Author: ramblingmads

Hampstead County Police Department is embroiled in scandal after corruption at the top of the force was exposed.

Cleared of involvement and returned to active duty, Detective Sergeant Casey Wray nonetheless finds herself at a crossroads when it becomes clear that not everyone believes she’s innocent. Partnered with rookie Billy Drocker, Casey works a shocking daytime double homicide in downtown Rockport with the two victims seemingly unknown to one another.

And when a third victim is gunned down on her doorstep shortly after, it appears an abusive ex-boyfriend holds the key to the killings. With powerful figures demanding answers, Casey and Billy search for the suspect, fearing he’s on a murderous rampage. But when a key witness goes missing, and new evidence just won’t fit, the case begins to unravel.

With her career in jeopardy, Casey makes a shattering discovery that threatens to expose the true darkness at the heart of the murders … with a killer still on the loose

Rod Reynolds is the author of five novels, including the Charlie Yates series. His 2015 debut, The Dark Inside, was longlisted for the CWA New Blood Dagger, and was followed by Black Night Falling (2016) and Cold Desert Sky (2018); the Guardian has called the books ‘Pitch-perfect American noir.’

A lifelong Londoner, in 2020 Orenda Books published his first novel set in his hometown, Blood Red City. The first in the Casey Wray series, Black Reed Bay, published in 2021, was shortlisted for the CWA Steel Dagger, with its long-awaited sequel, Shatter Creek, out in 2025.

Rod previously worked n advertising as a media buyer, and holds an MA in novel writing from City University London. Rod lives with his wife and family and spends most of his time trying to keep up with his two daughters.

My thoughts: Even though she’s the one that exposed the corruption in the police department, Casey is still being treated as though she’s tainted, and the new lieutenant is the worst for this. She’s all over Casey, threatening to demand a transfer for her, taking her off the tricky case they’ve landed, blaming her for an over keen identification of a suspect, even when the evidence didn’t fit.

Two people have been killed, there’s a missing witness, then another murder, that may or may not be connected. Something seems off about the case from the beginning. Casey and her team are putting a lot into the investigation, trying to identify the missing witness, a young woman with a small child, trying to deal with the crazy wife of one of the victims, who is throwing her weight around.

The higher ups aren’t happy, the stench of corruption lingers, there’s still an open case on the department with the feds, more heads may need to roll. Now this mess, could there be a connection?

Casey is a diligent detective, she sees things others miss and wants all the answers, she’s not happy with the decision to pin all three deaths on a dead man, it doesn’t make sense. So she keeps looking. And with her new boss threatening her badge, what has she got to lose?

Smart, tense, full of sudden twists, with a brilliant protagonist, the writing is compelling and the plot keeps you intrigued. Excellent.

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

DETECTIVE JACK MACINTOSH IS BACK — BUT SO IS A KILLER WHO KNOWS
NO LIMITS.

After a three-month recovery from his last brutal case, Detective Jack returns to his desk expecting a fresh start. DS Cassidy hands him a cheese toastie and a reassuring grin.
‘Everything’s under control here, sir. You’ve got nothing to worry about.’
Then his phone rings.

The body of a young woman has been found hanging from a curtain pole in a vacant office building — but it’s the sinister detail that stops Jack cold. Stuffed in her mouth is a copy of the London Underground map. White City station circled in red. He’s back.

Seventeen years ago, six young women were found strangled to death. Their bodies strung up in abandoned buildings throughout the city. In their mouths, a copy of the London tube map.
They called him the Central Line Killer. He was never caught.

The clock is ticking. Jack is in a race against time to unravel the twisted clues left by a killer who’s always one step ahead — and willing to go further than ever before.

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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.

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My thoughts: This is a clever read with lots of twists and turns, a serial killer has returned, where has he been since the late 90s? He’s killing young women and leaving their bodies hanging in windows of abandoned buildings along the Central line.

The case is still open from his previous spree of murders, and there’s a link to a series of assaults in Yorkshire too. Is this the same man?

Jack and his team want to stop him before any more women die, but they can’t figure out the links between the victim or why the killer is sending a retired journalist copies of the Tube map. Why involve her?

Asking the detective who investigated the last spate of deaths for his input, Jack attempts to unravel the complex web of connections between the killer, a man in Wandsworth prison, the journalist and the victims.

His friend, Rob, is also looking for someone – his sister Genete. Separated by the care system, as his biological mother dies, will he find his sister, and will she help the police find their killer?

The writing kept me hooked, with every little clue and connection the team made, as well as wondering just how much Carter can eat!

Smart, enjoyable crime fiction with interesting characters and a great 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.

Instead of escaping reality to this fantastic city, this city of phantoms, I was rushing towards it – hard fate awaited me in this soupy shade of a place…

In the oppressive heat of summer in Bologna, English detective Daniel Leicester is reliving his beloved wife Lucia’s final days. Vivid memories have been awakened by the sight of her bicycle, missing since the accident that killed her, ridden by a stranger through the city’s tight medieval streets.

As unfinished business bleeds – quite literally – into the present, the sickening realisation that Lucia’s death wasn’t accidental dawns on Daniel. He embarks on a quest for the truth, and this most personal of crusades leads him to two contrasting worlds: the secretive, ancient realm of freemasonry, and the revolutionary ‘Reclaim Bologna’ activist movement.

What links these two opposing factions? Is there a chance Lucia wasn’t the woman Daniel believed her to be? And will the truth be too painful, or too perilous, to bear?

Tom Benjamin grew up in the suburbs of north London and began his working life as a journalist before becoming a spokesman for Scotland Yard. He later moved into public health, where he developed Britain’s first national campaign against alcohol abuse, Know Your Limits, and led drugs awareness programme FRANK. He now lives in Bologna.

Find Tom on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook at tombenjaminsays.

My thoughts: I’ve read a couple of books in this series before so I knew I would enjoy it. In investigating his late wife’s death, Daniel is also filling in some of the gaps in his back story too. We learn why they moved to Italy, and then why they really moved to Italy.

He’s wrapping up the last few investigations before the summer, and heading to the family summer house, or so he thinks. Instead he is being flooded with memories, of Lucia, of his involvement with a rather peculiar aristocrat who was a member of the Masons, but had to flee the city.

After seeing Lucia’s distinctive bicycle, missing since her death, he starts following and investigating a group of local protesters, who are wrecking holiday homes in the city, demanding that the local government house locals not tourists. The police would very much like to speak to these people too.

Daniel discovers a web of connections between his client, the protesters, his former acquaintance and Lucia’s death. It all ends in truly dramatic fashion, and a headache for the police to sort out.

Moving between time lines as Daniel roams the city looking for the bicycle, and hoping to get some answers, his only assistance a reluctant Dolores, and the drones Carlos operates from the comfort of his sunlounger. Bologna in the summer is a hot, sweaty mess, much like Daniel.

This series is really interesting and enjoyable, Daniel is a likeable and wry protagonist, and Englishman in a country he still, despite years living there, doesn’t quite understand.

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

Ray Eke has always found peace in his job, collecting litter for the city council. Until the day he finds the brutalized, bloodless body of a girl on his round. He recognizes her immediately too. Lauren Pascoe went missing three years before.
It’s also clear she hasn’t been lying on the roadside verge all this time. Someone’s clearly been holding her prisoner. Keeping her as their very special toy.

The police know it couldn’t have been Ray, whose gentle heart is obvious to all. But then another girl is taken. And she’s someone who Ray had a connection to, back in his previous job as an accountant,
before his breakdown…

The twists in this novel are guaranteed to leave readers with their jaws on the floor. Just when you think you know who the killer is, you’ll have your mind blown!

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Anita Waller is the author of many bestselling psychological thrillers and the Kat and Mouse crime series. She lives in Sheffield, which continues to be the setting of many of her thrillers.

Facebook: @anita.m.waller
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Bookbub profile: @anitamayw

My thoughts: Well, this was deeply unsettling stuff, the police have a nightmare of a case on their hands. Lauren went missing three years ago and now her broken, tortured body is found dumped by the road still dressed in the clothes she was wearing when she went missing.

Opening a cold case when it isn’t good news must be quite hard but the team are dedicated and willing to dig until they get some answers. And then Hannah goes missing. She just popped out to get some milk for the office, and then she was gone. If it is the same person, then she’s in for a world of pain.

Ray Eke, who works for the council collecting rubbish, found Lauren, and he knew Hannah too. Can this seemingly benign musician be involved? It seems unlikely, but as they struggle to find any evidence of who might have taken both victims, and as what they do uncover seems to point in one direction…oops, no spoilers but the twists will make your head spin.

I enjoyed this but was definitely creeped out at the same time, the things Lauren endured are horrific. And the shocking moments towards the end, the last page *shudders*. So good but also so sinister.

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