Teenager Callum Young is missing and then his body is discovered, sparking a murder inquiry. DS Sara Hirst embarks on the investigation and is thrown into a web of drugs and lies. But who killed Callum and why…?
Into Deadly Storms is the second book by Judi Daykin to feature Sara and her team but it is the first that I have read, It works perfectly well as a stand alone novel and there were no spoilers about events or the case in the first book.
Sara Hirst’s character has lots of potential but I felt like she didn’t shine in this book. Her relationship with her boyfriend is struggling due to their work commitments and both feel resentful. She hasn’t spoken to her mother since her father’s funeral and then her stepdad gets in touch with bad news. Her colleagues and her relationships with them take second place to the main murder plot and I wonder if these were established more fully in the first book.
Another main character is Sophie, a teacher at Callum’s school who bought drugs from him. Her descent into despair and desperation prove a distraction to Sara and her team. In contrast is drugs gang leader Lisa London: ruthless, determined, downright scary!
The character I felt most in tune with was Danni, a young woman whose boyfriend’s drug involvement leads to her being a mule. She then uses her own initiative to find favour with the gang boss Lisa. Danni wasn’t a particularly likeable character but she showed more emotion and felt more realistic than any of the other characters in my opinion.
With a plot of drugs and murder, there are some unpleasant parts to the book. There is violence and some forensic detail but not a great deal. The focus of the plot is upon the three main strands of plot: Sara’s investigation, Danni’s drug running and the downfall of teacher Sophie. Three women with very different experiences and aspects to the murder of Callum.
Into Deadly Storms is an interesting and intriguing read overall.
Into Deadly Storms (Detective Sara Hirst #2)
DETECTIVE SARA HIRST RETURNS IN THIS CRACKLING, TWISTY THRILLER SET WITHIN THE MYSTERIOUS BEAUTY OF NORTH NORFOLK.
The half-naked body, wrapped tightly in an old groundsheet, is a bit too long to fit comfortably in the back seat of the car. But he manages to shove it in anyway. Too risky to dump in the sea. There’s a wood nearby. No one will be around right now. Won’t be found till morning.
Anyway, no one will care if the kid doesn’t show up to school. Not some little piece of scum like this . . .
A missing troubled teen.
A body in the woods.
Too many leads.
Detective Sara Hirst faces her toughest case yet in Into Deadly Storms.
Fans of Joy Ellis, J.M. Dalgliesh, Matt Brolly,Rachel Lynch and Angela Marsons, get ready for your next favourite detective.
READERS CAN’T GET ENOUGH OF JUDI DAYKIN:
“OMG, this was one of the best first books I have ever read.” Denise
“I loved this first book.” Greta
“A really good read.” Barbara
“Sara Hirst is a great character.” Nerys
“What an astonishing debut crime novel.” Hazel
THE DETECTIVE
In her mid-thirties, DS Sara Hirst has left a successful career in London’s Metropolitan Police Force and taken a new post in Norfolk Police’s Serious Crimes Unit. Unfortunately, her welcome on the team is far from warm, and Sara will have to work hard to prove herself when the discovery of a body on her first morning leads to all kinds of difficulties.
THE SETTING
A patchwork of tiny rural villages, with quaint coastal seaside resorts and peppered by farms, on a bewildering network of small back lanes. There are no motorways here, and sometimes it feels like your nearest neighbour lives in Holland.
Bounded on one side by the Norfolk Broads and the Wash on the other, its greatest feature is the boundless skies. The weather changes before your eyes. To many, it seems like a fairytale, a cherished memory of childhood holidays. In reality, these are small hard-working communities, where people tend to mind their own business, and it’s easy to keep a dark secret.
ALSO BY JUDI DAYKIN
DS SARA HIRST SERIES
Book 1: UNDER VIOLENT SKIES
Book 2: INTO DEADLY STORMS
JUDI DAYKIN
Yorkshire born, Judi has lived, worked and made theatre in Norfolk for the last forty years. She completed her MA in Creative Writing (Crime Fiction) at the University of East Anglia (UEA), and her debut novel was shortlisted for the Little, Brown UEA writer’s prize in 2019.
‘I love the beautiful, vast skies and watery landscapes of Norfolk. Our home in a village on the north coast can feel wonderfully remote, even though the nearest town is only a few miles away. I can’t imagine living anywhere better than this.’
Judi is also a working actor, and has been known to twiddle the knobs on the sound desk for the variety shows at Cromer Pier. She runs her own theatre company, Broad Horizons, specialising in commissioning new plays recovering and retelling women’s stories.
Verity Spencer spots a dropped notebook on the pavement and tries to reunite it with the owener. She travels to his home to find him lying on the floor with a gunshot wound to the stomach. He begs her to hide the notebook and asks her to seek out help, insisting ‘trust no one’. Verity embarks on a terrifying journey to the truth…
No Deadly Medicine was astoundingly good. The plot was well paced and full of action. I did need to suspend my disbelief but I was completely swept up in the story and adventure. The police are corrupt and Verity is in danger from the second she picks up the notebook.
Verity is a fab protagonist: an ordinary women thrown into extraordinary circumstances. She is amazingly resourceful and intuitive as well as brave and determined. The plot is delivered through her first person narrative which means we get to see her thought processes and emotions. She has recently been widowed so has nothing left to lose, explaining why she throws herself wholeheartedly at this mystery.
I was surprised to discover No Deadly Medicine is a debut novel as author Trudey Martin writes with a confidence I would usually associate with established authors. The style of writing is engaging and her choice of a ‘normal’ woman as the main character gives us the opportunity to consider how we would act in the same circumstances.
The ending tied up loose strands as well as setting up the potential for sequels (book 3 in the series is due to be published on 31st January 2021… I can’t wait!)
No Deadly Medicine is a fab read, thoroughly entertaining and a good bit of escapism during lockdown.
No Deadly Medicine book blurb:
One life is about to end…
One life is about to change forever…
What would you do if your life was suddenly broken apart?
An elderly gentleman drops his notebook.
Verity Spencer picks it up.
When she attempts to return it, she finds the old man shot and dying, his house ransacked. He begs her not to hand the notebook to the police and reluctantly, she agrees.
And there’s no one you can trust…
Unwittingly Verity gets drawn into a deadly game of cat and mouse with people who are not afraid to kill to protect their secrets. In order to stay one step ahead of them she needs to uncover what the scribblings in the notebook mean.
Verity is in above her head. She needs to find new levels of resolve and determination if she has any chance of finding out what is going on. And keeping herself alive.
About the author
Trudey Martin lives, works and writes in Lincoln, England. She has worked in social care for many years and likes to incorporate this experience into her writing. Trudey has previously written and directed plays and several academic articles but hadn’t until recently published a novel. Her first, No Deadly Medicine, introduces Verity Spencer as the protagonist. It is set in Lincoln and London and delves into the world of child trafficking.
Trudey has always enjoyed reading suspense, crime and mystery thrillers and wanted to create a resourceful heroine, who she says contains elements of herself, but is “much more confident and resilient than I would ever be!”
In her spare time Trudey likes to learn Spanish and travel to Spain. Perhaps, in a future book, Verity might head off to Spain.
Mildred Wells has sworn vengeance on Tim Russell and his girlfriend Holly after they separated her from her son in the afterlife. Now she is ready to inflict revenge on all those who caused her suffering, both before and after her death…
We develop some sympathy for Mildred as we go back along her timeline and see her past. She and her sister and mother join a cult run by Gideon Walker who wants to learn magick. Her experiences are traumatic but she also learns magick but is put under a spell to forget. She escapes the farm and begins to have a normal life, falling in love with Thomas Pike and having a son Elmer.
From the first book in the trilogy The Patience of a Dead Man, we know that this does not have a happy conclusion, with Thomas going off to war and being killed and Mildred then murdering their son.
At the end of the first book, we discovered tht Mildred was not a ghost but a revenant: someone dead, programmed for revenge. Now that she has been eternally separated from her son, she searches for Gideon and the other revenants before turning her attention back to Tim and Holly.
Dead Woman Scorned is very different to The Patience of A Dead Man. There are flashes of sympathy with Mildred and an understanding of her motives. However there are fewer spooky moments as we see her planning to destroy other characters rather than appearing suddenly.
Now that the ghost element has gone, this book still sits firmly in the horror genre but won’t make you jump like the first. There is violence and murder as befits the genre, and I liked the tension and anticipation that builds between events.
I enjoyed this book in a different way to the first due to the change in perspective and my greater understanding of Mildred’s background. This time I was waiting for her to act and wondering how she would wreak her revenge.
In the final third of the book we are introduced to a new character Andrew and it isn’t clear until the very end what significance he may have. I can’t wait for book 3 to find out more…
Are you as excited as I am about this next leg of Michael Clark’s multi-book tour? This time I am thrilled to share Dead Woman Scorned (The Patience of a Dead Man #2). Mildred is back and she’s looking for vengence!
Read on for an excerpt and a chance to win an amazing giveaway!
Dead Woman Scorned (The Patience of a Dead Man #2)
Publication Date: November 12th, 2019
Genre: Horror/ Ghost Story
She’s back, and they’ll regret what they’ve done.
Mildred Wells had a miserable life that carried over to a lonesome death. In the end, they betrayed her–played her the fool.
She was the last to know, but there’s still time to catch up. She’ll formulate her painful plan as they live their lives in blissful ignorance.
With no more family, only vengeance drives her; in fact, it’s all she has. She would have rather rested in peace, but for Mildred, dying isn’t so easy
(at the end of The Patience of a Dead Man, Book One)
Tim Russell banged his palm against the steering wheel in frustration—he’d forgotten his wallet. He wondered for a second if he really needed it before tomorrow, then looked at the gas gauge—near empty. Not even enough gas to make it to Holly’s house in Laconia. He stepped on the brake and pulled over to the side of the dirt road to make a U-turn, then hesitated.
It shouldn’t be a problem—to simply turn around, drive the quarter-mile back, walk into the house and retrieve the wallet—but it was undeniably harrowing even though their struggles with the murderous Mildred Wells were over. They’d beaten her, and she’d been taken away weeks ago, but even so, Tim’s stress level was off the charts as he worked alone each day, watching over his shoulder, restoring the old house as fast as he possibly could.
He looked back before making the turn, his heart picking back up to the level it had maintained the entire day. Here I go–I’m going back in, he thought, as he postponed thoughts of the cold beer waiting for him at the convenience store a mile down the road. Best to hit and run. He stepped on the gas and made the turn, never taking his eyes off of the house and, more specifically, the turret, his designated office space during the reconstruction–the room where he’d left his wallet.
In seconds he was inside the front porch, opening the front door, faking as though there was nothing to be afraid of. Once inside, he noticed that it seemed very dark in the kitchen. It was late May, and the longest day of the year would be here in less than a month. Sunset should be at around 8 pm today, with the twilight keeping things well lit for another half-hour at least. Strange. He turned to look out the kitchen window.
It was pitch black outside, and his truck was already gone.
In a panic, he spun for the porch, deep down, becoming aware that forgetting his wallet was the greatest mistake of his life. The smell hit him right then, and he wondered why he hadn’t noticed it sooner. The front door was closed and locked, even though he’d left it open on purpose. He grabbed the knob and began to work it when three flies landed on his hand and wrist. No. She must be close. Tim turned to the dark dining room to protect his back. Mildred Wells stood in the far corner, motionless.
Michael Clark was raised in New Hampshire and lived in the house The Patience of a Dead Man is based. The bats really circled the rafters of the barn all day long, and there really was a grove hidden in the forest. He now lives in Massachusetts with his wife Josi and his dog Bubba.
The Patience of a Dead Man, Dead Woman Scorned & Anger is an Acid are his first three novels.
New York detective Kimberley King moves to the small town where her mother now lives. Dead Woman Crossing is named after the unsolved murder of a young woman in front of her baby over a hundred years ago. The townsfolk are traditional especially with regard to gender roles so Kimberley struggles to adapt from city life and attitudes. Then a woman is murdered in a copycat way to the old unsolved case…
Dead Woman Crossing is the first book in a new series and the first third of the book is dedicated to introducing us to Kimberley King and the town. There is NO WAY I would move to somewhere with this place name and the history of being named after a murder!
The pace picks up after that when the body is discovered and the investigation begins. As a single mother herself, Kimberley can identify with the victim and the case takes on a more personal feel. There is little graphic forensic detail and the horror of the murder is subtly told: we only see the aftermath and have no insight into the experience of the culprit or victim. Interrogation of suspects is the main source fo information for the team, hindered by Kimberley’s position as an outsider and a woman.
Kimberley herself is a likeable lead character, fiercely protective of her daughter having been abandoned by the father and suffering abuse from her own. Her relationship with her mother is strained as she attempts to fit in with her new step family while still feeling resentful that her mother didn’t protect her as a child. Over the course of the book we see flashbacks to Kimberley’s childhood as well as her experiences as a detective in NY searching for a serial killer.
Dead Woman Crossing was an enjoyable police procedural novel and offers a good introduction to a new detective and series.
Dead Woman Crossing book description:
She threw open the door, running to the crib. When she looked inside, she gasped. The world around her went silent. Inside, there was nothing but a small stuffed elephant. Where was her baby?
When young, single mother Hannah is found murdered by the banks of a twisting Oklahoma creek, her one-year-old daughter sleeping in a stroller near her body, the small town of Dead Woman Crossing reels in horror.
Detective Kimberley King, recently relocated from New York to Oklahoma, with her young daughter Jessica, can’t ignore the similarity of Hannah’s death to the case of Katie James, the woman that the town of Dead Woman Crossing is named after. Katie was murdered in front of her small daughter in 1905, on the banks of the same creek, and it seems that someone is drawing inspiration from the crime. Could this killer be a copycat?
But as she interviews suspects, Kimberley is met with blank faces and closed lips. In a small town, people won’t talk and when she pursues a promising lead, her own family turn their back on her. Kimberley isn’t afraid to ask questions, but when she receives a threatening note, she realises that, as a single mother to a young daughter, she might be putting herself dangerously in the killer’s sights …
A gripping, atmospheric crime thriller inspired by true events, about a town on the edge of collapse and a murder that shakes the community. Dead Woman Crossing is perfect for fans of Rachel Caine, Lisa Regan and Jane Harper.
Author Bio:
Originally from Wisconsin, J.R. Adler currently lives in Ithaca, New York with her husband, Drew, and her English Bulldog, Winston. When not writing, you can find her reading, playing board games, travelling, and binge watching The Office for the umpteenth time.
A long weekend away for Piper Blackwell ends in tragedy as paintballing is replaced with a real shooter targeting her and her friends. Meanwhile, back in her home town, Chris Hagee is causing trouble but then apparently commits suicide but could it be murder…?
The Dead of Jerusalem Ridge has a slow start compared to the earlier books in the series and there are some spoilers so read The Dead of Winter, The Dead of Night and The Dead of Summerfirst (you won’t be disappointed, they are brilliant!).
The murder victim Chris has been a peripheral character in the last 3 books so his character arc has developed significantly compared to the convivial persona at the very beginning. The law enforcement team are working well together and learning from each other. We see a much softer side to Oren as his father is terminally ill which is emotional to read about. The very last line of the book had me punching the air in happiness. The characters in this series have such realism that I really found myself caring about them.
The gradual build up of the action allows us to see more of the characters as people rather than as the law. However, once the main plot kicks off, the pace is relentless. I enjoyed the tenacity of Piper as she fights her injuries to uncover the truth about the shooting of her friends, whilst the other officers are faced with interrogating suspects and searching for evidence to find the murderer.
Jean Rabe has such a fabulous style of writing. Her Piper Blackwell series is an absolute pleasure to read and each case is fascinating and will have your attention until the very last page. I cannot wait for the next book…
The Dead of Jerusalem Ridge book blurb:
Sheriff Piper Blackwell’s three-day vacation with old Army buddies ends in tragedy. At the same time, a vile hate crime along a county road enrages her department. Their forces divided, Piper and her deputies must solve both cases before tensions boil and threaten the rural fabric of Spencer County, Indiana. Only eight months on the job, the young sheriff must weave together clues to uncover both a killer and a secret that could scar her soul.
Excerpt :
To her right she spotted an empty can, old and rusty, discarded a long while ago. Shame to leave trash in the woods. Just beyond it was a heel impression in the mud; the rain hadn’t quite taken it. Recent and deep, from a big man. Piper saw another print and crawled faster as she unslung the rifle, rose to her knees, and peered through a break in the ferns.
Pat-a-pat-a-pat-a-pat-a-pat.
The creek was just past the tree line and down a short rise, a wide gray ribbon cut by rocks. Piper watched the rain attack its surface, spitting water back up, the near bank a smooth band of mud disturbed by fresh boot prints.
Her heart thumped. He had to be on the other side of the creek, probably hunkering down behind the foliage, waiting for her. The landscape was a smear of greens and browns shadowed by the dome of clouds and the storm. She couldn’t see him.
But if he was indeed on the other side, he’d see her if she broke for the creek.
Shit, she thought. No good option. No good way to circle around.
Piper could wait it out right here, a reasonable spot, concealed by tall sawgrass and trumpet honeysuckle. The rain swirled the colors, darkened what had started out as a bright day, made it difficult to peer through with all the water running in her eyes. I should’ve worn a hat, something with a brim, she thought. Should’ve taken that precaution. Maybe her quarry had a hat. At least the downpour kept her cool, gave her patience. If she was lucky her quarry wouldn’t be as patient. Maybe he’d—
A silhouette separated from the miasma of green on the other side of the creek. An expert shot, Piper could get him, but her maximum range was one hundred feet, and the target was beyond that. Too, the rain and wind would alter the trajectory.
She needed to be closer.
Piper’s index finger teased the trigger.
Her walkie-talkie crackled softly; she’d turned the volume down as low as it would go. A voice came through the earbud: “Christmas! What’s your position?”
She didn’t know her position, not exactly. The map in plastic was out of reach. The area was wholly unfamiliar to her.
About the Author:
My home is filled with dogs and books. Lots of dogs and books. I wear worn out sandals to work every day. I’m a mystery writer living in a tiny Midwestern town that has a gas station, a Dollar General, and a marvelous pizza place with exceedingly slow service. I am always working on a new project or three. I have forty-some books published in the fantasy, science fiction, urban fantasy and mystery genres. But I’m concentrating on mysteries now. In my spare time I dabble in roleplaying games and boardgames. And at every opportunity, I toss tennis balls to my cadre of dogs.
