The Payback: (Dennis Milne: book 3): a punchy, race-against-time thriller from bestselling author Simon Kernick (Dennis Milne, 3)

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I enjoyed The First 48 Hours as it is a clever novel with plenty of twists and turns. I did not find it as gripping as I thought it would be and that is due, I think, to the continually changing point of view. The majority of the novel is told in the first person from the first person perspective of a morally ambiguous detective, Fish with the lawyer, the couple and some other characters making contributions as and when required. Briefly, the demotion doesn’t bother Fisher as he has one last job to complete before he retires to the beach in Thailand. We follow Fisher as he tries to keep his police colleagues from discovering who the Vanishers are, where the kidnapped daughter is and of course his Jekyll and Hyde life. The First 48 Hours” is a verd thriller where three enthralling storylines are connected by secrets, danger, and a constant race against time. A committed detective is assigned the task of solving a chilling murder case. The second storyline features a mother who is defending her own child accused of murder and thirdly a couple planning what they believe to be the perfect crime. I've not read many of this author's books and that's not for want of trying to fit them into an already bulging TBR but, what I have read had been top notch. I really do need to get my act together! I can’t say that I liked any of the characters, with perhaps the exception of the lawyer, Becca, as she is a victim too, but even then, what she chooses to do is not sympathetic. This makes it difficult to identify with them and get caught up in their plights.

So... we start with a detective on the hunt for some cold blooded kidnappers. Ones who have also just stepped up to being killers. There's something hinky about the way he is going about it though. We also then have a mother who is a lawyer defending a nasty piece of work but one she has to defend with every bone of her body as her daughter's life depends on the outcome. And finally we have a couple bent on committing the perfect crime.The three threads and characters all stood out and all were very distinctive from each other. The detective, the mother, the missing child and the couple in the funeral home. Blimey when you see how it all goes down and how they all come together.

Tell me about your next book, Tell No One by Harlan Coben, which sounds like a very tense thriller and is all about a doctor losing (or is it finding) his wife? It is the first of his books that I have come across, but I trust it will not be the last. Read it if you enjoy complicated storylines well-handled, multiple plot twists, continuous tension, and a satisfying ending without annoying plot devices that involve reaching too far. I love this book; this really is a thriller, and a beautifully written one. For me, Dennis Lehane is one of the best American thriller writers alive today. This is one of his early books from his Kenzie and Gennaro series – a male and female partnership of private investigators based in Boston. He wrote five books featuring them in the 1990s. Once again, I was treated to an excellent, gritty and gripping plot filled with twists, turns and tension that had me reading way into the night with anticipation as to how it was all going to end. The pacing of the story is perfect with each chapter moving the story on at speed.This was the first book from my Harrogate haul. Not out until October but get this on your TBR! It's really hard to describe the plot as it soon spirals into something I was swept away with, But let's just say there are a lof of people in this book who lie or who don't know what they're saying.

Far be it from me to reveal too much about this book as it will spoil the enjoyment as well as all the wonderful twists. Every time I felt I had worked out what was happening the author threw another spanner in the works! I defy you to figure out who was behind events in the book- there were so many layers to peel away! As the book progresses, we are introduced to a number of stories, all interlinked in some way and we are drip fed snippets of information as we make our way through the story. I don't want to say too much more for fear of any spoilers however the way it all comes together is simply masterful. The book that really stood out for me in this excellent series is A Dance at the Slaughterhouse, in which Scudder is hired to find out whether a guy has murdered his wife or not. Basically the man and his wife were supposedly ambushed in their apartment by a couple of burglars who they disturbed after a night out. The man was beaten and his wife was murdered. The wife’s brother suspects that there is something amiss and thinks that the husband is responsible, so he hires Scudder to look into it and we soon find ourselves in the real dark underbelly of New York. What none of them know is that a group of ruthless gunmen are about to burst into the Stanhope, shooting indiscriminately, and seizing hostages.The book then moves to a completely different character, Becca Barraclough, a successful defense barrister who believes that everyone deserves the best defense possible, no matter what they've been accused of. It's her job to try and plant reasonable doubt in the jury's mind. You immediately wonder how Becca's storyline is connected to the Vanishers, and then her daughter is kidnapped. This time around it isn't money that the kidnappers demand. This is a brilliant book because it turns crime fiction on its head. It is a story told by a retired detective to a crime writer who has just given a lecture on crime writing at a police conference. The detective is talking about one of his former colleagues and how he became obsessed with this case about a little girl who was found murdered in some woods on the outskirts of a small Swiss town in the 1950s. The detective who finds the girl was just about to leave his job to go and work overseas, but he makes a promise – a pledge – to the girl’s parents that he will find her killer and bring him to justice, and that pledge takes over his life. It is an immensely moving scene when he talks to the girl’s parents, and very difficult to read. The opening scene in an empty barn is one of the most chilling I have ever read and that includes Scandi fiction! It is well-known to most thriller readers (as well as the relevant authorities) that the first 48 hours is critical in any criminal investigation involving a disappearance or kidnapping. This book is a fast-paced examination of those critical hours in the case of a child who has been kidnapped by a professional ring known as The Vanishers.