It was just an ordinary Wednesday lunchtime when Detective Martha Munro’s life changed forever.

Her sergeant is speaking, but she barely hears what he’s telling her.

Your mother has been shot dead. Your four-year-old daughter has been taken.

There are no leads. Who would want to hurt her family?

Martha realizes it’s time to ask herself some hard questions about her late father.

He led the anti-corruption squad at Scotland Yard. It’s rumoured he kept a list of everyone who worked for him, from coppers to criminals. And just being on that list was a sure-fire way to lower your life expectancy.

Her mother was killed by someone trying to get their hands on that list. Now time is running out for Martha to get her daughter back alive.

Martha is the kind of cop who always goes by the book. But family is EVERYTHING. And she will do ANYTHING to keep them safe.

A Very Enticing Read!

Well, this is certainly very different to any other crime mystery I have come across!

Martha Munro is a committed police officer who has recently made detective. When her sergeant imparts the information that her house has been targeted with her mother killed and her four-year-old daughter kidnapped, she is completely floored. Who would do such a thing – and why?

This is a cracking start to a new series! As a reader, I needed to hone my detecting skills to the max to follow everything that was going on and the revelations they led to. I have to say, there is one thing I intensely dislike and that is beginning a story with information from more than half-way through which means that, up until that point, I was always waiting to get to those events. I feel this spoils my enjoyment of a huge chunk of the book. However, that was soon forgotten as things got into gear! There is an awful lot going on in this one and, sadly, all of it entirely believable. A grand cast of characters and an extremely good storyline all add up to a very enticing read which made me want to search out the next one! Very exciting and fast-paced, this is a thrilling read! Definitely different, and one I’m happy to give 4.5*.

My thanks to the publisher for my copy; this is – as always – my honest, original and unbiased review.

Tags: crime mystery

• Format: ebook
• Size: 308 pages
• Publisher: Joffe Books
• Publication Date: 19 January 2022
• Book Links:
• https://www.goodreads.com
• https://www.amazon.co.uk

Author Details

Michael Leese was a senior news executive who had a ringside seat for the most extra-ordinary stories that happened during a twenty-five-year career as a British national newspaper journalist.

From the death of Princess Diana and two Gulf wars to the fall of the Berlin Wall and 9/11 he was leading the teams bringing the first news to a wider public. Most of his career was spent at the London Evening Standard. His time in journalism has left him with an indelible passion for news and current affairs and he tries to replicate that in his crime thriller series, Jonathan Roper investigates.

His son is profoundly autistic. It was thinking about him and how he fits into this complicated world was the inspiration for the Roper character. Who is highly intelligent, passionate, hard-working and autistic which can make him a bit hazy about social boundaries.

Leese reasoned that Roper gave him a great way to challenge perceptions, but also show some of the humour that can arise from the inevitable misunderstandings when someone on the autistic spectrum hits the world at full steam.

Away from being a writer Leese is an unpaid, volunteer governor with the charity Autism Wessex.

He was brought up in the West Midlands and can reveal a major celebrity connection, both he and Prince Williams are Aston Villa fans, although they have never met or discussed their personal affinity.

Growing up he had an ambition to be an elite athlete but gave that up by the age of nine on the grounds of having no talent. He often speculates that it is just as well as he enjoys creating characters for his books and probably wouldn’t have survived long in the corporate world.

He lives in Dorset with his wife Maria.

• Website: http://www.michael-leese.com/
• Twitter: @MichaelLWrites