The city of London. Morning rush hour. The police pull over a motorcycle courier for a trivial offence. He doesn’t stop. The police give high-speed chase.
He jumps a red light and is mown down by an oncoming car. Killed on impact.
Detectives Paterson and Clocks arrive at a scene of carnage. Large plastic boxes are scattered across the road. Their lids open, their contents warming up in the early morning sun. A traffic officer comforts a distraught woman driver. The courier’s body lies nearby, his left leg bent at an awkward angle, his head at another: the loser of this particular meeting of metal and plastic.
The detectives take a closer look at the boxes. It’s one of the worst things they’ve ever seen. And they’ve seen some very bad things.
This discovery leads Paterson and Clocks on their most dangerous investigation yet — and into the path of Alicia Warren, a ruthless international businesswoman who will kill to keep her profits flowing.
And if that’s not enough, Johnny Clocks, England’s most foul-mouthed detective, is trying to keep his new wife happy while building a relationship with the 24-year-old son he never knew he had.
THE DETECTIVES
Detective Superintendent Ray Paterson is a young and (thanks to family money) wealthy womaniser, separated from his model wife and tipped to be the youngest ever commissioner of police. He knows he’s weak when it comes to practical policing and struggles to find a place among his peers, desperate to be a good policeman and not just a ‘climber’.
Detective Inspector Johnny Clocks is a foul-mouthed, working-class officer. He grew up surrounded by rogues and villains to become a first-class thief taker with the Met police. However, his childish attitude has short-circuited his career and he spends his days antagonising as many people as he can.
DETECTIVE RAY PATERSON series
- Their Last Words
- The Lost Children
- The Burning Men
- You Can’t Hide
- Their Dying Breath
- Child Behind the Wall
- His Mother’s Bones
- Dead on Delivery
Cleverly Crafted!
Not quite the read I was expecting . . .
When the police spot a motorcycle courier not strictly conforming to the law, the decide to pull him over – only he doesn’t agree and takes off at speed. The chase that follows ends in disaster with the courier’s death; however his packages open a whole can of worms which take Paterson & Clocks a fair distance from home before they get a handle on exactly what’s going on. Can they get to the bottom of things and arrest the top villains?
I remember really enjoying the last Detective Ray Paterson novel which is why I jumped at the chance to join the blog tour for this one, but this time round I just wasn’t ‘in the groove’. I don’t recall the Clocks character being quite so irritating and, on this occasion, he really took away from the story for me. I don’t know how anyone could work with such a character; I did see that his antics drew the attention of the wrong ‘uns away from Paterson but, for me, he was a major irritation throughout. I couldn’t fathom why their superiors let them away with so much – I’m much more used to rules and regulations being followed in police procedurals. There is no denying that this is a cleverly crafted novel and one which would have kept me engrossed if it wasn’t for Johnny Clocks nonsense which I found more of an irritating distraction. There is no doubt Steve Parker knows how to produce a great thriller, but I suspect I’ll be giving this series a miss in future. 4*.
My thanks to the publisher for my copy and to Jill Burkinshaw for my spot on this tour; this is – as always – my honest, original and unbiased review.
Tags: crime thriller
- Format: ebook, paperback
- Size: 308 pages
- Publisher: Joffe Books
- Publication Date: 21 April 2022
- Book Links:
- https://www.goodreads.com
- https://www.amazon.co.uk
Author Details
Steve Parker was born and raised in south east London. At age twenty-one he joined the Metropolitan Police where he served for twenty years in numerous high profile squads before injury forced him out.
On leaving the police he took up an enforcement job with a local authority until being made redundant. Once the dust had settled, he decided he’d had enough of enforcement work and decided that early retirement looked good.
Thankfully, he was blessed with a complete lack of DIY skills so was legitimately able to get away with swanning around the house doing bugger all, all day long. Finding himself with plenty of spare time and a deep desire to never work for anyone again, he dug out an old screenplay he’d written when he was still a policeman and set himself a challenge to turn it into the book which eventually became his debut novel Their Last Words introducing Detectives Paterson & Clocks.
He currently lives in the windier part of East Sussex with his wife and the laziest Cockapoo you’ve ever seen.
- Website: https://www.mrparkerspen.com/
- Twitter: @mrparkerspen
- Facebook: @mrparkerspen
- Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/18160578.Steve_Parker
Grace J Reviewerlady 