When I requested this novel, I didn't realise that it was the third in a series (the Collins and Griffiths series), but I don't think it's necessary to read the others as the story itself (the crime) is a standalone, and I believe the series aspect only really applies to the police. It read like a very realistic and gritty story, but I did find that it got harder and harder to read as I went on - not because of subject matter, necessarily, but because it just started to feel like a bit of a slog. I wasn't majorly invested in the characters or the story. Admittedly, I'm not the biggest fan of books about gangs, so that doesn't help, but it was a well-written story, which felt very relevant in the current climate of gang and knife violence.