A collection of short stories mostly with Murder somewhere in them, the orders are some other sort of crime, but I'm not giving the plots away that easy
A right good and entertaining read. Each story is quickly to the point and there are a mixture of writing styles, 1st and 3rd person or a range of people telling an incident from their perspective. A nice touch to have these variations.
I've just finished this book 30 mins ago and I'm still reeling on how good it was. I read the last 150 pages in one go it is that good.
It starts off with small introductions to the characters and then dives into the correspondence between them, sometimes as a group, sometimes between different individuals. This then starts the brain going trying to work out what is happening behind the messages we see. Luckily we are helped by the examiner group chat where they summarise what we have learnt from the messages.
This keeps going well and the reveals late in the book come thick and fast you can't put it down.
Another fabulous book, looking forward to the next one.
This is a really good one...and an easy read
As usual with these books, the situation is well described and the insights into the regular characters lives really brings them to life as well as making the whole series a great read.
This time the murder takes place in Saltaire near Bradford with the usual twist that some of the actual places don't exist in real life !
There are multiple suspects that come to the detectives attention very early, but who is the actual murderer keeps you guessing until near the very end, which is good.
Here we go again, another story set in a strange place and working in a way completely different to our own.....
I was so excited and looking forward to this book having read the 2 previous titles, that I got to page 80 and nothing had stuck in my head, so i went back and started again! and it was worth it
What I like about Stuart's books are the way the action starts immediately, characters are quickly identifiable, without having to have lots of paragraphs of back story, (the necessary bits do come later) and the interactions and movement get you thinking "who is going to be murdered?" and "who could have done it?".
My guesses to both these questions were wrong several times throughout the book, right up to the end, which just added to the fun of the book.
Within this book we follow one of the characters as they investigate the murder, learn more about the situation they are in and finally understand their future.
The subtitle of this book is "The terrifying true story of an escaped prisoner and the family he held hostage" and that is not understated, after reading this story it must have been both, during and after that week.
It includes interviews with the survivor and others involved, family, friends and the police.
The book goes back in time and tells the story of the upbringing of the murderer, Billy Hughes, and his family background. Not to excuse or explain why he did what he did, but to explain what a truly nasty piece of work he had been is entire life.
There is a little explaining the victims background, enough for us to understand the position they are in at the time and not too much to be irrelevant.
The way the events are explained, especially with quotes and explanations from those involves really does bring it home, especially if you try and imagine yourself in the situation.
It's a very good read and the events are explained well, the other shocking aspects involve the lack of attention and communication within the prison service. And what is that about transporting prisoners around the country using taxis! I really hope that doesn't happen these days.
One final thought, I had, was how much more horrific the aftermath would have been if he had survived and all this had to be dragged out in court.
John Ellis has done it again, what a smashing read! A murder, with the killer clearly identified seems straightforward but of course there is more to it than that!
It's great to read about the same characters, who are very likeable, go about their lives while investigating the crime and sharing their back stories.
I was pleased to have cracked the case early and have it confirmed by page 200, of course it took the characters a bit longer. This is something that makes these books so enjoyable, the clues are there if you think about it.
For some reason this book has been renamed to 'Take the Wheel' and the rest of the series are also on similar lines
I listened to the book over 3 days and really enjoyed it.
Firstly the book tells the story from the perspective of the 2 main characters, Maddie and Noah, quickly establishing their background and the situation. Chapters alternate between them explaining their activities and feelings to each other
The story itself is nice and simple, a group of interconnected characters, a bit of corruption and a bit of a too obvious villian. This doesn't matter though as the enjoyment in how the characters interact.
Maybe this was because I listened to the audiobook and the 2 voice actors really sounded good and enjoying their parts
It took me a couple of goes to get started with this book, the style of writing is unusual in that it's a person, talking to the reader explaining what is happening. Once you get used to this it's an easy read and gets more so as the pages progress.
The events move along nicely and kept me turning the pages to find out what comes next.
There are mysteries for the reader to work out, and several comedy instances to enjoy.
A fascinating tale of the spy network known as Five Eyes involving the UK, US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand and the story of the last 100 years of them monitoring the planet for terrorist threats against their countries.