ramblingmads

A brutal double murder. A traumatised little boy.

Detective Jack MacIntosh tackles his most impossible case yet.

Detective Jack is standing at the graveside of his old friend and mentor, DCI Frank
Tyler, when the call comes in. ‘Boss – we need you NOW!’

He arrives at a smart Richmond townhouse to a scene of unspeakable horror. There’s blood everywhere – soaking through the thick-pile rug, slashed across the curtains, sprayed across the ceiling. Two bodies lie side-by-side, next to the king-sized bed.
They’re not fresh. They’ve been there at least two weeks.

Nothing adds up. A frenzied attack, yet meticulously executed. Carefully planned. No forced entry.

Then the most chilling discovery of all.
A six-year-old boy, hiding in the study. Clothes stiff with dried blood. Eyes blank.
Silent.

Joshua is the only witness. And whatever he saw has trapped him deep inside himself.

Now Jack is in a race against time to unlock the little boy’s memories and coax out the truth – before the killer returns to silence Joshua for good.

Goodreads
Purchase

Michelle Kidd is a crime fiction author best known for the DI Jack MacIntosh and DI
Nicki Hardcastle series. Michelle qualified as a legal executive in the early 1990s,
spending ten years practising civil and criminal litigation.

But the dream to write was never far from her mind and in 2008 she began writing the first book in what would later become the DI Jack MacIntosh series.

Michelle now works full time for the NHS and lives in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk.
She enjoys reading, wine and cats — not necessarily in that order.

Facebook Instagram Twitter Website

My thoughts: Michelle writes smart, cleverly plotted crime fiction. Her Detective Jack MacIntosh is a complicated character, he’s a good investigator and leader, but he has secrets and complications that could endanger his career. He’s working on an investigation of his own alongside his official cases.

This one is shocking, two people brutally murdered, and their six year old son has been alone in the house with his parents’ bodies for some time. Did he see what happened? He’s not talking and it will take a skilled psychologist to get him to open up.

The couple’s family are in Jack’s sights, the dead man’s brothers are evasive and quick to complain but not to help. Joshua seems afraid of them too.

As the team dig into the family’s secrets and hope for Joshua to start talking, Jack’s distracted by his secret case, and worried about the implications of dealing with a dangerous gangster.

The case is full of twists and the killer is a surprise, I certainly didn’t guess it right up until the last second. Excellent stuff.

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

Private Investigator Joe Wilde is investigating the murder of Philippa Redmond a former Labour MP.
She had been found dead in her sauna over the Christmas holidays six weeks ago. The majority of her family had been staying with her at the time, but the police didn’t regard any of them as
suspects. Evidence suggested an intruder had got into her home.

Joe also takes on a cold case of a missing woman named Julie Turnbull. She had disappeared six years ago without a trace. Meanwhile Joe’s good friend DI Whatmore is investigating the horrific murder of a woman who was burnt alive in her own home. His investigation crosses over with Joe’s missing person investigation. As they conduct their own investigations there are more killings.
DI Whatmore and Joe must join forces to track down a serial killer and solve a puzzling mystery, but doing so puts them and others in grave danger.

UK Paperback UK ebook
US Paperback US ebook

Author Bio – C.D Steele works as an Executive Officer in the Civil Service. He has a degree in Recreation Management and lives in County Down, Northern Ireland. This is his third novel and is the
next book in the Joe Wilde Series after False Truth and Dark Truth.

CD Steele on Amazon

Giveaway to Win 3 x copies of False Truth (book 1 in the Joe Wilde series) and 1 x copy of Dark Truth (book 2). (Open to UK Only)

My thoughts: Private Detective Joe Wilde, formerly of MI6 has two complicated cases on his desk. One the murder of a former MP, the other the disappearance of a young woman six years ago.

The family of the MP are cagey, and not happy with his lack of progress, her daughter keeps threatening to stop paying him.

But the missing girl seems to be connected to something bigger, as DI Whatmore’s investigation reveals, a robbery, several murders and gangsters are all involved. The missing Julie seems to have been the daughter of a rather unsavoury person and been dragged into a whole mess before she disappeared.

As Jack and the police carry out their investigations they put themselves in the firing line as someone is chasing old secrets and won’t stop for anyone.

It’s a tangled web that has to be unwoven in order to solve the tragic disappearance and the MP’s murder too. Although Jack is dedicated and determined. This is a clever read with a twisty turny plot.

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

**Terms and Conditions –UK entries welcome. Please enter using the Gleam link. The winner will be selected at random via Gleam from all valid entries and will be notified by Twitter and/or
email. If no response is received within 7 days then Rachel’s Random Resources reserves the right to select an alternative winner. Open to all entrants aged 18 or over. Any personal data given as part of
the competition entry is used for this purpose only and will not be shared with third parties, with the exception of the winners’ information. This will passed to the giveaway organiser and used only forfulfilment of the prize, after which time Rachel’s Random Resources will delete the data. I am not  responsible for despatch or delivery of the prize.**

Margate, on England’s south coast. The hottest day of the year.

A derelict warehouse on an industrial estate. A woman claws desperately at the
smooth, unbroken walls of a steel shipping container as it slowly fills with water.

She has six hours to live.

Her husband gets a chilling message on his phone: Drown The Rats. And a map. He
races to the site. He sees his wife struggling for life . . .

Police Constable Abigail Morton is in her twenties, can’t find a man she wants to
keep, and has just resigned after being passed over for promotion. Her special talent is getting people to talk to her, making her perfect for the role of source handler.

The one detective she really respects is DCI Paul Cotterill. And Abigail is the one
person Cotterill needs in this case. When she gets the call from him, she’s back in.

Goodreads
Purchase

Charlie Gallagher was a serving UK police officer for thirteen years. During that time he had many roles — starting as a front-line response officer, he became a member of a specialist tactical team and finally a detective investigating serious offences. Charlie left to concentrate
on writing full time.

Facebook Twitter Instagram

My thoughts: This was a really interesting and fascinating case, death by drowning is apparently incredibly unpleasant, your body desperately tries to fight it. I cannot imagine what watching someone you love die in that way, but that is what happens here.

The police are at a loss, the victims were connected to their covert intelligence unit – passing on information about criminals they happen to be in the orbit of. But someone is clearly unhappy about this and is determined to stop them. It looks like there’s a leak in the unit, so the team have been suspended. At the end of his wits, their boss DCI Paul Cotterill calls on Abigail Morton – freshly resigned from the police, to help him.

I really like Abigail, she’s clever and resourceful, knows her own mind and has become frustrated after being passed over for promotion in the very team that needs her help. She’s not impressed with Cotterill’s methods, but she is intrigued by the case.

As these two cops attempt to get to the bottom of these awful deaths, find the leak and prevent another person from being killed, they come into contact with a strange man who commits the same crime repeatedly in order to get into police custody. He might hold the key to the whole case.

Gripping and intelligent stuff, I wanted more immediately. Abigail is a really interesting character and I would like to see what happens next for her.

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