Immersive & rather surreal crime thriller with a damaged detective out to slay his demons and a bereaved vigilante wife!
Despite being a late entrant to this series featuring damaged DS Nathan Cody of the Liverpool Police Major Incident Team and only having read the third in the series, I found it an absolute page-turner extraordinaire with a memorably gripping atmosphere. This fourth instalment, Your Deepest Fear, is a similarly infectious novel and a mix of psychological thriller and vigilante crusade! Although Nathan Cody is the lead protagonist this story rather does away with his police colleagues and there is far less of an actual investigative side to the case which may well disappoint readers hooked by the synopsis. Your Deepest Fear continues with the recurring theme of the first novel in the series and Cody’s brutal undercover experience when his partner lost his life and Cody lost several toes to a quartet of predators disguised as clowns. Despite not having read this story, the third novel gave enough of an outline to appreciate Cody’s troubled history and mental demons but some knowledge of Cody’s predicament rather than reading as a stand-alone is advised.
The story begins in earnest with DS Nathan Cody returning to work after an enforced leave of absence and being hospitalised in the team’s previous harrowing child abduction investigation. Restricted from going anywhere near crime scenes involving fatalities until he is given the all clear and confirmed mentally sound for duty by his boss, Cody is forced by his boss, DCI Stella Blunt, to see psychologist, Gem Falstaff, in order to rule out post-traumatic stress disorder. When the brutal murder of an introverted and self-conscious tax office e-learning analyst, Matthew Prior, gives the team a new focus it is the cryptic message left on the answerphone of his recently estranged but devoted wife, Sara, and her reports of his increasingly distant and depressed behaviour that provide the only clues to his murder. But with the team believing Sara knows more than she is revealing and Cody sent to interview her alone he feels a certain affinity when he learns of her past in the military and recognises a woman suffering with her own demons. Matthew’s colleagues paint a picture of a self-contained and diligent employee and with his computer the only missing item, feisty Sara attempts to make sense of Matthew’s final message and her vigilante antics come to Cody’s attention. However, with Cody’s convinced that Sara Prior is not responsible for her husband’s murder and his clown nemesis making the first of a series of crippling appearances and pushing him to the brink, he in danger of losing his sanity, career and liberty and drawn into a game of cat and mouse.
The narrative is comprised of a shifting perspective which allows the reader to appreciate Cody juggling the twisted clowns riding roughshod in his life with the struggle to appear stable at work, and bereaved widow taking her own route to obtaining justice for Matthew by tracking down his killers. Boss DCI Stella Blunt and ex-girlfriend and police partner, DC Megan Webley, seem to have little involvement in the storyline and despite developing the character of civilian intelligence analyst and Cody admirer, Grace Meade, I was disappointed to miss out on Cody’s fascinating relationship with his boss and often frank honesty with DC Webley. As a reader I did not feel that the exploits of Cody in Your Deepest Fear significantly developed his character on the previous instalments and I would have preferred to see him fully focused on a case and working alongside his realistic team of colleagues.
Despite the infectious appeal of the two threads, one charting Sara Prior’s quest to find her husband’s killer and discover the reason he was brutally murdered, and Cody hunting down the torturing clown in chief, I felt the resolution to the case was disappointing. Not only do Sara’s antics fail to be picked up on by Cody’s wider team there is a rather fudged denouement which the police team and Sara seem to accept. Frankly I also found the eventual motive behind Matthew’s murder difficult to swallow and despite the reader only getting a feel for his character in hindsight I didn’t feel that his character arc felt credible. Why Cody never shared his knowledge of Sara going vigilante or his own plight with his wider team left me sceptical that he really is the brilliant detective he if often proclaimed to be and in truth, Sara Prior does as much investigative work as Cody who merely follows a trail of crumbs in a game conceived by a fearless and superior opponent in Waldo. With the journeys of Cody and Sara Prior dictated by the people responsible for their situations the two characters are reactive as opposed to proactive and each of them become embroiled in a dangerous situations and out of their depth.
Not only is the writing hugely descriptive making it apparent just how vivid David Jackson’s imagination is, but for original and nightmarish twists he certainly takes some beating too. However, I confess that the stand out aspect of the story was the humour throughout a decidedly dark journey and ballsy Danish widow, Sara Prior, who interprets the British sense of humour literally and takes no prisoners. With crime fiction often featuring neurotic females or women victims it is a pleasant and much appreciated change to encounter a character with an unusual background and different mindset to the norm. Recommended for readers looking for an original and fast-paced adventure and less of a police procedural than a surreal exploration of a detectives very darkest fears. Whether the two narratives come together and marry up remains shrouded in doubt until the very last moments but an incredibly surprising denouement is well worth waiting for.. An entertaining blast of action in the crowded crime fiction marketplace.
With thanks to Readers First who provided me with a free copy of this novel in exchange for my honest and unbiased opinion.
The story begins in earnest with DS Nathan Cody returning to work after an enforced leave of absence and being hospitalised in the team’s previous harrowing child abduction investigation. Restricted from going anywhere near crime scenes involving fatalities until he is given the all clear and confirmed mentally sound for duty by his boss, Cody is forced by his boss, DCI Stella Blunt, to see psychologist, Gem Falstaff, in order to rule out post-traumatic stress disorder. When the brutal murder of an introverted and self-conscious tax office e-learning analyst, Matthew Prior, gives the team a new focus it is the cryptic message left on the answerphone of his recently estranged but devoted wife, Sara, and her reports of his increasingly distant and depressed behaviour that provide the only clues to his murder. But with the team believing Sara knows more than she is revealing and Cody sent to interview her alone he feels a certain affinity when he learns of her past in the military and recognises a woman suffering with her own demons. Matthew’s colleagues paint a picture of a self-contained and diligent employee and with his computer the only missing item, feisty Sara attempts to make sense of Matthew’s final message and her vigilante antics come to Cody’s attention. However, with Cody’s convinced that Sara Prior is not responsible for her husband’s murder and his clown nemesis making the first of a series of crippling appearances and pushing him to the brink, he in danger of losing his sanity, career and liberty and drawn into a game of cat and mouse.
The narrative is comprised of a shifting perspective which allows the reader to appreciate Cody juggling the twisted clowns riding roughshod in his life with the struggle to appear stable at work, and bereaved widow taking her own route to obtaining justice for Matthew by tracking down his killers. Boss DCI Stella Blunt and ex-girlfriend and police partner, DC Megan Webley, seem to have little involvement in the storyline and despite developing the character of civilian intelligence analyst and Cody admirer, Grace Meade, I was disappointed to miss out on Cody’s fascinating relationship with his boss and often frank honesty with DC Webley. As a reader I did not feel that the exploits of Cody in Your Deepest Fear significantly developed his character on the previous instalments and I would have preferred to see him fully focused on a case and working alongside his realistic team of colleagues.
Despite the infectious appeal of the two threads, one charting Sara Prior’s quest to find her husband’s killer and discover the reason he was brutally murdered, and Cody hunting down the torturing clown in chief, I felt the resolution to the case was disappointing. Not only do Sara’s antics fail to be picked up on by Cody’s wider team there is a rather fudged denouement which the police team and Sara seem to accept. Frankly I also found the eventual motive behind Matthew’s murder difficult to swallow and despite the reader only getting a feel for his character in hindsight I didn’t feel that his character arc felt credible. Why Cody never shared his knowledge of Sara going vigilante or his own plight with his wider team left me sceptical that he really is the brilliant detective he if often proclaimed to be and in truth, Sara Prior does as much investigative work as Cody who merely follows a trail of crumbs in a game conceived by a fearless and superior opponent in Waldo. With the journeys of Cody and Sara Prior dictated by the people responsible for their situations the two characters are reactive as opposed to proactive and each of them become embroiled in a dangerous situations and out of their depth.
Not only is the writing hugely descriptive making it apparent just how vivid David Jackson’s imagination is, but for original and nightmarish twists he certainly takes some beating too. However, I confess that the stand out aspect of the story was the humour throughout a decidedly dark journey and ballsy Danish widow, Sara Prior, who interprets the British sense of humour literally and takes no prisoners. With crime fiction often featuring neurotic females or women victims it is a pleasant and much appreciated change to encounter a character with an unusual background and different mindset to the norm. Recommended for readers looking for an original and fast-paced adventure and less of a police procedural than a surreal exploration of a detectives very darkest fears. Whether the two narratives come together and marry up remains shrouded in doubt until the very last moments but an incredibly surprising denouement is well worth waiting for.. An entertaining blast of action in the crowded crime fiction marketplace.
With thanks to Readers First who provided me with a free copy of this novel in exchange for my honest and unbiased opinion.