged assault. She was going to be his key witness, but she was got at by some powerful people and never gave her evidence in court. Worse still he was labelled a grass for accusing a gang member of assaulting the girl.

This time he’s giving nobody a chance to interfere with what he hopes will be a fair trial.

That is the main thread of the story, but there is also the nice in house soap opera that is the Chambers Laila and her husband work out of.

It’s a hard working law chambers where politics and “relationships” drive the narrative.

I like legs thrillers. The American ones are usually top of the best sellers but the British Legal system is so full of traditions and history; nepotism and old school ties, sex and scandal, that it makes for fascinating reading.

This is one of the best, in this genre, that I’ve read for a long time.

Pages: 416. Publisher: Macmillian. Audiobook Length 11 hours 40 mins. Narrator Joanne Froggart

The Family Secret. Patricia Gibney

This series is a must read for all crime fiction fans, and The Family Secret, book 16, is no exception.

The title gives the plot away, you don’t know what goes on behind closed doors. The family showing a happy face to the public can be hugely different in the isolation of their own home.

It’s not the only isolation in the story. Detective Inspector Lottie Parker is newly single following a break up with one of her team, Boyd, and her mother’s dementia is getting worse, and her children and grandchild are always giving her worries.

One of the endearing things about this series is the soap opera that is Lottie’s life, and it plays a major part in this book.

As well as investigating murders and a potential kidnapping, she is being drained physically, and mentally, by things in her private life.

But the main focus is the crime.

A family murdered following a child’s Birthday party.

Twelve year old Freya is dead in her home, the day after her birthday party, and so are her mother and father. It’s a gruesome scene and all of the attending police officers are affected by what they see.

Kneeling at Freya’s side Lottie promises her that she will find the killer.

One key witness is Lily, Freya’s best friend who was supposed to sleep over after the party but changed her mind.

A luck escape, or an insight by somebody.

Before Lily can be interviewed properly she goes missing with her mother saying she had been “stolen” from her own home.

And so it begins. The hunt for a person who has murdered a family, and in all likelihood has kidnapped a child.

What are the secrets hidden behind the closed doors of both girls homes.

Are the parents really as they present themselves, or are there some dark secrets.

Patricia Gibney writes one of the most realistic crime fiction series there is on the shelves right now.

There will be people who have worked crime scenes that will make links to what she has written. In this book she tapped into the one thing that always plagued me.

The normality after the crime.

When she describes the first murder scene, following the birthday party, it was like she was inside my head.

Devastation in one part of the house and total normality in the rest of the premises. The detritus of the party, waiting to be cleaned up. A party dress that should never be part of this type of scene.

I know a few people that hated that normality as much as me, and in a few paragraphs Gibney captures it perfectly.

This story has real pace and is emotionally charged.

As far as fiction goes, it’s as good as it gets, and better than most.

Pages: 503. Publisher: Bookouture. Available now. Audiobook length: 13 hours 24 minutes. Narrator: Michele Moran

The Quiet Kill. Robert Bryndza

London 1987 and Detective Constable Jamie Day arrives in London as a transferee from a uniform post in rural Norfolk.

On his way into the station, the day before he is supposed to start, he is sent to a murder scene. A young cop from the sticks he isn’t expecting his first incident to be a body chopped up and dumped in bags, but that’s what he gets.

Unfortunately for him this is just the first in a line of gruesome discoveries that lead Jamie, and his new team, to start investigating the gay scene where it is becoming obvious that a serial killer is active.

Jamie is keen to impress and his boss DCI Harry Dean is impressed, as is one of his colleges, WPC Tracy Steel.

But there’s always that one person in a team that has his nose put out by the newcomer, and in this case its ex vice copper DC Liam Cole, who takes an instant dislike to Jamie.

The serial killer investigation overlaps an internal police investigation which is looking at a senior officer who is deeply involved in the seedier, and more violent side of the gay sex scene, and police politics soon starts to make things awkward, especially for Jamie who is as naive to the politics as he is to the types of crime he is now investigating.

This is not a complex story. There is no “shark infested Custard” scenarios. Everything just slowly unwinds. In a very captivating manner.

Set in London, in the mid 1980s, it is set in the time when being gay was just about becoming acceptable, people were acknowledging that a gay life style existed, and that not all gay men were perverts. But it was also when AIDs was at its height as an incurable death sentence.

The police investigation in this story highlights the fear that was present both in the gay community, and also a largely ignorant general population.

It makes the investigation more sensitive and difficult.

It also shows the Met Police at a turning point. Female Constables were common place but they were still in uniform, which included a bowler type hat, a skirt, a woolly tights.

It amazed me that in the book, and in real life, even the female constables working with the plain clothes CID officers were still in uniform.

I was in the Fire Service during these times and I clearly remember female police officers turning up at incidents in these uniforms.

I also remember how scary the AIDs disease was, and the precautions we had to take when dealing with casualties at scenes.

Because I was there in those days I can vouch for how realistic the background in this book is. It brought back many memories of the way we dealt with incidents, and how the gay community was treated by the rest of us so called straight people.

The story also contains scenes which include gay sexual assault. The scenes are not gratuitous, and are completely within context of the story, but some readers should be aware that they are graphic enough to be triggering if you are affected by that type of thing.

Would I recommend this book. Yes I would, and as a bonus there’s a short story at the end.

I hope this isn’t a standalone story. I would really like to read more of Jamie and his career in the Met getting on for 40 years ago.

It wasn’t that long ago but reading this book it reminds me of what a completely different world we were living in back then.

Pages: 337. Publisher: Raven Street Publishing. UK Publishing date: 9th July 2026