Thanks to Compulsive Readers and Zaffre Books for my place on #TeamTennison! It has been a delight to read the Tennison series, following Jane Tennison from her first police job to her role here as a Detective Sergeant. Thanks for my copy of the book for review – opinions are entirely my own.
In this – the seventh in the series – Jane is called in to investigate the death of a young nun found inside a sealed metal coffin by a group of builders developing an old convent. At first, nothing seems amiss – but closer inspection of the body suggests that the woman could have been murdered. As senior police officers try to write it off as a cold case, Tennison is not so convinced and works to uncover the identity of the nun – and how she came to be in the ground.
It’s time for my review of Book 5 in the Jane Tennison crime series by Lynda La Plante!
Thanks to Compulsive Readers for inviting me to read the series as part of #TeamTennison and Zaffre Books for my review copy of the book. As always, opinions are entirely my own.
I’ve really enjoyed this series to date, so I was looking forward to see what came next in Jane Tennison’s (1970s) Metropolitan police career before the events of the ‘Prime Suspect’ TV series with Helen Mirren. Each of the books have been so different, with Jane involved in traditional police procedures, forensic murder investigations, undercover police work, lots of different teams in different areas of London and even the aftermath of a major bombing.
In this instalment, WDS Jane Tennison has finally gained a spot in the famous Flying Squad, also known as ‘The Sweeney’. She knows it’s going to be tough, especially as the first female detective there, but nothing can prepare her for the dramatic events of his first day when she attends the scene of an armed robbery on a bank. As the investigation progresses, it seems both that the gang involved have a bigger target in mind, and that Jane’s maverick policing techniques may just get her in a lot of trouble…
Thanks to Compulsive Readers for inviting me onto the #TeamTennison project and to Zaffre Books for my copy of this – the fourth in the series covering Jane Tennison’s life before Prime Suspect.
As always, opinions are my own.
In this book, Jane Tennison has been made Detective Sergeant and is working in Peckham CID, in a tough part of London and in a policing team imbued with the all-too-familiar misogyny and racism that we’ve seen before in the series. When a young woman is found killed in Bussey Alley, Peckham, Jane Tennison is first on the scene and keen to find the killer. A second body with no obvious link to the first other than physical proximity throws Tennison’s team into confusion…and a third murder on their patch tests them further. The newspapers begin stirring up panic about a serial killer in Peckham – as Tennison uncovers some baffling links and leads…
Happy publication day to ‘The Safe House’ – 14th September, 2023.
I enjoyed Cameron Ward’s first book, ‘A Stranger on Board’ so was delighted to receive an early copy of ‘The Safe House’ for review. Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for my copy – opinions are, as always, entirely my own.
This book follows Jess, a Metropolitan Police employee who – for her own reasons – wants to get away. The ideal solution presents itself (*alarm bells*) when Jess’ friend discovers a remote luxury house in the Australian Outback is in need of a house-sitter. It seems to offer the peace and respite that Jess needs – but she hasn’t considered the wild fires ravaging the local area or the mysterious visitors that appear. As the fire gets closer, Jess finds herself in danger – but is the real peril inside or outside the house?
I’d heard so many good things about Robert Bryndza’s series featuring DCI Erika Foster – but I’ll admit that I was irrationally put off by the book cover (I am a bit freaked out by photos of people staring at me!) I was wrong to judge a book by the cover – this is a really good police procedural and everything I love in a crime novel.
I didn’t know that this was book three in the series featuring Kamil Rahman when I picked it up – credit to Ajay Chowdhury as it was easy to read as a standalone. However, fans of the series will – no doubt – appreciate the character development across the books as Kamil progresses on his path to being a British police detective (something he has achieved at the start of this book).
Thanks to NetGalley for my copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.
Fennell’s first book, ‘The Art of Death’, was one of my top crime books of last year so I was eagerly awaiting this sequel and a chance to follow the story of DI Grace Archer of London’s Metropolitan Police. Thanks to NetGalley and Zaffre for my copy for review – as always, opinions are entirely my own.
Welcome to my stop on the blog tour for ‘The Phoenix Project’ by Michelle Kidd. This book was published on 5th October, 2018. The tour has been organised by Damp Pebbles Blog Tours.
This is the first book in the series featuring Detective Inspector Jack MacIntosh – there are two further books in the series: ‘Seven Days’ (Book 2) and ‘The Fifteen’ (Book 3).
The Blurb
How long can the past remain buried?
A simple message in a local newspaper. A set of highly sensitive documents left in the back of a London black cab. Both events collide to cause Isabel Faraday’s life to be turned upside down. Growing up believing her parents died in a car crash when she was five, Isabel learns the shocking truth; a truth that places her own life in danger by simply being a Faraday. Detective Inspector Jack MacIntosh of the Metropolitan Police races against time to save her, and at the same time unravels long forgotten secrets involving MI5, MI6, the KGB and NASA. Secrets that have lain dormant for twenty years. Secrets worth killing for. With kidnap, murder and suicides stretching across four continents, just what is the Phoenix Project?
The Phoenix Project is the first Detective Inspector Jack MacIntosh novel.
If you like a gripping page turner, with plenty of surprising twists, buy The Phoenix Project today to discover its secrets.
My Review
I’ll admit that this book was slightly outside my usual genres – although I love a police procedural, this one looked a lot more like a thriller and on an international scale so I wasn’t sure what to expect.
However, from the first page, it became evident that I was in safe hands as the story was revealed – multiple characters, many locations and different time periods were dealt with confidently by the author and I sat back to enjoy the ride!
I don’t think it can be emphasised enough that the scale of this book is HUGE. As well as involving MI5, MI6, NASA, the KGB and the Metropolitan Police, the story shifts between countries. The plot is also complex and on a massive scale with even an element about space travel. Although the premise initially seems a little far-fetched, it is absolutely compelling as the plot is developed around it. Although this was not within my usual genres, I found myself being pulled along by the story.
One of the ways that this book stays pacey and fresh across nearly 500 pages is the twists. Wow, the twists! There were so many that I felt like I was being pulled in so many directions and absolutely raced through the book in order to work out what was truth among the various plot strands featuring spies, double crosses, liars, corruption and secrecy!
In the middle of all this is DI Jack MacIntosh – we mainly follow his investigation and so discover things alongside him. He is an interesting character with a bit of back-story and I’d be interested to see how he develops in the rest of the series.
Also thrown into the middle of the mix is Isabel Faraday, a young woman working in an art supplies store who believes that her parents were killed in a car crash when she was a child. She receives a message to meet her ex-boyfriend, Miles, one evening and becomes central to the plot as she – along with the reader – tries to make sense of the bewildering events. I really liked Isabel as a character because she was surprisingly tough in the face of adversity and some very odd circumstances.
This is a hugely ambitious novel and one that I enjoyed very much, although I did sometimes feel that the plot was the driving force of the novel – I would have liked a little more character development in places as sometimes motives were not so clear. However, this is a minor quibble only as the plot is so fast-paced and twisty that there is never a dull moment.
I’d recommend this to those who like thrillers with a political dimension – although there is a central police figure, this is far from being a police procedural in the traditional sense. Instead, the reader is thrown into a whirl of people, places, plot twists and embarks on a race through the pages in order to discover the truth.
About the Author
Michelle Kidd is a self-published author known for the Detective Inspector Jack MacIntosh series of novels.
Michelle qualified as a lawyer in the early 1990s and spent the best part of ten years practising civil and criminal litigation.
But the dream to write books was never far from her mind and in 2008 she began writing the manuscript that would become the first DI Jack MacIntosh novel – The Phoenix Project. The book took eighteen months to write, but spent the next eight years gathering dust underneath the bed.
In 2018 Michelle self-published The Phoenix Project and had not looked back since. There are currently three DI Jack MacIntosh novels, with a fourth in progress.
Michelle works full time for the NHS and lives in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk. She enjoys reading, wine and cats – not necessarily in that order.
This is the 9th book in the Maeve Kerrigan series and was published in April 2020.
This is the latest installment in the series featuring DS Maeve Kerrigan of the Metropolitan Police. Although the series is great, this can also be read as a standalone as a lot of the backstory is explained or not needed to follow this book.
In this novel, Maeve's team are called upon to investigate the disappearance of a young journalist, Paige Hargreaves. It seems that she was about to publish an article about the Chiron Club, a bastion of secrecy and dubious attitudes to women. As Maeve gets closer to the truth, the extent of the Club's activities are revealed and there are some who would go to extreme lengths to preserve the secrets it holds.
Having read a few of the previous books, I was glad to see DI Derwent present as the potential romantic interest; this is a book where Maeve's private life takes a starring role, something that I felt rather distracted from the story's denouement although it was an interesting plotline. This is a well- written and lively addition to the series, although not quite a 5 star read as I found the ending slight lacked something for me personally.
An enjoyable police procedural for those who are already familiar with Maeve's world, but I'd probably recommend starting earlier in the series if you haven't read any of the others.
I received a free copy of the book from NetGalley in return for an honest review.
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