Tag: NetGalley

#BlogTour #BookReview The Fire Killer (DI Barton #5) by Ross Greenwood @rararesources

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The Fire KillerWelcome to today’s stop on the blog tour for The Fire Killer (DI Barton #5) by Ross Greenwood. My thanks to Rachel at Rachel’s Random Resources for inviting me to take part in the tour and to Boldwood Books for my digital review copy via NetGalley.  Do check out the posts by my tour buddies for today, Amanda at Ginger Book Geek and Stacey Hammond.

The Fire KillerAbout the Book

When DI Barton is asked to investigate a seemingly innocuous fire that kills, he believes it’s either children fooling around or a worrying racially motivated crime.

As he delves deeper into the case, he soon realises that there is a history of similar blazes spread out over many years, all within a close area. And after an idea is suggested by pathologist Mortis, Barton suspects he has the arsonist’s motives wrong.

When a night worker comes forward with a tip, Barton narrows down the suspects. Yet all of them act suspiciously and he knows for sure that one or more of them are lying. And when a huge house blaze shocks everyone, Barton fears the killer has lost all control.

Who is The Fire Killer? What will be next to burn?

Format: Ebook (365 pages)          Publisher: Boldwood Books
Publication date: 30th May 2022 Genre: Crime

Find The Fire Killer (DI Barton #5) on Goodreads

Purchase links
Hive | Amazon UK
Links provided for convenience only, not as part of an affiliate programme

My Review

The Fire Killer is the first book I’ve read by Ross Greenwood and although it is the fifth in his DI Barton series I was immediately drawn into the story and quickly got to know the members of Barton’s team. Therefore I can reassure readers like myself who are new to the series that The Fire Killer can definitely be read as a standalone.

I liked the book’s structure. There’s an exciting opening scene that describe the events leading up to the culmination of the case before a shift back in time to a pivotal incident from ‘many years ago’. From that point on the story switches between Barton’s painstaking investigation into a series of cases of arson and the first person narrative of The Fire Killer. We know their background, witness their actions and the impulses that drive them but don’t know their identity. I had plenty of ideas but, thanks to the skill of the author, it wasn’t until near the end of the book that I finally twigged.

I really liked the relationship between Barton and Detective Sergeant Zander. They have a nice line in banter and bounce ideas off each other, contributing their different views of the investigation. It’s an investigation which, as Zander ruefully observes, turns out to be ‘an onion case’ with many layers each more bizarre than the last. In fact, as events unfold and they are left with more questions than answers, they wonder if they are investigating one case or two.

The investigation takes place against the backdrop of the Covid-19 lockdown. The empty streets and closed up shops create a real sense of atmosphere.  And, as Barton observes, ‘Mankind didn’t need a virus to behave deplorably’. The book includes a number of damaged characters – there is one in particular who stands out – as well as individuals only too willing to feed off the vulnerabilities of others.

Barton comes across as an ‘old school’ policeman who’s grudgingly accepted that technology now plays a significant part in the detection of crime but regrets it takes some of the challenge out of it. The author gives us a neat in-joke when he has Barton despair at the difference between ‘real’ policing and what you see in TV dramas (or some crime fiction perhaps?). ‘A detective was sitting in a van, typing away at a computer, pulling up a variety of individuals’ call histories and credit-card statements. It was pure bullshit.’

I enjoyed the glimpses of Barton’s home life. The book sees him pondering his future given the toll his work has taken on him: the long hours, the missed family events. Equally, the dreadful things he has witnessed. Indeed, he will witness more in the course of this case.  ‘He was proud to be a policeman, but he also knew he couldn’t do it forever, because each death left a mark.’ On the other hand, he recognises that his family’s love and support has provided a vital counterbalance. ‘When death surrounds you, life took on new meaning.’

The Fire Killer is an ingenious, well-crafted crime novel that kept me absorbed until the very last page.

In three words: Tense, gripping, suspenseful

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Ross GreenwoodAbout the Author

Ross Greenwood is the bestselling author of ten crime thrillers. Before becoming a full-time writer he was most recently a prison officer and so worked every day with murderers, rapists and thieves for four years. He lives in Peterborough.

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#BlogTour #BookReview Young Women by Jessica Moor @RandomTTours

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Young Women BT PosterWelcome to today’s stop on the blog tour for Young Women by Jessica Moor. My thanks to Anne at Random Things Tours for inviting me to take part in the tour and to Zaffre for my digital review copy via NetGalley.  Do check out the post by my tour buddy for today, Amanda at The Butler Did It.

YM Graphic 3About the Book

Everyone’s got that history, I guess. Everyone’s got a story.

When Emily meets the enigmatic and dazzling actress Tamsin, her life changes. Drawn into Tamsin’s world of Soho living, boozy dinners, and cocktails at impossibly expensive bars, Emily’s life shifts from black and white to technicolour and the two women become inseparable.

Tamsin is the friend Emily has always longed for; beautiful, fun, intelligent and mysterious and soon Emily is neglecting her previous life – her work assisting vulnerable women, her old friend Lucy – to bask in her glow.  But when a bombshell news article about a decades-old sexual assault case breaks, Emily realises that Tamsin has been hiding a secret about her own past. Something that threatens to unravel everything…

Format: Hardback (320 pages)      Publisher: Manilla Press
Publication date: 26th May 2022  Genre: Contemporary Fiction

Find Young Women on Goodreads

Purchase links
Bookshop.org
Disclosure: If you buy a book via the above link, I may earn a commission from Bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookshops

Hive | Amazon UK
Links provided for convenience only, not as part of an affiliate programme

My Review

For the first portion of Young Women I thought I knew exactly where the book was going. Tamsin is the manipulative young woman who wheedles her way into Emily’s life, adjusting her behaviour to be exactly what she thinks Emily needs; a life that’s much more exciting and daring than the one Emily is currently living – a diet of meal deals and a flatmate she hardly ever speaks to. And Tamsin’s an actress so she’ll have no problem putting on a performance and pulling the wool over Emily’s eyes until her true motives are revealed. Except it’s not as simple as that.

Everything changes in the second part of the book when the story becomes much more nuanced, as do the characters.  Gradually we learn that Tamsin and Emily, and Emily’s friend Lucy, have experiences in common none of which have resulted in action being taken against the perpetrators. (It may be a concidence but in each case where they’ve reported what they’ve suffered it was to a woman yet no action was taken.)  A neat counterpoint to this is Renee, Emily’s boss at the Women’s Advocacy Group, who is relentless in her support of women who have suffered sexual violence.

In a turnaround, it’s Emily who sees herself taking the dominant role in her relationship with Tamsin. Here’s her chance to demonstrate her activism by supporting Tamsin in calling out the actions of a powerful and influential figure in the film industry. Emily pictures the two of them being seen as a ‘force to be reckoned with’ taking part in joint interviews as the story reaches the press. She even fantasises about quitting her job to make time for it all. (Ironically, Emily’s has been careless in her handling of an actual case she’s been assigned at work.)  Emily is sure she knows exactly how Tamsin will respond, congratulating herself on ‘getting good at writing her’ so she’s disappointed at Tamsin’s reaction. She’s even more shocked at Tamsin’s subsequent actions, although her own are not exactly laudable. What happens next explores issues of consent and the extent to which there is a responsibility to speak out. Does failing to do so somehow make you complicit?

Although I had some reservations about Emily’s risk-taking behaviour towards the end of the book, Young Women raises some interesting moral questions, bringing to mind cases that have made the headlines in recent years.

In three words: Thought-provoking, intimate, intense

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Jessica Moor Author PicAbout the Author

Jessica Moor studied English at Cambridge before completing a Creative Writing MA at Manchester University. Her debut novel Keeper was published in 2020 to rave reviews and critical acclaim. Jessica Moor was selected as one of the Observer‘s debut novelists of 2020, and Keeper was chosen by the Sunday Times, Independent and Cosmopolitan as one of their top debuts of the year. Keeper was nominated for the Desmond Elliott Prize and an Edgar Award. Young Women is her second novel.

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