Book-Review-If-Fear-Wins

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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.

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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

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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.

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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

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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.

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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.