Originally published: August 2018

Author: Paul Finch

Published by: Avon Books

Genre: Crime Thriller

Page count: 448

Reading dates: 17-23 August 2018

Star Rating: 4/5

DS ‘Heck’ Heckenburg and his colleagues have been tasked with finding some of the UK’s most wanted men as part of Operation Sledgehammer. A lot rides on them finding these criminals – there are rumours that the Serial Criminal Unit (SCU) that he works for is in danger of being shut down to save money. During his investigations he discovers a film showing the man he is looking for, Eddie Creeley in an unfair fight for his life. It soon transpires that other fugitives on the most wanted list have also mysteriously disappeared and Heck soon realises they might not be the only players in this game of cat and mouse.

Heck has to decide how far he will go to protect some of the UK’s most brutal criminals.

Wow! This is a real rollercoaster of a book – from the moment it kicks off to the very last page, Finch manages to keep you turning those pages. A gritty crime thriller, there are tons of dangerous situations Heck and his colleagues find themselves in but all feel (mostly) believable. I also loved the moral dilemma – someone else is taking out the bad guys – why not let them just get on with it?

This is the 7th book in the series about the character Heck, but the first one I’ve read – this didn’t matter, it worked well as a stand alone book but I guess you’d be more invested in the characters if you’d read the whole series.

I really enjoyed this – a sign of a good book for me is if you are reading every second you have spare and when I was racing through the pages whilst also trying to cook dinner, I knew I was on to a good thing. I also liked the fact that there were some strong female characters (a couple of the more senior investigators are female). If you like books by Mark Billingham, Stuart MacBridge and Peter James, this is definitely for you.

Thank you to Avon Books and Paul Finch for sending me a copy of this book as part of a blog tour.  Make sure to check out Candy’s Bookcase for tomorrow’s stop on the tour.

About the author:

Paul Finch is a former cop and journalist, now full-time writer. Having originally written for the television series The Bill plus children’s animation and Doctor Who audio dramas, he went on to write horror, but is now best known for his crime / thriller fiction.

He won the British Fantasy Award twice and the International Horror Guild Award, but since then has written two parallel series of hard-hitting crime novels, the Heck and the Lucy Clayburn novels, of which three titles have become best-sellers.

Paul lives in Wigan, Lancashire, UK with his wife and children.

Blog – http://paulfinch-writer.blogspot.com/
Twitter – https://twitter.com/paulfinchauthor

Also reviewed Strangers by Paul Finch (January 2018)