I’m delighted to be on the blog tour today for this brilliant gritty crime thriller.
Evidence of Death is available to buy one in paperback and ebook here.
Book Description:
Billy Nelson is back home in battle-scarred Belfast. But the Troubles have cut this ex-Army Loyalist hard man deep – and now that his city’s allegiances have shifted, nothing is quite the same.
An outbreak of gang violence forces Billy to move on. This time to Edinburgh, where he muscles in on the capital’s drug trade and the family who run it. As the balance of power tips, underworld rivalries between Edinburgh, Glasgow and Belfast spill out onto the streets.
With a spate of horrific incidents and a trail of victims, the pressure is mounting for Grace Macallan, new superintendent of the Crime & Counter Terrorism Directorate. Troubled by her own demons and with everyone baying for the blood of Billy Nelson and his old paramilitary contacts, can Grace hold her nerve?
My Review:
Evidence Of Death is a brutal, raw and highly addictive thriller that definetly packs a punch (sometimes literally).
The author does a fantastic job in emersing the reader into Billy’s seedy criminal world which helps give the reader a lot more insight into the characters lives. It is a very violent and terrifying world that you feel unclean having visited, even if it’s just in your mind. You can practically feel the fear and desperation of the people involved and feel sorry for them finding themselves in that situation.
The author has created some brilliant and original characters. Billy is a very sadistic and violent character whose actions were truly horrific to read about at times. The fact that he gets his kicks from hurting people was a difficult thing to come to terms with and I found myself hoping he’d come to a sticky end. You know the character is bad when you start to feel sorry for hardened drug dealers who have to deal with him! Grace was another superb character and I enjoyed reading about her throughout the book. I loved that she was tough and new how to handle herself but also had a softer, vulnerable side as she searched for love to help ease her loneliness. She has trouble with some station politic in the book and I thought she handled this very well and with great Grace.
The first part of this book is a little slow in places as the reader gets to understand the setting of the novel and gets to know the characters, but it soon picks up and I towards the end I was racing through the pages unable to put the book down as I had to discover what would happen. As mentioned above this is quite a violent book and some parts of the novel might not be to all readers taste. If you are easily offended or squimish you might bout enjoy this book.
Peter Ritchie is an ex policeman and this shows in the fantastic descriptions and the attention to detail of the crime scenes and how Grace conducts her investigation. These seemed very real and I found it fascinating to learn more about how things are done.
This is the author’s second book but the first I have read. It is the second book in The Detective Grace Macallan series but works well as a standalone book as anything you need to know from the first book is explained. I will be going back and reading the first book though as I really enjoyed reading this one.
Thank you to Lina from Black and White publishers for inviting me onto the blog tour and for my copy of this book.
About The Author:
Peter Ritchie is a retired senior police officer. His books draw on his vast experience in CID, Murder Squads, Serious and Regional Crime Squads, NCIS London and Europol. Peter is an entertaining and experienced speaker who enjoys promoting his work at events and book festivals.
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If you liked the sound of this book from my description please follow the blog tour and see what these other bloggers are saying!
Over The Rainbow Blog 