ramblingmads

Meet Detective Sophie Allen. She’s an expert on murder and violent crime. Her brilliant mind works tirelessly to put the most vicious criminals behind bars, but conceals dark secrets from her own past.

‘Hello? Is that the police? I think I’m being stalked . . .’

Two weeks later, Linzi Brightman’s body is pulled from Christchurch Harbour. Killed by a vicious blow to the head — and left to drown. At first glance, Linzi’s life is spotless. A respected university lecturer. Popular. Outgoing. Uncomplicated.

But Sophie Allen knows better. Because someone was watching Linzi in the weeks before she died.

Witnesses remember a heated argument in a local Italian restaurant, between Linzi and a man no one can identity. No name. No trace. Just anger . . . and something darker beneath it.

Then another body surfaces. A young woman pulled from the River Avon, just a few miles away. Dead for months.

Two victims. One pattern. This wasn’t random. Someone is choosing his targets. Studying them. Waiting. And he’s not finished yet.

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I try to write thoughtful, contemporary crime novels and include several plot layers in my books. The adult novels feature DCI Sophie Allen and her close-knit team of detectives. I don’t write simple whodunnits, nor violent, all-action, gun-toting thrillers.

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My thoughts: This book handled a complicated subject very well, the rise of violent misogyny online and how it has spilt into the real world is not an easy one to tackle in a novel but Michael Hambling has done so with grace and without making the reader too distressed. As a woman the last thing I want is for the genuinely awful things in the world to spill into my private life via reading and although the victims are female (as they often are both on the page and in the world), there are plenty of female characters here on the side of good to balance it.

Sophie and her colleagues, especially Rae, are impacted by the murders but their response is to work hard to find the killer and those behind them, and then work out how to respond to the rise of misogynistic hate crimes as a police force and how to protect female officers (both trans and cis) from the effects of this.

It’s a really important thing and I hope mirrors what’s happening in our police forces, especially considering the things we have learnt about those who are meant to protect us in the last few years. It would be shameful if only fictional officers gave a damn.

I always enjoy this series, it tackles big themes with gentle hands, and the characters are well written and get along well, their private lives never stopping them from getting justice for the victims.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.

The evidence is overwhelming. The suspect is terrified. And Nils Shapiro is about to discover that nothing about this murder is what it seems.

Lukas Day is found dead in his Minneapolis condo, stabbed with a ten-inch knife. Two jabs in the stomach. One slice across the throat. Lukas worked for wealthy businessman Jonathan Willett — and Jonathan’s wife was the last person known to see him alive.

Paige’s fingerprints are on the murder weapon, security cameras place her at the scene, and she admits being there that night. The police have already made up their minds. Paige is guilty.

Jonathan hires private investigator Nils Shapiro to clear his wife’s name. So far, so routine. But Nils quickly realizes that he’s being tracked. Someone wants him off the case. And a mysterious man offers him $50,000 to walk away. Nils says no.

Because Nils knows that when someone offers you fifty grand not to ask questions, you probably haven’t asked the right one yet.Now Nils must find the real killer before Paige goes to prison. And before whoever framed her decides to silence him too.

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MATT GOLDMAN is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author, a playwright, and an Emmy Award-winning television writer for Seinfeld, Ellen, and other shows. Goldman has been nominated for the Shamus and Nero Awards and was a Lariat Adult Fiction Reading List selection. He lives in Minnesota with his wife, pets, and whichever children happen to be around.

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My thoughts: This was a really good thriller with an excellent twist at the end. PI Nils Shapiro has a good relationship with the local cops, his late wife was one, and that helps him get answers about the evidence in this case, even though they think the suspect is pretty clear – it was the woman who had been sleeping with the victim – Paige Willett. She and her husband had a famously open marriage, so why would she kill her lover? 

Nils discovers an actually rather brilliant conspiracy or two, that distract him from doing what his wealthy and controlling client wants – prove Paige is innocent. So Nils does just that – and finds the real killer.

Really enjoyable and I liked Nils and his colleagues a lot, they’re funny, smart people, who work well together and alone, whether solving crimes and doing the bread and butter work of PIs – catching cheating spouses. It’s a series I’ll definitely come back to.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.