Book Reviews and More: AlexanderGordonSmith

Softley Softley Series:

2.0 Hard Luck House
...

DCI Kett Series:

0.5 Cry Baby

1.0 Paper Girls

2.0 Bad Dog

4.0 Whip Crack

9.0 Jaw Breaker

10.0 Knock Knock

11.0 Rat King

12.0 Knuckle Bone

14.0 Unholy Saints

...

The Art Of Furnace
Author Profile Interview With Alexander Gordon Smith

17.0 Red Line

...

Books By Alexander Gordon Smith:
Escape from Furnace:
Lockdown
Solitary
Death Sentence
Fugitives
Execution
Execution Epilogue - Short Story
The Night Children - Short Story

Fury Series:
The Fury

The Storm

The Inventors:
The Inventors
The Inventors And The City of Stolen Souls

Non-Fiction:
1001 Questions and Answers
Inspired Creative Writing: 52 Brilliant Ideas from the Master Wordsmiths
The Solar System
Family QuizWriting Bestselling Children's Books: 52 Brilliant Ideas for Inspiring Young Readers

Monday, 27 May 2024

Truly Madly Deadly - Alex Smith - DCI Kett Crime Thrillers Book 15.0

Truly Madly Deadly
DCI Kett Crime Thrillers Book 15.0

Alex Smith

Relentless Media

ISBN 9781913877163

ASIN B0CNZDYQYG

Truly Madly Deadly - Alex Smith - DCI Kett Crime Thrillers Book 15.0

As always I look forward to new offerings from the pen of Alex Smith, It has been so since reading his YA Furnace Series over a decade ago. I picked up this title on release day but did not get to it for a week and then I read in over 2 days and 3 sittings. It is another excellent volume in a great series. I could hardly put it down. I got up very early to start it on it the second day, and stayed up way too late that next night reading.

The description of this volume is:

“Love can be murder …

It’s Valentine’s Day, and DCI Robert Kett and the Extreme Crime Task Force are preparing to join in the romantic celebrations when a shocking confession throws the city into chaos.

A man walks into the police station and admits to brutally murdering his wife.

And he claims somebody else forced him to do it.

Nobody believes his story, but when two more innocent victims vanish, the blood-drenched evidence starts pointing to a killer who gets his kicks by putting devoted couples through an unimaginable trial of terror and torture—turning them against each other in the name of an unsettling local tradition.

Love may be in the air, but death stalks the streets.

And how do you catch a killer who doesn’t actually kill?”

This story hits right from the beginning. Right from the start it is clear someone is play a very sadistic game. But they are playing it with other people’s lives. And with each iteration of the game the stakes go up. Kett and the team are trying to put together these seemingly random selections of victims. They just cannot find a connection and it just does not make any sense. But they must put the pieces together for the crimes are escalating and show no signs of stopping.

The team in this one is struggling to put the pieces together and Clare’s insistence on redicilous nicknames is not helping at all. Neither is his wife’s decision to have a period of celibacy. And when you toss in a bent cop, human trafficking, and other stuff they stumble upon it proves to be a very rough Valentine’s day for Kett and the team.

I actually figured this one out part way through. It is still a pretty dark piece of British Crime fiction. If you have read the other DCI Kett books this one is a must read. If you happen to be a fan of rough and tough action you will almost certainly enjoy this novel. And the other books in the series. This is the sixteenth of the DCI Kett stories that I have read, the seventeenth novel where Kett makes an appearance. Kett made a brief appearance in The Harder They Fall, the first of the Softley Series of books.

About the author we are informed that:

My original introduction to Smith’s works were The Furnace novels many years ago. I have not read everything he has published but much of it. They are almost always edge of your seat thrillers. I still hope that someday he will finally release book 2 is the Softley Softley Series, but until then I am thankful for another read in this dark and gritty series. For some the Kett stories will be the things of nightmares, for others a look at the underside of society. But no matter how you read them they are crime thrillers with a lot of action, great characters and often a significant violence! This one has several surprises for Kett, the team and for us the readers! It is well worth the read.

Mystery Books as Alex Smith:

Softley Softley Series:

2.0 Hard Luck House
...

DCI Kett Series:

0.5 Cry Baby

1.0 Paper Girls

2.0 Bad Dog

4.0 Whip Crack

9.0 Jaw Breaker

10.0 Knock Knock

11.0 Rat King

12.0 Knuckle Bone

14.0 Unholy Saints

...

The Art Of Furnace
Author Profile Interview With Alexander Gordon Smith

17.0 Red Line

...

Books By Alexander Gordon Smith:
Escape from Furnace:
Lockdown
Solitary
Death Sentence
Fugitives
Execution
Execution Epilogue - Short Story
The Night Children - Short Story

Fury Series:
The Fury

Friday, 15 December 2023

Unholy Saints - Alex Smith - DCI Kett Crime Thrillers Book 14.0

Unholy Saints
DCI Kett Crime Thrillers Book 14.0

Alex Smith

Relentless Media

ISBN 9781913877149

ASIN B0CD86MZGQ

As always I look forward to new offerings from the pen of Alex Smith, It has been so since reading his YA Furnace Series over a decade ago. I picked up this title on release day but And devoured it in 3 days over 5 sittings. It is another excellent volume in a great series. I could hardly put it down. I got up very early to start it on release day, and stayed up way too late the next night reading.

The description of this volume is:

“Evil waits in the dead of winter...

Christmas is just days away, and DCI Kett and the Extreme Crime Task Force are preparing to celebrate the festive season with some well-earned peace and quiet.

But all hopes of a restful holiday are crushed when a man dressed as Santa Claus is found dead in the chimney of an old cabin.

And he’s just the first.

The hunt for a monster begins, but standing in the way is a cutthroat family of thieves, a bloody vendetta and a sinister cult led by a man known only as Saint Nick.

In a town full of secrets, somebody knows the truth. But they’re willing to kill to keep it buried.

And in this bleakest of midwinters, nobody is guaranteed to wake up on Christmas morning…”

The story starts with youth camping, a cabin in the woods, and a chimney that just keeps giving. First a body dressed at Saint Nick drops from the chimney, and from the state of the corpse it has been there a while. While investigating that corpse, they discover the chimney has other gifts to drop on Kett’s team, or at least in front of them. And this leads them on a chase to find out the who, what, and why. They know the how, and the where. There is a family reminiscent of the Black Donnelly’s of Lucan\Chatham fame. A cult lead by a guy calling him self Saint Nic. And nothing is as it appears. Can Kett unravel the case before it becomes the death of him? To find out you will need to read this newest instalment in the DCI Kett series.

This story did not go where I was expecting. It became much darker that I thought it was. And it leaves a new threat out there against Kett and his team. A highlight of the story was a phone call between Kett and Certain DCI from further up north. For fan of J.D. Kirk it is worth reading just for that exchange.

If you have read the other DCI Kett books this one is a must read. If you happen to be a fan of rough and tough action you will almost certainly enjoy this novel. And the other books in the series. This is the fifteenth of the DCI Kett stories that I have read, the sixteenth novel where Kett makes an appearance. Kett made a brief appearance in The Harder They Fall, the first of the Softley Series of books.

About the author we are informed that:

My original introduction to Smith’s works were The Furnace novels many years ago. I have not read everything he has published but much of it. They are almost always edge of your seat thrillers. I still hope that someday he will finally release book 2 is the Softley Softley Series, but until then I am thankful for another read in this dark and gritty series. For some the Kett stories will be the things of nightmares, for others a look at the underside of society. But no matter how you read them they are crime thrillers with a lot of action, great characters and often a significant violence! This one has several surprises for Kett, the team and for us the readers! It is well worth the read.

Mystery Books as Alex Smith:

Softley Softley Series:

2.0 Hard Luck House
...

DCI Kett Series:

0.5 Cry Baby

1.0 Paper Girls

2.0 Bad Dog

4.0 Whip Crack

9.0 Jaw Breaker

10.0 Knock Knock

11.0 Rat King

12.0 Knuckle Bone

14.0 Unholy Saints

...

The Art Of Furnace
Author Profile Interview With Alexander Gordon Smith

17.0 Red Line

...

Books By Alexander Gordon Smith:
Escape from Furnace:
Lockdown
Solitary
Death Sentence
Fugitives
Execution
Execution Epilogue - Short Story
The Night Children - Short Story

Fury Series:
The Fury

Saturday, 16 September 2023

Lucky Number Seven - Alex Smith - DCI Kett Crime Thrillers Book 13.0

Lucky Number Seven
DCI Kett Crime Thrillers Book 13.0

Alex Smith

Relentless Media

ISBN 9781913877132

ASIN B0C6R69T7T

As always I look forward to new offerings from the pen of Alex Smith, It has been so since reading his YA Furnace Series over a decade ago. I picked up this title on release day but it was also a toss-up as his sister under the pen name K.T. Galloway released book 7 in her O’Malley & Switch series, One Last Breath just days earlier. It was literally a coin toss to see which of the sibling’s volumes would get read first. This one won! It is another excellent volume in a great series. I could hardly put it down.

The description of this volume is:

“Sometimes You Win. Sometimes You Die.

When seven packages are delivered to the staff of an insurance company in Norwich, the unthinkable happens: one of the packages explodes.

Six people survive, the seventh does not.

As the fire rages and the city reels, DCI Kett and the Extreme Crime Task Force are brought in to try to figure out why anybody would murder an innocent woman in such a violent manner.

But the killer has only just started. Seven more people are targeted, seemingly at random, and it soon becomes clear that somebody is playing a deadly game of chance—if you lose, you lose everything.

The hunt is on for one of the most sadistic criminals the team has ever faced.

Sometimes you beat the odds. Sometimes you don’t.

And Kett knows that sooner or later, everybody’s luck runs out…

Lucky Number Seven is the thirteenth book in the million-selling DCI Robert Kett series. Relentless action, compulsive mystery and dark humour abound in the series that Thrilling Fiction calls "Heart-stoppingly gripping!" from the author that James Patterson describes as "fresh and ferocious!"”

It all starts with a boom. A very big boom, that is the result of a bomb. Kett and the team are chasing theories, but overtime they think they have it narrowed down it seems to be a red herring. And the pace of the incidents is building. Whoever the man in the mask is her has a plan, and has been working on it a long time. He is playing a game of chance with 7 people and 1 is going to be unlucky. The man is the mask is playing the game and forcing people to pick, to draw lots, or straws as it were. One leads to death. The other 6 end up with radically changed lives.

At first there seems to be no relation between the victims, from round to round. But Something is niggling the back of Kett’s brain. Can Kett and the team figure out the pieces. And trace this back to the source? The team seems to be racking all over the region. With Armed response either following or arriving first. But they keep falling 1 step behind the man in the mask.

If you have read the other DCI Kett books this one is a must read. If you happen to be a fan of rough and tough action you will almost certainly enjoy this novel. And the other books in the series. This is the fourteenth of the DCI Kett stories that I have read, the fifteenth novel, Kett has also made a brief appearance in The Harder They Fall, the first of the Softley Series of books.

About the author we are informed that:

My original introduction to Smith’s works were The Furnace novels many years ago. I have not read everything he has published but much of it. They are almost always edge of your seat thrillers. I still hope that someday he will finally release book 2 is the Softley Softley Series, but until then I am thankful for another read in this dark and gritty series. For some the Kett stories will be the things of nightmares, for others a look at the underside of society. But no matter how you read them they are crime thrillers with a lot of action, great characters and often a significant violence! This one has several new twists and a few surprises for Kett, the team and for us the readers!

Mystery Books as Alex Smith:

Softley Softley Series:

2.0 Hard Luck House
...

DCI Kett Series:

0.5 Cry Baby

1.0 Paper Girls

2.0 Bad Dog

4.0 Whip Crack

9.0 Jaw Breaker

10.0 Knock Knock

11.0 Rat King

12.0 Knuckle Bone

14.0 Unholy Saints

...

The Art Of Furnace
Author Profile Interview With Alexander Gordon Smith

17.0 Red Line

...

Books By Alexander Gordon Smith:
Escape from Furnace:
Lockdown
Solitary
Death Sentence
Fugitives
Execution
Execution Epilogue - Short Story
The Night Children - Short Story

Fury Series:
The Fury

Thursday, 15 June 2023

Knuckle Bones - Alex Smith - DCI Kett Crime Thrillers Book 12.0

Knuckle Bones
DCI Kett Crime Thrillers Book 12.0

Alex Smith

Relentless Media

ISBN 9781913877125

ASIN B0BXJNNBRF

I always look forward to new offerings from the pen of Alex Smith, It has been so since reading his YA Furnace Series over a decade ago. I picked up this title on release day but was in the middle of some other stories and did not get to it right away. But when I did, I could hardly put it down.

This instalment in the Kett saga has a very different feel to it. At the beginning Kett is still not going to the office and leading active cases. He is just consulting on some. When what appears to be a really old cold case drops in their lap, they use it as a tool to pull Kett back in. But as fan of the series will know, nothing with Kett is ever as simple and straightforward as it appears. The description of this volume is:

“When a chamber of horrors is uncovered during building work at Norfolk’s County Hall, dozens of bones arranged in an arcane pattern inside a long-forgotten cellar, everybody expects the worst—until a forensic team discovers that the human remains are decades old.

After the horror of his kidnapping at the hands of Hollenbeck, DCI Kett isn’t in a hurry to return to work. But Superintendent Clare thinks these historic crimes are the perfect way to ease him back into the job.

The case isn’t as cold as it looks, though. Soon Kett finds himself on the trail of a ruthless and obsessive killer, and caught in a century-old struggle between some of the most powerful families in the city.

Occult rituals, cold-hearted revenge and bloody retribution—it falls once again to the Extreme Crime Task Force to solve a case that cuts right to the bone.”

It all start with a dig to expand the township offices. And unfortunately they unearth and old cellar, and one with a lot of secrets, and a lot of bones. But that cellar is linked to tunnels some more modern and some ancient that crisscross all over the place under the town. And what appears to be an old crime might just spark some new crimes. Soon not only is Kett back in the thick of it, but experiencing the bumps and bruises along the way. The team is glad he is back. After a huge misstep the Super and boss are not so much. But Kett always seems to find a way to get the job done. But to find out if he does and if so how you will need to read the story of this case.

If you have been following the DCI Kett saga this book is a must read. If you happen to be a fan of rough and tough action you will almost certainly enjoy this novel. And the other books in the series. This is the thirteenth of the DCI Kett stories that I have read, the twelfth novel, Kett has also made a brief appearance in The Harder They Fall, the first of the Softley Series of books.

About the author we are informed that:

My original introduction to Smith’s works were The Furnace novels many years ago. I have not read everything he has published but much of it. And they are always edge of your seat thrillers. I still hope that someday he will finally release book 2 is the Softley Softley Series, but until then I am thankful for another read in this dark and disturbing series. For some the Kett stories will be the things of nightmares, for others a look at the underside of society. But no matter how you read them they are crime thrillers with a lot of action, great characters and often a significant violence! This one has several twists and more than a few surprises for Kett, the team and for us the readers!

Mystery Books as Alex Smith:

Softley Softley Series:

2.0 Hard Luck House
...

DCI Kett Series:

0.5 Cry Baby

1.0 Paper Girls

2.0 Bad Dog

4.0 Whip Crack

9.0 Jaw Breaker

10.0 Knock Knock

11.0 Rat King

12.0 Knuckle Bone

14.0 Unholy Saints