Book Synopsis:
1942. Hull, East Yorkshire – It is the most heavily-bombed city outside of London – but for the sake of national morale the Hull Blitz is kept top secret. Only the politicians in Whitehall and Hull’s citizens themselves know of the true chaos.Newly-posted Inspector Ambrose Swift cannot believe the devastation he finds. But for Swift and his two deputies – part-time bare-knuckle boxer Jim ‘Little’ Weighton and Dales farmer’s daughter Kathleen Carver – it’s murder, not the war, that’s at the forefront of their minds.When a series of sadistic killings is wrongly blamed on locally-stationed black American GIs, Swift, a one-armed former WW1 cavalryman who tours the rubble-strewn city on a white horse, soon discovers these are no ordinary murders. The fetid stench of racism, corruption and perversion go to the very top. And for Swift, Weighton and Carver, finding the real killers means putting their own lives at risk – because powerful forces in the US and Britain cannot let the war effort be undermined. Not even by the truth.
My Review:
I’ve been a huge fan of this author’s books so I was very excited to discover he had a new book coming out. Once again the author has written a engaging, twisty mystery that I thoroughly enjoyed.
Set in Hull the book follows Inspector Swift as he tries to solve two gruesome murders which quickly become apparent aren’t just ordinary murders. I liked Swift who seemed a determined inspector who obvious cares about his job. Kathleen made a great partner for him and I really enjoyed watching them work together. Through Kathleen we learn more about women’s role in policing and attitudes towards women at the time. I really hope we see more of this partnership in future books.
I thought this was a fast paced, read with the author cleverly blending fact and fiction to make a very interesting story. I enjoyed learning more about Hull during the war and more about American attitudes towards race at the time. The author has clearly done his research and I loved the little details he included that helped make the era come to life.
Overall I really enjoy this book and am hopeful that this is the start to a fab new series. There were lots of twists that kept me guessing and I could never quite work out which way the story was going which I always enjoy.
Huge thanks to Tracy Fenton for inviting me onto the blog tour and to Zaffre for my copy of this book.
About The Author:
East Yorkshire-born David Young began his East German-set crime series on a creative writing MA at London’s City University when Stasi Child – his debut – won the course prize. The novel went on to win the 2016 CWA Historical Dagger, and both it and the 2017 follow-up, Stasi Wolf, were longlisted for the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year. His novels have been sold in eleven territories round the world. Before becoming a full-time author, David was a senior journalist with the BBC’s international radio and TV newsrooms for more than 25 years. He writes in his Twickenham garden shed and in a caravan on the Isle of Wight. The Stasi Game, his sixth novel, is available to pre-order now. You can follow him on Twitter @djy_writer
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