Blog Tour: ‘A Bad Bad Thing’ by Elena Forbes

Welcome to my stop on the blog tour for this complex police procedural and the first in a series to feature DCI Eve West.

With thanks to Damp Pebbles for organising the tour and for providing a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

From the Publisher:

After a police operation ends in catastrophe, DCI Eve West is suspended. She faces expulsion from the force, until John Duran – a violent criminal Eve incarcerated, still serving his sentence – offers to help clear her name. But nothing comes without a price.

Duran wants Eve to help free a fellow prisoner, who he claims has been wrongly convicted of murder. But as her investigation takes a dark turn, Eve finds that more than just her job is at stake, and realises Duran is a dangerous man to trust . . .

My Review:

I was drawn to this book by the fact that it is the first in a series to feature police officer Eve West – I love a police procedural series, especially one with a female lead, and want to be in from the start.

However, this isn’t a police procedural in the usual sense – Eve is a disgraced police officer awaiting a tribunal and her investigations are highly unconventional.

The story opens with the disastrous police operation that results in Eve being suspended. Desperate to clear her name and prove she was set up, she accepts an assignment from a criminal she helped to convict and finds herself investigating a possible miscarriage of justice. Working with a journalist, Dan Cooper, she finds some major issues with the original investigation – but her involvement in the case puts her in danger.

This is an intricately-plotted and involved novel – there are a lot of characters and motives to follow which (at times) threatens to be a bit too much. In the end though, Forbes manages to hold the plot on course with a series of twists and revelations which make this book very readable. I did race through it because I was keen to understand the actual events of the cold case from 10 years earlier that Eve is unravelling.

Eve was a prickly and tough lead figure – although I found her an interesting figure, I did think that her responses to some of the events of the novel were quite surprisingly cold, especially a personal attack on her. Her back-story was also very traumatic and a little hard to piece together, although I expect that this will become clearer later in the series. In contrast, I found Dan a much warmer and more empathetic character – I would hope that his role in the novels increase in future as he was sometimes sidelined in this one.

I did like the fact that a lot of the action takes place around a horse racing family and their yard. This meant touches of glamour and high financial stakes which – for someone raised on Jilly Cooper novels – was hugely appealing!

I’d recommend this to anyone who enjoys a fast-paced and engaging crime thriller. There are a few little bits that didn’t quite hang together for me, but any reservations I had were put on the back burner as I got caught up in Eve’s world and the intricacies of the case. This is a promising series opener and I would read the next book.

About the Author:

Elena Forbes worked for a number of international investment groups before becoming a full-time writer. She is the author of four previous thrillers in the Mark Tartaglia series, the first of which, Die with Me, was shortlisted for the CWA John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger Award. She lives in central London.

Social Media:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorElenaForbes

Website: http://www.elenaforbes.com/

Purchase Links:

Amazon UK: https://amzn.to/3n8OMcN

Waterstones: https://bit.ly/3ekKcUR

Book Depository: https://bit.ly/3tTxrY1

Kobo: https://bit.ly/3tLYCUo

Hive.co.uk: https://bit.ly/3gtM8wK

Publishing Information:

Published by Black Thorn Books in paperback format on 6^th May 2021