Book Synopsis:
It’s hard to live when you think you deserve to die…
When a tired old inmate is found dead in his cell, the prison is obligated to investigate and so DI Barton attends. The men he interviews have been convicted of some of the worst things a human being can do, but it appears likely that the death was due to natural causes.
When the house of the dead man is burgled and that crime is followed by a suspicious fire, Barton desperately needs to speak to his widow, but she’s nowhere to be found.
In the space of twenty-four hours, everyone he wants to talk to has vanished. Then he receives some post which makes him believe he could be the next to disappear.
Barton’s investigation goes full circle, through a series of brutal murders, back to the prison, and all signs are pointing to the fact that he’s made a terrible mistake.
There’s a violent killer on the loose, who wants everyone to learn that some people deserve to die.
DI Barton is back as Ross Greenwood continues with his bestselling series, perfect for fans of Mark Billingham and Ian Rankin.
The Cold Killer is available in ebook and paperback now. You can purchase your copy using the links below.
My Review:
I’m a huge fan of this author so a new book is always cause for great excitement! It was great to be back with Barton and his team solving tricky crimes with them. One of the things I most like about the team is the fantastic bond they have with each other and the, slightly dark at times, humour they use to help get them through the tough moments. I thought this was great to read about and it helped provide some light relief throughout the book. In this book the reader gets to know a bit more about Barton’s personal life which made for quite poignant reading at times. I liked that it helped the reader understand him a bit better and it definitely made me warm to him when I realised what he was dealing with behind the scenes.
The author draws on his experiences as a prison guard to give some fascinating insight into life inside with all the different groups and politics that exist there. It’s definitely a place I’m very happy I haven’t experienced as it seems quite a dark place to be. I don’t know why but I assumed prisons would be more neutral places where tough criminals couldn’t influence things so I found it quite shocking to read how things actually are behind bars.
I was quickly drawn into the story and into the lives of the characters. The story is very fast paced with lots of action and twists that helped keep me guessing until the end. Just when I thought I had figured everything out something would happen and I’d be left back at the beginning again. As you could probably expect from this type of book there is a lot of violence which might not be to everyone’s taste though I thought it was quite well done, never become overly gory or too much that I had to put the book down for a break. The ending was fantastic I definitely didn’t see that twist coming so was completely wrong footed which I always enjoy as I’m normally quite good at guessing. I can’t wait to read more in this fantastic series!
Huge thanks to Rachel from Rachel’s Random Resources for inviting me onto the blog tour and to Boldwood for my copy of this book via netgalley.
About The Author:
Ross Greenwood is the bestselling author of ten crime thrillers. Before becoming a full-time writer he was most recently a prison officer and so worked everyday with murderers, rapists and thieves for four years. He lives in Peterborough.
Over The Rainbow Blog 