Book-Review-Degrees-of-Darkness

~~~~~

Degrees of Darkness

by

Tony J. Forder

Tony J. Forder’s Degrees of Darkness, was the first book I have read by this author.  And I must confess that it was one which I wish I had never read, not because of any writing flaws, rather because it is so dark.

Strawberry blonde twelve or thirteen year old girls are being abducted after the rest of their family is murdered in the dead of night.  Laura is one of those abductees.  She is the daughter of an ex-detective (Frank) who had separated from his wife and family.

Frank is asked to help police track her abductor and killer of his son, ex-wife and several other families.  With virtually no leads to follow Frank and friend Nicky, also a detective, set out to track down and hopefully save Laura’s life.  During the investigation the killer contacts Frank and then begins to leave him ‘gifts’ in the form of bodies of the earlier girls he has tortured and murdered.

Fans of the thriller genre will enjoy Degrees of Darkness, although should you have twelve or thirteen year old strawberry blonde females in your family, prepared to be disturbed.

I rated

Degrees of Darkness

 

as a solid

read.

At the time of writing my review

other Goodreads readers had awarded

Degrees of Darkness

an average of 4.38 stars,

from 418 ratings

and 43 reviews.

Degrees of Darkness

can be purchased online at

Booktopia, Fishpond and Amazon

Book-Review-Scream-Blue-Murder

~~~~~

Scream Blue Murder

(Mike Lynch #1)

by

Tony J. Forder

Scream Blue Murder is the first of the Mike Lynch books by Tony J. Forder and the first Forder has written in the first person.  Generally I avoid ‘first person’ books like the plague, however, as I write this review I have nearly finished the second Mike Lynch book.

Mike Lynch is ex military, divorced and has one daughter who lives with her mother and step-father in California.

One cold English night, Mike because of traffic accident detour finds himself on a lonely back road where he pulls over to answer the call of nature.   In a few minutes another car pulls over.  Two men alight, one kneels and is executed by the second.   Anymore information will contain too many spoilers.  Well worth a read if you are into this genre

From there on the book could be described as a helter skelter fast paced series of chases and shootouts with various bad guys.  If not for the help of an old military mate Mike would probably not have survived.

I thoroughly enjoyed fast pace of Scream Blue Murder.  

I rated

Scream Blue Murder

as a solid

read.

At the time of writing my review

other Goodreads readers had awarded

Scream Blue Murder

an average of 4.18 stars,

from 355 ratings

and 56 reviews.

Scream Blue Murder

can be purchased online at

Booktopia, Fishpond and Amazon

Book-Review-The-Reach-of-Shadows

~~~~~

The Reach of Shadows

 (DI Bliss, #4)

by

Tony J. Forder

The Reach of Shadows is the fourth (of 6) in Tony Forder’s DI Bliss series and probably the best to date.  Again Bliss finds himself in trouble, on several fronts, but still has Chandler and the rest of his loyal team to help when required.

This time it is Jade Coleman who is murdered by a home invader, stalker, or her pervert neighbour.   The only other piece of information I can add is that she was an activist, or sorts, which may, or may not, have something to do with her murder. While Bliss and his team are trying to solve this crime, ‘fresh’ evidence is discovered (against Bliss) and he becomes the target of an Internal Affairs investigation into his past deeds.

Tony Forder has this and another storyline as ongoing background stories throughout the Bliss series.  One of these plots seems to be concluded in The Reach of Shadows.

I have enjoyed these later books of the Bliss series and look forward to reading books 5 and 6 later in the year.

 I rated

The Reach of Shadows

as a five star read.

At the time of writing my review

other Goodreads readers had awarded

The Reach of Shadows

an average of 4.63 stars,

from 278 ratings

and 54 reviews.

The Reach of Shadows

can be purchased online at

Booktopia, Fishpond and Amazon

Book-Review-If-Fear-Wins

~~~~~

If Fear Wins

 (DI Bliss, #3)

by

Tony J. Forder

I never thought that I would become a series reader; however, here I am commencing a review about If Fear Wins the third book in the DI (Jimmy) Bliss series.  According to Google there are now 5 Jimmy Bliss books in the series.

Again we see Bliss and Chandler chasing leads in a murder.  This time a young Royal Air Force Officer appears to have been executed by terrorists.  After team Bliss runs into more dead ends than they care for a chance conversation with a suspect’s wife sees them headed in a totally new direction and eventually a successful conclusion to the case.

A five star contemporary plot which, occasionally seems to get bogged down supplying back ground information, which was detailed in books 1 & 2.  Tony Forder is not the only author I have come across who does this.  It’s just that I find it tiresome (re-reading details) I read a week or so ago in another book.

If Fear Wins catapults Tony Forder into the good mystery writer category.  My first Tony Forder read, Degrees of Darkness, is a five star read and his best so far.  From a plot stand point If Fear Wins is nearly as good and is definitely better than Bliss I & 2.

If Goodreads would accept half a star, I would rate If Fear Wins as a 4.5 star read.  However Goodreads doesn’t…so I can’t.  Therefore, due to excessive background information and what seemed to be a long ending, If Fear Wins, will have to be happy with a four star rating.

 

I rated

If Fear Wins

as a

four star read.

~~~~~

 

At the time of writing my review

other Goodreads readers had awarded

If Fear Wins

an average of 4.63 stars,

from 293 ratings and 49 reviews.

If Fear Wins

can be purchased online at

Booktopia, Fishpond and Amazon

Book-Review-The-Scent-of-Guilt

~~~~~

The Scent of Guilt

 (DI Bliss, #2)

by

Tony J. Forder

The Scent of Guilt is book 2 in the DI (Jimmy) Bliss series and my third Tony J. Forder read.  The Scent of Guilt is set some twelve years after Bad to the Bone and sees Jimmy Bliss returning home to Peterborough, only to be given a murder case to solve.  As with Bad to the Bone, his immediate superior is not happy and there is some head butting between the two.

I found The Scent of Guilt a little slow to begin with.  Passages of conversational padding to fill in what had happened all those years ago, I found irksome.  Necessary?  Maybe.  However considering many of the current staff at his station were not around at the time, I was left wondering can members of the police service carry grudges for so long based only on hearsay.  After the past had been sorted the story began to move along at a nice pace and an international connection adds to the plot.

Bliss is tasked with investigating the murder of women (aged around 60) and eventually it is revealed that there is a connection between the murders and teenage girls being raped.  Chandler from Bad to the Bone is lead investigator of that case.  Again this was a now and then type of story and how it is linked to then will be a spoiler.

I can say that the ending was much better than Bad to the Bone.  No Perry Mason theatrics this time round.

Another four star story spoiled only by a slow beginning (several chapters) and police abbreviations again.  For those reason I deducted half a star and give it an overall 3.5 stars.

I rated

The Scent of Guilt

as a

three and a half star read.

~~~~~

At the time of writing my review

other Goodreads readers had awarded

The Scent of Guilt

an average of 4.41 stars,

from 650 ratings and 65 reviews.

If Fear Wins

can be purchased online at

Booktopia, Fishpond and Amazon

Book-Review-Bad-to-the-Bone

~~~~~

Bad to the Bone

by

Tony J. Forder

 

 

Bad to the Bone, is the first book in the DI (Jimmy) Bliss series and my second Tony J. Forder read.  Initially I was a little reluctant in taking up bad to the Bone as I have found some British set novels and television not to my taste.  However this was not the case with this book and I thoroughly enjoyed Bad to the Bone.  The story, the plot and the characters were all interesting and kept me reading well after dark.

 

There were only two negatives, one of which I will attribute to the editor.  Why was this book published with so many (often) unexplained abbreviations in it?  Abbreviations such as DI, DC, IPA, IC1, just to name a few.  I remember asking primary age student to explain anything they were going to abbreviate in their text at least once.

An unearthed shallow grave is the basis for this intriguing who dunnit!  Jimmy Bliss and his sidekick Penny (Pen) Chandler team up with one of Jimmy’s former colleagues (Bobby Dunne) to investigate the bones in the grave many years after the hasty burial.  Not an easy feat to accomplish.  There is quite a pile of present day bodies which mount up and they are all linked to the initial grave of bones in one way or another.

Those readers old enough to have watched the American television series Perry Mason, will remember that hot shot lawyer Perry always won the unwinnable trial in the last ninety seconds by explaining what he had seen, heard or done…off camera.  So it is with Bad to the Bone.  The bad dude was revealed and the rest of the book is devoted to explaining how Jimmy deduced who was bad and who was good.

Because of the Perry Mason ending

and the abbreviations

I only rated Bad to the Bone as a

four star read.

~~~~~

At the time of writing my review

other Goodreads readers had awarded

Bad to the Bone

an average of 4.24 stars,

from 1,533 ratings and 151 reviews.

Bad to the Bone

can be purchased online at

Booktopia, Fishpond and Amazon

Unfortunately Bad to the Bone is not available from Booktopia. 

However there 7 other Tony J. Forder books listed.