Digital Reads Reviews

Many thanks to Emma and Damp Pebbles Blog Tours for my spot on this Blog Tour.

DCI Jack Austin was back with his team. This time he was asked to go deep undercover to investigate the murders of Head of Armed Forces and a city banker.

My second book by author Pete Adams, this was as quirky as the first, with humor interfacing the different situations. The book started with a different sorta bang where Jack was nursing a hangover in bed, having chased terrorists and gangs the night prior, all in a pink tutu. The mental image itself caused me smile away. The next morning saw him investigating dead dogs, when the two murders occurred. That began Jack’s undercover journey.

This story raced through the pages as Jack endeavored to save his nation from the many threats, some of them quite weird which added to the humor. The beginning was slow and the end a bit long, but the book was still Jack’s spotlight. He was the same as ever, larger than life, with his relationship with Mandy on flow now. They were a strong couple.

The writing style was eclectic with the main character being found in bizarre situations along with his propensity to give nicknames to the rest. Some of them I had forgotten from book 1. He was the driving force behind the book who motored on by his sheer determination. His team made it into this book to help in the investigation.

The entire story gave the feel of being a spy thriller, a murder investigation, and a British comedy. But that’s what most of this author’s books did. Different and eccentric.

Well recommended for those who like British humor in a police procedural with quirky characters.

I received a free ARC from Emma and the author, and this is my journey into its pages, straight from the heart!! STRICTLY HONEST AND UNBIASED.

All my reviews can be read here

Pete Adams is an architect with a practice in Portsmouth, UK, and from there he has, over forty years, designed and built buildings across England and Wales. Pete took up writing after listening to a radio interview of the writer Michael Connolly whilst driving home from Leeds. A passionate reader, the notion of writing his own novel was compelling, but he had always been told you must have a mind map for the book; Jeez, he could never get that.

Et Voila, Connolly responding to a question, said he never can plan a book, and starts with an idea for chapter one and looks forward to seeing where it would lead. Job done, and that evening Pete started writing and the series, Kind Hearts and Martinets, was on the starting blocks. That was some eight years ago, and hardly a day has passed where Pete has not worked on his writing, and currently, is halfway through his tenth book, has a growing number of short stories, one, critically acclaimed and published by Bloodhound, and has written and illustrated a series of historical nonsense stories called, Whopping Tales.

Pete describes himself as an inveterate daydreamer, and escapes into those dreams by writing crime thrillers with a thoughtful dash of social commentary. He has a writing style shaped by his formative years on an estate that re-housed London families after WWII, and his books have been likened to the writing of Tom Sharpe; his most cherished review, “made me laugh, made me cry, and made me think”.

Pete lives in Southsea with his partner, and Charlie the star-struck Border terrier, the children having flown the coop, and has 3 beautiful granddaughters who will play with him so long as he promises not to be silly.

DCI Jack Austin—Jane to his friends and the not-so-friendly—knew he shouldn’t have come in to work. Following a terrorist bomb, an incident with a tutu, and a hangover that would fell an elephant, investigating dead dogs, dodging bullets, and being pulled sopping wet from a naval harbor is not conducive to a sunny disposition. But when the Head of Armed Forces and a City banker are brutally murdered, what’s a dashing DCI to do?

FORCE, a powerful Star Chamber, is under threat and Jack will need to go deep undercover to get to the bottom of the sinister plot. As revelations and rocket attacks threaten to turn his world upside down (and ruin his best pair of trousers), Jack will need courage, skill, and a huge dose of lady luck if he is to bring to justice the perpetrators of a nefarious plot that goes all the way to the Prime Minister’s office.

As the trail leads to a showdown at the Albert Hall, Jack Austin, quintessential jumped up barrow boy (social climber out of his league) and Portsmouth’s very own self-styled national icon, must fight to save his reputation, the country, and the lives of those who matter most. And he must work out just what a dead dog has to do with it all.

Publication Date: 15th September 2015