You can't die down in the basement but no matter how hard you try they find you and you know that there is no more hope. DC Wolfe is new to Serious Crime Command he needed a change after what happened on his last assignment. His first case working under DCI Mallory is of a banker killed but why would want to kill the man in such a brutal way? There are no clues that is until Wolfe meets the wife and he wonders if she had anything to do with it as the man was a wife beater and a cheat? But before they can get any further another body is found of a homeless man killed in the same way and now the press has given him a name Bob the Butcher. But who is killing random men that don't seem to have anything in common. Once they find the connection to a prestige school and a photograph taken all those years ago do they wonder why the killer wants to pick them off one by one. Wolfe is trying to balance his work load and caring for his young daughter but things aren't going so well as he finds himself getting beaten up and a killer that knows where he lives. Can he put this case to rest before even more men are killed or will more bodies be found. A secret from long ago will need to be revealed before the case can be solved. Can Wolfe find the answers that someone has gone great lengths to cover up? Will someone be brought to justice for a crime that was never solved? A great read. Wolfe really is trying his best to be a good Dad and a good police officer but he just can't find the right balance yet. Can he find some comfort in knowing that he never gave up and that he was able to put a young life to rest? I expect that Wolfe will continue on his own path as he is a bulldog that won't rest until he has solved the puzzle. I was lucky enough to receive a copy via Netgalley & the publishing house in exchange for my honest review.

This review might be late, but nonetheless, still hugely crucial as this is Tony Parsons’s first murder mystery book (he’s better known for writing Man and Boy and Catching the Sun).

DC Max Wolfe has recently been transferred to London’s Homicide division. He’s barely been introduced to his new colleagues and superior, DCI Mallory, when they are called out to a disconcerting murder scene. The victim’s throat had been cut but the knife used remains a complete mystery. Then a tramp is murdered, with the same cutthroat and knife wounds. At first, there is nothing to tie the two murders together, but upon investigation, the team discovers that they went to the same school, Potter’s Field, a very exclusive boarding school. More murders follow and to confound the police even more in their investigations, there is now someone called Bob the Butcher using the internet to claim that he is the killer.

I’m so pleased that Tony Parsons has decided to try his hand at writing a crime novel. It’s a very slick, well thought out book. Max Wolfe is one of the nicest detectives I’ve met. He is stubborn but determined to see the bigger picture and not be a “sheep” with the investigation. He is also a loving father and manages to balance his work/home as he is a single parent to a young daughter. Some of his colleagues have quite aggressive natures, (especially his DCS Elizabeth Swire!) but then there’s his immediate superior, DCI Mallory, and you’re grateful that such men/women exist in the police knowing that they will work tirelessly to find the killer.

Tony Parsons, I hope this isn’t the last we hear of DC Max Wolfe and his career!

Treebeard

Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of the book to review.