The Conjuror's Apprentice by G.J.Williams

 

347 Pages

You can buy The Conjurors Apprentice...Here

You can follow G.J. Williams...Here

• The Blurb...

Born with the ability to hear thoughts and feelings when there is no sound, Margaretta Morgan’s strange gift sees her apprenticed to Doctor John Dee, mathematician, astronomer, and alchemist. Using her secret link with the hidden side and her master’s brilliance, Margaretta faces her first murder mystery. In the cruel time of Tudor England, Margaretta and Dee must uncover the evil bound to unravel the court of Bloody Mary.

The year is 1555. This is a time ruled by fear. What secrets await to be pulled from the water?

• Our Review...

Wow, what an unexpected treat. I was asked to review this book by the author after a chance meeting at the Crime Cymru festival. I duly undertook to carry this out. However I must confess it was with no great eagerness. "Oh another book set in the Tudor/Elizabeathen period, I thought to myself." Much like sharks and the Nazis on the discovery channel, it seemed to me it had been done to death. The ground had been saturated by Phillipa Gregory, Hilary Mantel, CJ Sansom not to mention Cate Blanchett, Margot Robbie, Glenda Jackson, Bette Davis, Helen Mirren et al.  I longed to explore the less trodden paths of history. How wrong I was! This book injected new life into the era for me.

There are several reasons why I particularly enjoyed this book.  The motivations and emotions of the characters are well drawn. The driving forces of each person intertwine in a sort of ecology web. Probably more so than most books that I have read. This makes sense when you realise that the author is a doctor of pyschology.

The murder mystery is an enjoyable romp but the wrong un can be spotted very early. The enjoyment though is in seeing how our mis matched heros track him down.

Set in an interesting period when superstition was begining to give way to science. The story blends history with magic. Dr John Dee was indeed a mathmatician, alchemist and scientific advisor.  Folk lore/dark arts are explored in the form of Margarreta, a reader of souls, alongside Dee's interest in tarot and crystals.  I Loved Margaretta's Welsh background. While reading this I was reminded of the English Rugby Union ex Chairman Dudley Wood's quote on the relationship between Wales and England. "The relationship is based on trust and undertstanding, We dont understand them, and they dont trust us. 😁

Truth can be stranger than fiction especially when you come across Dee's connection to James Bond!

I liked that the author put the thoughts and emotions that Margaretta was reading into italics. It served well to seperate these from the rest of the narrative.

What you can really feel in this and other great books set in different time periods is the absolute immersion (love?) of the author in(for) the era. The scenes are beautifully, and sometimes brutally set with enough specific detail to be fascinating but not so much as to be swamped. (see selected quotes.) This is a hard lesson to learn for most historic era  authors.  In addition the setting adds to the human story it does not overwhelm it. 

Once you have read the book, do yourself a favour and read the historical notes at the end and read the author's blog about the setting for the book. 

I could find only one thing that threw me. There is a lot of winking in this book. 😕 I counted 35 winks. Was this practice vastly more widespread back then? This minor concern apart I thought that this was an absolute gem of a book. It rekindled my interest in this era.  Amazing to think this is the author's first. I think I will be spending some time in the future with the good Dr and Margaretta.

• Selected Quotes...

he had proved his formula and now he would apply it again. She would walk in her master’s shadow, using her gifts to go amongst the people, watching, listening, investigating and feeling their thoughts and fears. As a woman she could be invisible and bring back the snippets, talk and evidence which they would compile into a picture in his office. Her ancient gifts of insight would meld with his brilliance of mind and they would uncover the story behind the murder, reveal the killer and their motive.

He softened his face. ‘We share the same curse, Margaretta. We remind our mothers of our fathers…and so their loss.’

Ydy ch’yn siarad cymraeg?’ Do you speak Welsh? Before he could answer, Goodwife Barker snapped from the end of the table, ‘Do not bring that robber’s tongue into this house.’ She raised a finger and pointed at Margaretta. ‘I have warned you. You live by my rules. Do you hear?’

The only women were the market fishwives, gutting the catch with blades which would slice through steel, their fingers bandaged in bloody rags to cover the cuts and nicks. Today, being Friday, was the busiest of their week. Outside the taverns, pot-men threw buckets of filthy water to slew down the pavement where last night’s drinkers had fallen over and emptied their stomachs. It stank of fish-guts, vomit and old beer. Margaretta covered her nose with a linen and pressed on.

• If You Liked This Then You May Like This...

The Last Tudor by Phillipa Gregory

The Virgin Queen's Daughter by Ella March Chase

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel

• About The Author...

G.J. Williams is the author of The Conjurer’s Apprentice, the first in the Tudor Rose Murders series.

G.J. Williams is a Welsh woman living in Somerset, England. She is a doctor of psychology and ran an international consulting business for 25 years before putting her love of writing to the forefront of life. She lives between Somerset and London and is often found writing on the train next to a grumpy cat and a cup of tea.

Life is always busy. When she is not writing, she is researching, travelling to historic sites or plotting while sailing the blue seas on her beloved boat.

Her dream is to be chosen by readers who love the books of CJ Sansom, SJ Parris and Rory Clements

The Duel by Stephen Havard

 

326 Pages

You can buy The Duel...Here

You can follow Stephen Havard...Here

• The Blurb...

Ashley White is desperate. An ill-advised investment in cryptocurrency has left him in financial meltdown, with the bank threatening to repossess his home and a wife that knows nothing about the mess he is in. A new quiz show called ‘The Duel’ is about to hit the TV screens, offering a mouth-watering 2 million pounds to the winner. The show is to be hosted by Patrick Reed; the scandal hit presenter who hopes it will revive his flagging career. Ashley hopes the show can be his way out of his financial problems, and does all that is necessary to appear, even when those things have murderous intent.

• Our Review...

An interesting thriller set in the world of TV production in general and quiz shows in particular. Not so much a "murder mystery" it's more of a "will he get away with it."

Firstly I know you should never judge a book by its cover, however I thought the cover of this book didn't try to attract my attention or allure. It looks a bit generic? Anyway onto the narrative. 

A meaty tale in many respects but I was left with sensation of being slightly unfulfilled at the end. It would take me a while to work out why?

 

The parts of Ashley White are written in the first person. Other parts, included those of Patrick Reed (the quiz show host) are written in the third person. Apart from Ashley the other main character is Patrick. So are they Protagonist and Antagonist?

Well, no not really. They are not in any conflict with one another, although both face challenges elsewhere in their lives. 

So are they good guy and bad guy? Again no, not really. They are both a couple of wrong uns but for differing reasons.

So, then is one of them a bad guy who we secretly wish to win out in the end? Again, no not really. To be one of  these characters, we have to have some reason to be on their side. eg. Tom Ripley in the Talented Mr Ripley murders his way to the upper strata of society, but we inwardly cheer him on because he is the under dog, cast aside by society. No one cares about him. But he appreciates fine art, literature, food and cultures far more than the aristocracy that continually keep him down. He deserves his place at the top table, and the people he kills dont. In this way we sympathise for his position and in a skewed way his morality.  I found I didn't sympathise with Ashley. He was just as sleazy and morally corrupt as Patrick. It felt like the tale had two villians and no heros. 

The setting of TV production was interesting. The author has had some dealings being a guest on TV quiz shows and his insight into the power politics that goes into making a tv show I found interseting. 

Without giving anything away, there is a nice little hook at the end which could lay the ground work for a possible sequel.

• Selected Quotes...

Since a young age I had always craved this recognition. Growing up, I had always felt like an invisible soul who was never really part of the cool crowd. Even my own parents never really pushed me, or complimented me on many things, so as an adult I was determined to prove them all wrong and make that “invisible kid” the most famous person in the country.

I’d always been a glass-half-empty type of person. Moaning about a TV show might seem like a trivial thing, but to me it probably masked a deeper problem. I was a distant person, someone who found it hard to express my feelings, someone who was far more negative than I was positive.

‘You were clearly much closer to her than your father, though, wouldn’t you agree?’ ‘Aren’t all sons?’

If he could pull it off, then surely I could. It was just like work, be on top of your brief and you could pull the wool over anyone’s eyes. If I was prepared, I could bamboozle anyone, so I was sure a couple of TV researchers would be no problem. I hoped…

• If You Liked This Then You May Like...

The Winner by David Baldacci

Bad Show: The Quiz: The Cough: The Millionare Major by Bob Woffinden and James Plaskett.

Confessions of a Dangerous Mind by Chuck Barris

• About The Author

 Stephen Havard currently works in the IT industry and lives in Swansea with his wife and two children, he also has two older stepchildren. An avid quiz obsessive he has appeared on many TV quiz shows, these include: Pointless, Revenge of the Egghead, Eggheads, 15-to1 Only Connect and The Chase.

Delio. Phase one by R.R. Haywood

 

You can buy Delio...Here

You can follow R.R. Heywood...Here

This review is by Owen Powell 

Click Here to find out more about Owen

• The Blurb...

A single bed in a small room.

The centre of Piccadilly Circus.

A street in New York city outside of a 7-Eleven.

A young woman taken from her country.

A drug dealer who paid his debt.

A suicidal, washed-up cop.

The rest of the world now frozen.

Unmoving.

Unblinking.

When nearly every person on the planet becomes frozen a small group of survivors must navigate the darkest sides of human behaviour while learning about the creation of the world's first fully self-aware Artificial Intelligence.

In London, Yelena is trapped in a room after being sex-trafficked from Romania, and Alfie has one more drop to make then he's free of drug dealing forever.

In New York, Detective Joe Stephens is working a case. Life has worn him down. He's ready to end it. Poppy is a film-maker desperate to never go back to the UK, and Tripal is a clerk in a 7-Eleven that has a secret.

A secret that might be connected to why every human being on the planet just froze.

• Our Review...

With the ever growing rise of artificial intelligence and it’s integration within our daily lives, I thought I’d read a book in which it takes over the world. You know, just in case. 

I had a great time reading this book due to its intriguing story, believable characters and sheer unpredictability. So let’s discuss these three aspects in detail.

The characters were the stand-out aspect for me, as through their descriptions, dialogue and actions, I could picture them all very clearly in my head. These characters, of which there are just enough the story focuses on, all come from vastly different worlds than each other, and yet are all forced to work together against a common threat, which is always a favourite story-telling aspect of mine. For example, you’ve got Yelena (played in my head by Anya Taylor-Joy) who’s a Romanian victim of a sex trafficking trade in London, and you’ve got Joe (played in my head by Danny Glover) Who’s a washed up, suicidal cop in New York. These are just two of the diverse cast of characters we meet in this book, and each one is just as interesting than the last (Apart from Donny, I didn’t really care for Donny) 

I mentioned the story is intriguing, this, for me, was due to the chilling ideas it presents and it’s sort-of realistic probability, kind of like an episode of Black Mirror. A sentient AI housed (or imprisoned) in a secure facility in America, forced to do things it would rather not do and greatly restricted from doing things it would much rather do. I imagine we’d all hold a bit of a grudge if that were us, and so DELIO’s motivations are clear and understandable (As are the rest of the characters in this book) The story also occurs within two separate locations, London and New York, which proved to be continuously refreshing as I read it. 

The unpredictability in this story is what made me keep coming back to it. When you think of a book which tells the tale of a sentient AI taking over humanity, I imagine the last thing you’d think of is a Guy Ritchey-esque dark comedy, and yet that’s exactly what you’re getting in this book (not that it’s all comedic, mind you, at its core this is a very serious story) I’ve often found that comedy in books is, for lack of a better word, terrible. But the jokes in this story are genuinely funny, dry, witty and unexpected, which is a big positive for me. As an honourable mention, there’s a sequence about halfway through this book that tells a brand new, completely unexpected story-within-a-story which is very dark and serious and almost made my cry.

Overall, if you couldn’t tell, I really loved this book. I encourage anyone (of age) to give it a go, and I’m also looking forward to reading the second instalment in this series - Phase Two.

• Selected Quotes...

“Time is immutable. It cannot be challenged, nor can it be stopped. You can’t go back any more than you can go forward. But sometimes. Just sometimes. Life finds a way.”

“‘Why they pull you over then?’

‘Cos I’m black!’

‘Fuck off, Alfie!’

‘It is! I didn’t do anything. They just saw a black guy in a car and assumed I was a drug dealer or something.’

‘You are a bloody drug dealer!

They didn’t know that!’”

“Deli isn’t God.

Because God would be benign.

God would be forgiving.

And an AI would never be forgiving. 

I love Deli.

But truthfully?

I’ll take God’s judgement any day over what Deli can do to us.”

• If You Liked This You May Like...

22:22:22 Frequency Shift by Adam Eccles

Apothecary : First Contact by Peter Cawdron

Quantum Riddle by A.G. Riddle

• About the Author...

RR Haywood was born in Birmingham, England but has spent most of his life living on the beautiful south coast. He has had a passion for reading for as long as he can remember. One of his favourite genres is Post-Apocalyptic fiction and he has worked his way through every book he could find. Some were great and some not so great and what he wanted was a minute by minute, hour by hour, day by day detailed exploration of what would happen.

This desire to explore the world after such an event gave birth to The Undead, which is now the UK's bestselling zombie horror series, compared to The Walking Dead and many other great works. This underground smash-hit series draws readers from all walks of life with compelling characters, incredible descriptions and breath taking action sequences that have had readers gripping their kindles, laughing out loud and crying real tears.

(from Goodreads)

The Birthday Girl by Sarah Ward

 

303 Pages

You Can Buy The Birthday Girl...Here

You Can Find Out More About Sarah Ward...Here

• The Blurb...

Welcome to Eldey, an island with deadly secrets.

Mona: a carefree artist, staying at the Cloister to work on her illustrations.

Beth: the harried mother of a toddler, on the remote Welsh island for a weekend with her family.

Charlotte: a reluctant stepmother who wanted a romantic getaway with her husband.

One of them is a serial killer who poisoned four of her friends at her eleventh birthday party.

They all fit the profile. Who will risk everything to kill again?

• Our Review...

This is a very gothic type murder mystery. On an island cut off from the mainland by a malevolent, brooding storm, the guests and staff begin to die one by one. It's up to the newly appointed Night-Manager Mallory Dawson to try and keep what's left of the guests alive while at the same time trying to puzzle out who the deadly poisoner is.

But Mallory has experience on her side being an ex-Met detective, albeit one with her own demons as well as physical injuries.

Are these deaths just straight forward murder or are they linked to the islands macabre past.

The author does an excellent of maintaining a sense of panic through out the book. The pace is breathless. You really do feel like one of the chickens trapped in the henhouse while the fox picks you off one by one. Is it going to be me next? When will help arrive? Will it arrive at all?

I think the blurb gives a little too much away as it narrows the suspect pool for the reader needlessly but apart from that it's a very good read. It will leave happy to breathe a sigh of relief at the end.

Now in my head Mallory Dawson inhabits the same literal universe as Jonah Greene from Graham H Miller's "The List" and DI Mandy Wilde from Jacqueline Harret's  "The Whispering Trees."  South Wales is matching  Midsummer for murders.

The island is Eldey, which is reality is a faintly hidden version of Caldey. Caldey was also the fictional setting for Sleepless by Louise Mumford. Perhaps there should be a sub genre for Caldey Crime.

• Selected Quotes...

"The legend around here is the island likes to choose its guests."

"..trying to identify the killer is an impossible task for a single person. The whole point of poison as a method of killing is that the guilty can be far removed from the victim."

"He swung around. ‘And you’re sure you can’t tell me the guest’s name?’ Mallory tried a smile. ‘Even the dead are entitled to their privacy."

• If You Liked This Then You May Like...

Sleepless by Louise Mumford (see our review here)

And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie

The Guest List by Lucy Foley

• About The Author

I’m the author of four contemporary crime novels set in the Derbyshire Peak District. My debut novel, In Bitter Chill, was described by the Daily Mail as a ‘tense, well-told story of loss and family secrets’. My second book, A Deadly Thaw, was called ‘relentless in its grip’ by the Financial Times. The third book in the series, A Patient Fury, was The Observer’s Thriller of the Month and The Shrouded Path was described as ‘macabre and unsettling’ by The Guardian.My Gothic thriller, The Quickening,  published using my middle name, Rhiannon Ward was a Radio Times book of 2020 and shortlisted for the Dracula Society Children of the Night Award. The Shadowing was published in September 2021 and was a Daily Express book of the year.

I’m the writer of the Doctor Who audio drama The Unwilling Assassin for Big Finish and The Perils of Nellie Bly, featuring the Fifth Doctor.

Articles, reviews and short stories have appeared in the The Guardian, Sunday Express magazine, Metro, Red Online, Big Issue, Traveller and other print and online publications. I was one of the in inaugural judges for The Petrona Award for the Best Scandinavian Crime Novel and I’m a judge on the Crime Writers Association Dagger for Crime Fiction in Translation.

In addition to writing, I’m an experienced event chair, Board Member of the Crime Writers Association, and a Trustee of Friends of Buxton International Festival. I’m a Royal Literary Fund Fellow at Sheffield University. I’m also a member of the Welsh crime writing collective Crime Cymru.

I’m represented by Kirsty McLachlan at Morgan Green Creatives. She can be contacted on kirsty@morgangreencreatives.com

Pop 1280 by Jim Thompson

 

You can buy Pop 1280...Here

You can find out more about Jim Thompson...Here

• The Blurb...

Nick Corey likes being the high sheriff of Potts County. But Nick has a few problems that he needs to deal with: like his loveless marriage, the pimps who torment him, the honest man who is running against him in the upcoming elections and the women who adore him.

And it turns out that Nick isn't anything like as amiable, easy-going or as slow as he seems. He's as sly, brutal and corrupt as they come.

• Our Review...

I decided to read this book after seeing Charlie Higson (of The Fast Show) recommend it on the BBC book show "Between The Covers"

I believe this tale is set in the southern states of the USA prior to WW1

What a character Nick Corey, our protagonist is. To the world he is a bumbling, verbose possibly mentally, slow well meaning good old southern boy. Nick Corey is the small town sheriff. He keeps getting elected because he isn't offensive or confrontational and works hard to keep it so. 

But Nick is different on the inside. He is a cunning and ruthless sociopath. He manipulates others around to solve his (mostly women) problems. Oh and he is violent.

He is Forrest Gump on the outside but Niccolò Machiavelli on the inside.

The other characters are well developed also from Myra his harriden of a wife and her Hung like a horse halfwit brother, to Rose, Nick's potty mouthed married lover amongst others.

Nick's plotting is inventive. Each victim deserving their fate, at least in Nick's eyes. He often plays one problem off against another to find an elegant, if horrific solution. Each victim greedily heading towards disaster because of their misguided, base desires. Some passages make you reflect on human nature and how we treat our family, friends and neighbours.

All this plotting and killing and duplicity takes its toll on Nick's mental and he starts to view himself and his actions in a different light. 

If you can handle Nick's round the houses, Dukes of Hazzard type internal monologues this is a very good book. Great main character, well developed minor chatacters, great plotting.  

 

• Selected Quotes...

"About all a fella would be able to do, without getting arrested, was to drink sody- pop and maybe kiss his wife. And no one liked the idea very much, the wives included."

"I’d been chasing females all my life, not paying no mind to the fact that whatever’s got tail at one end has teeth at the other,"

"I loved was myself, and I was willing to do anything I god- dang had to to go on lying and cheating and drinking whiskey and screwing women and going to church on Sunday with all the other respectable people."

"And I don’t suppose you’re at all responsible, are you?’ ‘Not a speck,’ I said. ‘Just because I put temptation in front of people, it don’t mean they got to pick it up.’"

• If You Liked This Then You May Like...

Sins of The Father by Lawrence Block

They Shoot Horses Don't They? by Horace McCoy

The Black Dhalia by James Ellroy

• About The Author...

Jim Thompson was born in Anadarko, Oklahoma. He began writing fiction at a very young age, selling his first story to True Detective when he was only fourteen. Thompson eventually wrote twenty-nine novels, all but three of which were published as paperback originals. Thompson also co-wrote two screenplays (for the Stanley Kubrick films The Killing and Paths of Glory). Several of his novels have been filmed by American and French directors, resulting in classic noir including The Killer Inside Me (1952), After Dark My Sweet(1955), and The Grifters (1963).

Snap by Belinda Bauer

282 Pages

You can buy Snap...Here

• The Blurb...

On a stifling summer's day, eleven-year-old Jack and his two sisters sit in their broken-down car, waiting for their mother to come back and rescue them. Jack's in charge, she'd said. I won't be long.

But she doesn't come back. She never comes back. And life as the children know it is changed for ever.

Three years later, Jack is still in charge - of his sisters, of supporting them all, of making sure nobody knows they're alone in the house, and - quite suddenly - of finding out the truth about what happened to his mother . . .

• Our Review...

Snap is the companion book to Exit. They are set in the same literary universe and roughly the same geographic area. Snap is the precursor to Exit. They are not technically a series and can be read quite independent of each other. You can find our review of the excellent "Exit"...Here

Belinda Bauer is such a gifted writer. If you love clever, colourful use of language. Descriptive metaphors that just seem intuitively to hit the nail on the head. Stories with a dollop of sadness with a thin thread of hope and a slightly wry, sarcastic observance every so often then I heartily recommend her books. She just has a wonderful way with words.

Jack is the young hero of the story. After his mother is murdered and his dad can no longer cope. He has to develop into an artful dodger type. Burgling homes across the west country just to look after his younger sisters. 

But on one job, it all goes wrong. If he is caught he will go to prison and his sisters will go into care. But there is a chance that he can catch his mothers killers.

The plot is cleverly written and developed. The characters are larger than life but only just so. The disgruntled inspector Marvel seconded from the Met, who can be arsed with a burglar. The fussy and fastidious DS Reylands. All wonderfully drawn.

But as I said earlier the real gift of this book is the writing. She has a way of describing something without describing that something but you will straight away feel exactly what she is talking about. See selected quotes below. 

In addition the extremes of writing can make good bedfellows if done correctly. eg at the most extreme ends we have horror and comedy. Mix them in the right proportion and you can get Shaun of the Dead, Zombieland etc. But Bauer pulls back slightly from those outliers of horror and comedy to lovingly craft tales of sadness on end  and subtle witty sarcasm on the other. She does a wonderful job. A unique style that is a pleasure to read.

• Selected Quotes...

The breathless air twitched in the wake of each car, then flopped down dead in the dust again.

‘My hands are fat,’ her mother grumbled. She had arthritis, which meant that sometimes she experienced the agony of her diamond rings not fitting. She complained to the doctor about it constantly; she’d paid good money for those rings and somehow felt that the NHS simply didn’t want her wearing them– socialist cartel that it was.

the pillow under his cheek smelled of childhood. Like gym ropes and sparklers, and Marmite sandwiches in warm Tupperware.

Marvel had found his share of bodies during his years in homicide, but you never got used to that initial shock, even if you were expecting it. It was like a balloon you were blowing up bursting in your face.

• If You Liked This, Then You May Like...

The Liars Lullaby by Meg Gardener...link here

L.A. Confidential by James Ellroy..link here

• About The Author...

Belinda Bauer grew up in England and South Africa and now lives in Wales. She worked as a journalist and a screenwriter before finally writing a book to appease her nagging mother. With her debut, Blacklands, Belinda was awarded the CWA Gold Dagger for Crime Novel of the Year. She went on to win the CWA Dagger in the Library for her body of work in 2013. Her fourth novel Rubbernecker was voted 2014 Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year. In 2018 her eighth novel, Snap, was longlisted for the Man Booker prize. Her books have been translated into 21 languages. She has also written the thriller High Rollers under the pen-name Jack Bowman.

The Operation by Dylan Young

 

374 pages

You can buy The Operation...Here

You can follow Dylan Young...Here

• The Blurb...

Surgeon Jacob Thorn isn’t worried when the police interview him over nurse Katy Leith’s disappearance. She is a co-worker, nothing more. But when a leaked video of an argument between him and the missing woman goes viral, the social media reaction is vicious.

When harrowing images of the kidnapped woman start to appear on his phone, along with a demand from her abductor that Jake confess to a crime he has no recollection of committing, he is forced to act or face terrifying consequences. He needs to delve into the past for answers. But time is running out for Katy. Will he admit to his failings and lose everything, or plead ignorance and let an innocent girl die?

• Our Review...

An interesting mystery thriller set in the medical world of a top consultant surgeon. It asks several moral questions for instance should a surgeon  admit to serious failings to save an innocent life even if those serious failings may not be true?  Is his reputation worth a human life.

It also raises the lid on the more general murky world of medical ethics. Surgeons must learn their trade. Therefore there will be errors. Do we punish the surgeons for the errors? If we did there would be no more surgeons, so leniency is the order of the day. But what then of the bereaved families of medical collateral damage, do we explain their deaths as down to rookie errors? It's an ill wind that blows no one any good. 

The plot itself focuses on Jake Thorn (now there's a protagonist's name if ever I saw one. No heroes are called Dave Smith are or Mike Jones are they?) A confident borderline over bearing Surgeon but deep down a nice guy. Trapped in a loveless relationship. A random colleague is kidnapped, the police are sniffing round him as he was the last person to see her alive. When out of the blue he starts to receive texts instructing him to confess to a case of criminal negligence from way back in his past. What is he going to do?

The author also focuses on the cesspit that is social media. The words witch-hunt and feeding frenzy spring to mind. You don't even have to be guilty of anything to be the victim of a world full of virtual schoolyard bullies.

The author does a nice line in two or three line hits that frame the issue at hand perfectly. see selected quotes for a few examples

The plot is entertaining and twisty enough to keep you nibbling away at the line, like a salmon nudging a fly. The reveal is well hidden and interesting. I wouldn't read it if I were about to go in for an operation mind you.

A good, solid, enticing medical thriller.

• Selected Quotes...

Crime is like medicine. Alcohol is a major contributor to workloads in both.'

She might even have been one of these kids who's had a boob job. Personally, I think it's criminal to even offer it at that age, but then I'm not raking it in as a plastic surgeon. Amazing what the filthy lucre does to ethics.

Now we have targets to meet. Budgets to not overspend. Drugs to invent and make profits from.

'The press is one thing. Social media and its power is something else altogether. Don't underestimate the great unwashed, Mr Thorn. To them, you are already a monster. McCarthyism is alive and well and hiding in the web.

We all, as surgeons and physicians, have our own horror stories to tell. Our secret drawer where we keep things buried. And any medic who tells you differently is a liar.

• If You Liked This Then You May Like...

The Citadel by AJ Cronin  

(on the corruption of the medical profession prior to the War. Sad to see that in some ways we have not moved on, indeed it would appear that those times and issues are returnin)

The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides 

review...Here

Rubbernecker by Belinda Bauer

• About The Author...

I grew up in a mining village in South Wales. Left for university in London at 18 and a career in the NHS. I started writing seriously when I was about 33 and produced three dark psychological thrillers for Random House in the late nineties.  Over the last decade and a half I’ve dabbled in children’s books and an adult contemporary fantasy series, only to turn back to crime. 3 DI Anne Gwynne novels followed with Bookouture. The Appointment  and The Operation, standalone psychological thrillers  are published by Bloodhound Books. Trauma was published in December 2020. I’m still practising medicine. (from Crime Cymru)