Having enjoyed, 'Last Request', the first book featuring DS Nikita Parekh , I am looking forward to reading this, my second Liz Mistry novel.

The police procedural aspects of the story are very well crafted, with a couple of new characters added to the detective team of DS, or perhaps DI Nikki Parekh.

As with the previous novel, there are some dark and disturbing themes within this book. Both in terms of the crimes, but also the social and cultural attitudes of different groups within society.

I like the way that the reader is kept guessing right up until the end, to find out who Xavier really is. The strength of this story is definitely the constantly changing pace of the investigation.

Once again I give my thanks to Netgalley and HQ Digital for an advance copy in exchange for this review. I look forward to reading the next book in the series.

DS Nikita Parekh #2

Set in Bradford. Nikkl and Saj are back. This time they are investigating murder and modern day slavery . Bodies are being found all over the city. Felicity Springer is a senior policewoman who went missing after a conference. It's believed that she's been kidnapped. Nikki doesn't like Felicity ut she is determined to find out what happened to her colleague.

This story pulled me in from the beginning. It's fast paced with a great cast of characters. It isn't a easy book to read due to the subject matter. This is a gripping edge of your seat read. Nikki and Saj are racing against the clock to find Felicity before any harm is done to her. This is a well written story. In fact, its turning out to be a really good series. I'm looking forward to reading the next book in this series.

I would like to thank NetGalley, HQ Digital and the author Liz Mistry for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Broken silence # Netgallery
Wow what another cracker of a book from !iz Mistry. I love this series of the Nikkie Parrkie and her team. Every character comes over as teal. I always feel as if I am not reading the book it I am in their with them watching and !earning. Any author that can actually take you into the book in my opinion are just the most brilliant of all. Liz is not the only without that can do thid. However they are few and far between.. Once again it's a twist and turn rollercoaster of a book with no clue to who is the mystery man it just keeps you guessing right to the very end. I am glad saj secrets out but definitely not how it happened. Now that was so wrong yet real !ife . What another broking book and I am awaiting Liz Mistrys new one nowith baited breath. Most definitely a book not to be missed very much recommended you read this book its awesome.

Another great book by Liz Mistry.
This is a fast paced, action filled, page turner. Could not put it down until I finished it.
Another member of the force, Felicity, seems to have stumbled onto a crime and disappeared while calling for backup. While DS Nikki Parekh may not particularly like Felicity, she will not rest easy until she has found and rescued her. Simultaneously, there is reason to believe that there is something major going on in her town. There has been evidence of not just drugs and prostitution, but a major human trafficking organization operating right under their noses. The body counts are piling up, the police are spread thin, but nothing will stop Nikki and her team from figuring out what is going on and who is responsible, because the more she digs, the more she suspects the leader of the ring is someone she knows.
I received an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

DS Nikki Parekh might not like her colleague Felicity but she's gonna find her. Felicity went missing after a conference and now, even as things are going topsy, she's a high priority for Nikki and her partner Sajid. This is a fast paced procedural with great characters (I for one loved Nikki's internal dialogue). It's also topical, with a villain who human traffics and kills to keep things going his way. There are secrets, lies, and Stefan who works in a chicken processing factory. All will come together in the end. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. An excellent read for fans of the genre.

In 2003 Concorde retired from service. Had that supersonic aircraft still been flying it may have been outpaced by Liz Mistry's Broken Silence. From the first page it had you hooked and then set a blistering pace as DS Nikita Parekh tries to keep a lid on Bradford, that West Yorkshire city in the foothills of the Pennines. She has a rising bodycount which would shame New York, a colleague badly injured in hospital who seems to be getting uncommon concern from her boss and a police partner who is worried about being outed. With more explosions than a Casualty finale, can she stop Bradford from burning?
I lost many hours of sleep as it was almost impossible to put down. A cracking read!

This has been a gritty, hard biting series and this story is no different. Focusing on those two perils: rape and human trafficking, there is little light relief.

All the main characters have angst in their personal and professional lives adding to the darkness. Unlike others in the series, I struggled to read this book and would be hard pressed to suggest I enjoyed it.

Notes for publisher. The paragraph spacing is wrong in many places. Mid chapter it shifts from one story to the next and without separation. I find this confusing at the best of times but this was exacerbated by the first line in the next characters part being placed as the last line of the previous character. Also there are many places where there is no space between one paragraph and the next. These factors are a de traction and I believe need attention before publication.

Liz Mistry writes an exciting book with the familiar characters of D.S. Nikki Parekh and her partner DC Sajid Malik. It starts out fast and keeps on with the action throughout the book.

D.S. Nikki's skills are well known and so is her determination to keep their town safe and do her job well. However, there is an evil lurking with dreams of power and money who will supply every despicable service and product there is and will stop at nothing to get what he wants.

D.S. Parekh will have to call on all of her and her partners strength, resources and smarts to handle all that reigns down on them. Her first priority is finding a missing DS agent, Felicity Springer who's call to emergency ends abruptly with a loud bang. To make matters worse bodies start turning up around town pulling her resources in more directions than can be handled by their force.

Exhausted and strung out trying to find the missing agent and covering the investigations into the murders, Nikki has to find her fellow agent, even if she wasn't her favorite person, she's wants to find her alive. As the hours tick by the chances grow dimmer and more events happen taking even more resources.

I liked the characters in this book so much and appreciate the page turner pace. Characters that are strong but flawed in ways we all are to some degree, trying their best to make their town safe and stay alive.

Thank you Liz Mistry, NetGalley and the publishers for allowing me to read and review this ARC I do recommend this book if you like fast paced, who dunnit stories with great characters. This is my honest opinion.

A tangled web of human trafficking, slavery, a missing police officer and a takeover of the city. The scenes are gruesome but when the author says she had toned it down, I’m at a loss for words. Regarding the story, another thriller with the suspense building up to the end. Well written.

Broken Silence opens with the victim, DS Springer, escaping a police conference feeling extremely ill and guilty about something. But on her way home, she’s taken over by something more urgent – an arm waving from the missing tail light hole of a van she’s following. She’s about to get into worse trouble.

Enter DS Nikki Parekh, who’s actually the heroine detective of this novel, and her sidekick DC Sajid Malik, part of the police in Bradford. Nikki isn’t your single, drinking-too-much detective – she’s got a husband and family that always seem to come second. But she’s tough and resourceful, like a good fictional detective needs to be. Interspersed with the missing Springer is the story of Stefan, a trafficking victim forced to work backbreaking hours in a chicken processing factory, and his desperation to escape.

The threads all eventually bind together to reveal what’s really going on, and who is connected to who as a good crime novel does. Who is Mr Big? Can we guess? And where will the threads lead Nikki, and us as readers? The author’s note mentions that she has toned down a lot of the human trafficking material, which is understandable.

I enjoyed this novel and liked Nikki as a character. I would have liked to read Book 1 first, to get a better sense of her – at times in this story she felt a tiny bit inconsistent. I did find the Mr Big storyline a little too “big” for the scope of the story and characters – but I also admit to being too skeptical! The writing is great – accomplished and smooth – and I’ll be looking out for more of this author’s books.
This book was provided to me for review via NetGalley and HQ Digital.

Tautly written with two engaging characters in Nikki and Sajid - the two detectives charged with solving what becomes a series of murders. Set in Bradford you won't be surprised that drugs, forced immigrant labour and money laundering all feature in this gritty tale. But there is also a more human side to all the mayhem where Liz Mistry reveals the surprisingly intense relationships that the main characters share with their respective partners - both marital and professional. A fast-paced story with plot twists aplenty to keep you guessing. Entertaining.

I’d like to thank HQ Digital and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read ‘Broken Silence’ by Liz Mistry in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

DS Felicity Springer is on her way home after attending a conference and as she follows a white van along a quiet country lane she notices a hand and arm coming from the back of the van where the rear light should be. The van slams into her car, Springer is shot and abducted, and DS Nikki Parish and DC Sajid Malik need to find their missing colleague before it’s too late. But their search is made more difficult as the furtive ‘Xavier’ disposes of dead bodies and the streets of Bradford are set alight with fire bombs.

‘Broken Silence’ is a gripping and addictive thriller that deals with human trafficking, modern-day slavery and prostitution in a compassionate and sympathetic manner. It contains drama, suspense, excitement, a surfeit of dead bodies, and has an action-packed conclusion that’s kept me enthralled. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed this thriller which is the first I’ve read by Liz Mistry and I hope it won’t be the last. I can highly recommend it.

This is a solid crime drama, set in Bradford, and involving a ruthless crime syndicate involving human trafficking and some really nasty torture and murder. A policewoman stumbles across one of their operations and disappears, intensifying the search for the culprits. The lead detectives are likeable enough and the story fast-paced, but I found it lacking in depth and it just didn’t gel with me. I found the on-trend LGBT emphasis a bit forced and the characters often cliched- the baddies were revealed by their misogynistic, racist or homophobic jibes early on- and it wasn’t hard to work out who was behind the various offences.. So an OK read, but I have read better books on this subject.

This is the first book I have read in the DS Nikita Parekh series and I loved it .Set in Bradford the story is fast paced, gripping and tense all the way through. It is a story of murder and modern day slavery and people trafficking,with bodies being dumped all over the city ,a senior police officer missing believed kidnapped, Nikki and Saj and her team have a nightmare on their hands .The writing is so descriptive that I felt I was there and I loved the characters especially Nikki , Saj and grumpy Archie. I want to now go back and read the first book in the series and look forward to the next book .Many thanks to the Publisher the Author and NetGalley or my copy in return for an honest review .

I really enjoyed this second in the Nikki Parekh series. I love her dynamic with Saj ans I appreciate that while she is the damaged protagonist the author is also allowing her to grow and mature. The subject is tough but not exploitative. I continue to look forward to more-in this series.
I was given a copy from Netgalley in return for an unbiased review.

Broken Silence is my first book by author Liz Mistry and what an introduction indeed. This book is actually the Book 2 in the series, I was able to pick it up easily but I do wish that I read Book 1 first.

This book is a crime thriller and it was griped me from beginning till the end. I enjoyed reading it and I found it hard to put the book down. I liked the way author Liz Mistry wrote this book, the transitions between chapters/scenes are easily followed. Highly enjoyable book with lots of body count and non-stop action. I look forward to catching up more works by author Liz Mistry.

I received a copy of this book via NetGalley, the thoughts above are all my own.

When we first meet him Stefan Marcovici has been in the UK with his daughter Maria for a while. He came expecting to work as a gardener and Maria was to be a nanny. Stefan ends up doing slave labour in a chicken factory: you can imagine what happens to an eighteen-year-old girl.

It's March 2020 (in a world not dominated by a coronavirus pandemic) and DS Felicity Springer is leaving a conference early. She spent the night with a man and is horrified that she has done so. She's also sick and puts that down to having drunk too much, so she decides to drive back to Bradford by the back roads. She'd hate to be picked up by the police in her current state. It's not going to be an easy journey - there's snow on the ground and more on the way - so Springer is happy to find herself behind a van which is clearing the way for her. Well, she was happy until she realised that the rear light had been pushed out of the way and a hand - and then an arm - was reaching through and waving, apparently in distress. Springer decided to call the problem in and follow the van. She would be shot and abducted.

DS Nikita Parekh is in charge of the case, working with DC Sajid Malik. Parekh puts aside her dislike of Springer (who'd given her a hard time the previous year) and gives her all to finding Springer. She's one of their own after all, but then the situation in Bradford becomes volatile; there are suggestions that Springer was raped at the conference and Nikki Parekh's boss, DCI Archie Hegley, is admitted to Bradford Royal Infirmary with a heart problem.

I used to work in Bradford: it's a city with heart and Liz Mistry brings it to life perfectly, to the point that the city is one of the characters of the book. I drove the streets - and the wider area - with her and Saj Malik. The story had me completely gripped: I needed to know who was behind the explosion of organised crime in the city and whether or not DS Springer was going to get out alive. The characters are all well-drawn and they stay with you. Nikki Parekh and her family are still with me: if it wasn't for the current lockdown I'd want to pop round and see that the kids are all OK.

It's good that the problems of modern-day slavery are highlighted too: Mistry does this well, although not as graphically as she might have done. The conditions in which people are forced to live in the book are dreadful - the reality is far worse. If Broken Silence highlights even one case in the real world then Liz Mistry will have done us all a big favour and I'd like to thank the publishers for allowing Bookbag to have a review copy.

A solid 4 star read. Great premise. Well written. Good characters. Page turner. Plenty of suspense to keep me guessing. Would definitely read her next offering. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the chance to review it.

I received an ARC from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

This was my first book by Liz Mistry, and I really enjoyed it! I do wish I had read the first in the Nikki Parekh book first, but I guess I'll just have to go back and read it now. I thought the story was fast-paced and interesting - a really good British police procedural!

DS Felicity Springer is feeling hungover and sick as she's leaving a conference. She gets behind a van on a back road and notices something concerning. She follows the van and phones the police, and then.....she's gone. DS Nikki Parekh and her partner DC Sajid Malik are on the case. As they are investigating the disappearance, a body turns up, then another, then another.

Thanks for the great read, NetGalley and HQ Digital! I can't wait to read others in the series!

Returning to Bradford, West Yorkshire from a conference in Wakefield, Detective Sergeant Felicity Springer is shot and abducted. She had been following a suspicious Transit van and contacted the Communication room.
Detective Sergeant Nikki Parekh and her Police partner Detective Constable Sajid Malik arrive at the missing Police Woman's car. Nikki and the Spaniel ( her nickname for Springer ) do not get on but she is determined to find her, hopefully alive!
The situation is not helped by her Boss Detective Chief Inspector Archie Hegley arriving to join Nikki and Sajid and is very distressed. Nikki is later very suspicious when Archie sends her a text message to elicit information but won't tell her what it is about!
Unbeknown to the Police there is a people smuggling organization who want to get involved in all illegal activities in the area and plan to confuse the Police with various methods. The organization is headed up by someone calling himself Xavier with Cyclops and a thug called Bullet as his henchmen.
This is the second book featuring Nikki and Sajid. The author who lives in the Bradford area also has another series featuring a Detective Inspector Gus McGuire. I know the area well, so it was an additional treat to read this book. I have already downloaded the first book to read. Recommended as a good read.