Dark Fragments, by Rob Sinclair

This is a thriller about a seemingly normal man who seems to fall into a spiral of bad choices.

Ben is married to Gemma with two children, Harry and Chloe. Harry is Ben's son with his first wife, Alice, who was brutally murdered seven years earlier, potentially by a serial killer.  As the story progresses, it flashes between a future point where Ben is being interviewed by a counsellor / psychiatrist, and the present time, where he's in too deep - and getting ever deeper -  with a local gangster.

The trouble spirals quickly for Ben and he descends further and further into a constant state of rage. I felt like the reasons for this could have been fleshed out a bit more, as he seemed to be living a perfectly nice, normal life at the start, then by a few chapters in he was in debt to the local gangster to the tune of £100,000 and self destructing his own life and relationships.

I do feel like some aspects of the book move unrealistically fast - his relationship with Cara being a prime example of this.  There's a point where he states that he couldn't believe that she could cut him out of her life so quickly, but I felt like they'd only been on about four dates!  He does also seem to spiral quite quickly once the trouble all starts for him - he makes a lot of bad decisions, but it karma does bite back pretty quickly.

However, this is a fast paced story - I read it in two sittings. I enjoyed the story as a whole once I'd finished it and could think back over the whole story. I definitely think that the whole book is greater than the sum of its parts. I'm glad I stuck with it, there are some intriguing characters and I feel like there is an open door to explore those characters further. I hope this is the case - I'd definitely be interested to see where the characters go!

Nows your chance to grab it on sale for the Kindle - it's currently 99p!!!  Dark Fragments

Disclosure - I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review. 

Hunt for the Enemy, by Rob Sinclair

This is the first book I've read by Rob Sinclair, and I realised shortly after I started that it's actually the third book of a trilogy.  I didn't find it too hard to follow what was going on, and the flashbacks weren't too heavy-handed, but the series has been designed to tie in closely together, rather than each book being more standalone.  An example of a series with more standalone books would be the Rebus books by Ian Rankin - the books follow a loose series order, but it doesn't have a massive impact if you read the books out of order, whereas i feel that this trilogy is a lot more closely knit.  To be fair, it didn't really put me off, but I tend to try and read series in order and I feel that this series would be best served by reading in order. 

Carl Logan is a security operative for a mysterious government firm, the Joint Intelligence Agency (JIA), and has been for twenty years.  However, the agency has turned on him and he's been framed for murder, forcing him to go on the run and delve deep into his past in order to discover the truth.  

This book is fast paced and a good page turner.  I read that the author was inspired to start the series by wanting to write a book that would keep his wife awake all night to keep reading, and I feel that this is a decent attempt at the genre.  I enjoyed the story and the characters, especially enjoying the flashbacks to when Logan was being trained in the Scottish Highlands, as it was interesting to get an insight into a stereotypical, James Bond-esqe character and their motivations, although I feel that this may have been explored in more depth in the earlier two books. 

Overall,  I enjoyed the book, but if i was going to recommend this to other readers, I'd definitely advice them to start at the beginning of the series.  It would be a good beach read I think, as it rattles along at a good pace with plenty of twists, turns, double crosses and bluffs.  An enjoyable read. 

Disclosure - I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review. 

Prayer for the Dead, by James Oswald

I've read several of the previous books from this series before, so I was pleased to get a copy of the newest in the series for review.  The main character is Inspector Tony McLean, a young-for-his-position police officer who often finds his personal and professional life mixing a little too often for his own comfort. 

The new addition to the series picks up after the last one, involving a largely familiar cast of characters, who will be well known to previous readers.  The primary mystery revolves around a missing journalist, who is soon found dead - having been ritualistically murdered - in a tourist attraction.   The story follows many twists and turns, involving the ex-wife of the murdered man, as well as his colleagues and the subjects of his newest investigation... a shadowy collection of potential cultists and conspiracy theorists.  What i've enjoyed about this series are the themes that it deals with - identity, how your past can impact on your future - and to which extent, family, loss, isolation, faith.  The stories introduce a very very subtle hint of supernatural activity, but this is in no way the main focus of any of the stories - I found it to be more of a counterpoint against which to view the beliefs of some of the characters.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and found the mystery engaging and entertaining.  The tale rolls along at a good pace, the characters are well portrayed and multi layered.  This isn't your usual maverick cop, plays-by-his-own-rules trope that is so often portrayed in this genre.  Inspector McLean is flawed, and doesn't get it right all the time.  He's intelligent, but to a point that often isolates him from the rest of his colleagues.  Even if / when he achieves something from his work, he's not necessarily wholly accepted by his colleagues, many of whom distrust him and his motives. 

I'm reluctant to go too in-depth into the story, considering the potential for spoilers, but I definitely recommend this as a strong example of the crime / detective genre.  It does stand alone, although it does refer back to previous novels in the series, however, it is not essential to have read the previous books in order to enjoy this one.  Although - why not?  If this type of story is your bag, then you'll enjoy the whole series.   Personally, I prefer reading entire series' in order, although this can sometimes result in not working my way up to the most recent installment for quite a while!  But if a series is written well, then I find that it adds a lot of depth to the story to have read all the preceding parts.  Although there are some authors who are worse than others at framing a new story so that it ties in enough with the rest of the series without just retelling all of the previous stories - its a fine art!  I feel that this is a good example of a story that calls back to previous stories just enough, while keeping its current story ticking along. 

Comments are welcome - what do you like about series' of books?  Do you have to read them in order or can you dip and out?


Disclosure - I received this book for review from Netgalley.