Happy Reading

Toni's bookshelf: read

The Godfather of Kathmandu (Sonchai Jitpleecheep, #4)
Ape House
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest
Operation Napoleon
Walking Dead
The Sentimentalists
The Heretic Queen
The Midnight House
Cross Fire
Peony in Love
Absurdistan
Nefertiti
Finding Nouf: A Novel
City of Veils: A Novel
First Daughter
A Place of Hiding
Amagansett
Peter Pan


Toni Osborne's favorite books »
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Saturday, September 5, 2015

"Direct Hit", by Mike Hollow

Book 1, in the Blitz Detective series

This new arrival and the debut novel is a perfect combination of history and mystery. This police procedural set during the London Blitz provides an adrenaline rush from start to finish and has kept me engrossed in the characters as well as the ways of life of a city under attack.

This is a page turner written by a talented author that knows how to turn a storyline in one that will grab you from page one. The protagonist Detective Inspector John Jago shares his work with us as we follow him through the different steps of his investigation and through war torn scenes during the first night of the Blitz. Blackouts after all are a good cover for all sorts of criminal activity. It is fascinating to see how Jago tackles the case of a man found dead in a van whose body gets obliterated by an enemy bomb before he could get the investigation going. This story also incorporates a mixture of real-life and fictional locations and East London finest hours is brought to life with searchlights, sirens wail, air raids and people ducking into bomb shelters with the hope of coming out in one piece. This is a well- written crime story that also includes for good measure a twist by inserting a feisty American journalist into the folds. The characterization is warm and engaging. There are no dull moments even if at times the pacing is rather on the slow side (slow and steady). The narration and dialogue are nostalgic and reflect the time and circumstance, we have some emotional details throughout.

I certainly stayed involved from the start and enjoyed immensely this new addition to the crime world

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