Games People Play was much more than the title of this book. Each of the characters had their own games with their own rules and were determined to win. Enter Charlie Cameron, a private investigator that specializes in missing persons. He avoids cases involving missing children until the police have no clues in the abduction of a toddler. The little girl's father asks Charlie to find her. He has clues that will help, but for personal reasons, can't give them to the police.
As in real life, a private investigator works more than one case at a time. In this first book of a new series, Owen Mullen keeps readers busy as he runs Charlie from case to case. The supporting characters are well thought out. With Charlie as the lead, this series should run for many, many years.

I've read short stories by Owen Mullen before but this is my first foray into his full length novels and one that I really enjoyed. Games People Play covers several cases at one time and I felt that the switch between them helped to keep the pace fast and keep me engaged. I was never overwhelmed and Mullen managed to maintain my interest from beginning to end.
Games People Play is the beginning of a series featuring private investigator, Charlie Cameron. He's an intriguing character who doesn't always do things according to the rules and he has an interesting back story that plays out throughout the course of the novel. I am definitely looking forward to seeing where Mullen takes him next.
There are a few twists and turns in Games People Play as we reach the ending and I enjoyed the tension as I discovered the answers to my questions.

Had been looking forward to reading this book. Sadly it wasn’t for me. It just lacked a good plot to get you excited and wanting more. It was very slow paced and never picked up

A number of years ago our youngest son was describing his speech therapy class. Apparently the group often played the game Uno. I asked him what Uno, a basic card game, had to do with speech. His reply, “We talk while we play. When I get a good card, I slam it down and say, ‘Hah!’ and stuff.” Considering he is now a double major honors student in college, I suppose the games may have done more for him than I appreciated at the time.



Charlie Cameron is not a great businessman. He is not a great friend. He is not a lot of things. But he is very good at finding people.



An infant girl has been brazenly kidnapped from a beach in Scotland. The police are stumped. The parents are desperate. The father turns to Cameron for help in finding his lost daughter. Cameron’s friends advise against taking the case. It’s a police matter, they tell him. It’s going to tear you up, they tell him.



Charlie Cameron is also not great at listening to good advice.



Games People Play is fascinating on many levels. The title barely does the work justice. Cameron is playing his own games. His relationship with his parents is rocky. He is trying to build a relationship with a woman he has met but despite their pledge of “no secrets” he is not ready to fully open himself up to her. His friends are playing their own games with their wives/girlfriends, with Cameron, with each other. His cases are filled with liars and game players. The missing child’s father has secrets. In another missing person case, the girl’s friends cannot be trusted to tell the truth even when it benefits them to do so.



And hanging over everything is a serial killer who likes to play the most macabre games of all.



Owen Mullen has wrapped games within games, players playing players, and saves some of his biggest twists (and dare I say a non-twist that is itself a twist) for the end. Some win. Many lose. Ultimately, some games are worth playing for the sake of playing while others are designed to leave everyone at a loss. One thing is for sure: this book is a sure winner.

In 'Games People Play', the lead protagonist is a man known for finding missing people. The thing that haunts him is something left hanging for future books in the series. There are a lot of pieces in this narrative. For all of it to take simultaneous seriousness should have felt like chaos, but it did not. The load which Charlie Cameron has to deal with throughout the events of the book is heavy, and the reader gets to feel a share of the worry and frustration he goes through. The individual cases do not intersect in any way.
There is a dark, forbidding air throughout and a lot of footwork in trying to identify the resolution for things that no one is really paying Charlie to do. No amount of guessing would have shown the reveal to me before he did, at least for the main central plot!
Nothing about the storyline is soft, but there are many tongue-in-cheek comments, and the verbal sparring between most of the characters was highly entertaining in their own right. I will be following up with this series in the future. I already know where I might get the next.

I received an ARC thanks to NetGalley and the publishers but the review is entirely based on my own reading experience.

Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this first novel in a series.
I found it a bit slow in places and the overall plot environment was very constricted to a small number of venues, club, university and home is about it. I finished the tale but was not overwhelmed by it.

This is another excellent read by this author. I was delighted to see he was starting a new series and I wasn’t disappointed.

When a baby disappears her father hires PI Charlie Cameron to find her. However when he starts investigates is he getting involved in a serial killers case?

I absolutely loved this story and read it in one sitting. I can’t wait to read more from this author

This is a good start for a new crime thriller series. It's fast paced, gripping and entertaining.
I liked the characters, the plow full of twists and turns, and the solid mystery that kept me guessing.
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

Mark Hamilton and his wife, Jennifer’s lives are in shreds after their baby daughter, Lily, is abducted. Mark believes he knows who took her but thinks that informing the police will destroy his marriage. Private detective Charlie Cameron comes from a wealthy family but he and his father have been estranged for years. When approached by Mark to take the case, Charlie has concerns, though he takes the case. Will he be able to find little Lily Hamilton?

Games People Play is a taut mystery thriller with multiple plot lines that interweave throughout the story. Charlie also takes on the task of finding an 18-year-old university student who didn't return home after a night out. Character development is a big focus throughout the novel but not to the detriment of the compelling plotlines. Set in late in Glasgow, private investigator Charlie specialises in finding missing persons, his interest shaped by his own experiences; his sister has been missing for thirty years. A bit of a loner, thirty-five-year-old Charlie's office base is a room above a venue called New York Blue where he meets his close friends and acquaintances including DCI Andrew Geddes from Police Scotland, Patrick Logue, who sometimes assists Charlie and retired Ronnie who worked on Charlie’s sister’s case.

As an offshoot to the main crime story, Charlie meets Kate Calder, a singer in a band that plays regularly at the club. Owen Mullen cleverly combines each of the story strands really well making this a fascinating read as well as showcasing each of the characters. In addition to a few rather neat red herrings, the autumntime grey weather contributes greatly to the overall noir feel of the narrative and all of the threads are neatly tied off by the end of the book. I'm now planning to read the second book in the series, The Wronged.

I received a complimentary copy of this novel at my request from Boldwood Books via NetGalley, and this review is my own unbiased opinion.

Lily Hamilton is a thirteen-month-old baby who has been abducted from a beach in Scotland. Lily’s father is asking for help from private investigator Charlie Cameron. After a few day Charlie is seeing that nothing is simple as it looks.
Great thriller!
Thank you Netgalley for this book.

A brilliantly constructed thriller packed with tension, menace and suspense, Owen Muellen’s Games People Play is an engrossing crime novel set in Scotland readers will not want to miss.

Lily Hamilton is a thirteen-month-old baby who has been abducted from Ayr beach in Scotland. Her parents were just yards away, but in a split second their entire world was turned upside down by somebody who had taken their beloved daughter. Out of their mind with worry and determined to find her before their beautiful child comes to any harm, Lily’s parents turn to the one person who can help locate their precious child: private investigator Charlie Cameron. Mark, Lily’s father, believes that he knows who has abducted his daughter and the reason why and against his better judgement, Charlie reluctantly agrees to take the case. But does Charlie know just what he is letting himself in for? It soon turns out that there is more to this case than meets the eye…

Charlie’s investigation quickly begins to yield surprising – and bone-chilling – results. As the body count begins to rise alarmingly, Charlie begins to wonder whether he is on the trail of a serial killer waiting for just the right moment to strike again and cause maximum damage and mayhem. But what is even more terrifying is the fact that a crazed murderer has been hunting, torturing and killing victims for years and getting away with it. Could baby Lily be his latest victim? Charlie is not about to give up on this case, but can he find Lily in time? Will nightmares and memories from his past end up interfering with his search for the truth? Or can Charlie get to the bottom of this investigation in the nick of time?

Fans of fast-moving, pacy and twisty thrillers are going to thoroughly enjoy sinking their teeth into Owen Muellen’s Games People Play. A sinister, creepy and cleverly told page-turner full of shocking revelations and jaw-dropping surprises, Games People Play is an eerie and claustrophobic crime novel featuring a brilliant sleuth whom I hope we haven’t seen the last of: PI Charlie Cameron. Unconventional, instinctive and complex, Charlie is a fascinating protagonist readers will enjoy spending time with.

Owen Muellen’s Games People Play is a scintillating and deftly executed thriller sure to delight crime fiction fans everywhere.

When a child goes missing after a day at the beach with her parents, the case ends up with PI Charlie Cameron. The dad is convinced he knows who took her and against his better judgement, knowing this will coincide with a ongoing police investigation Charlie decides to take on the case.

Charlie has is own issues to work through at the same time as we find out more about the PI’s past and his motivations which give him depth and made him very likable, he’s flawed, you want him to succeed but you know it’s not going to come easy for Charlie.. he’s just not that lucky!

The story shifts focus between the investigation and Charlie’s life, this balance was perfect, it kept it fresh and encouraged me to keep reading as I just had to find out what happened next. While the main story line is very serious the chapters around Charlie’s life and his interactions with those he knows allowed for some dark humour which was a joy to read.

I loved Charlie’s style, one clue leading to another, the characters, the setting, everything fit the image that I have in my head of an old school, down on his luck PI out to solve a case.. and you just can’t help but root for the guy.

The story was well written and planed out. I must admit I did not see the ending coming until the author put the pieces together for me.. it really had a wow finish..the hand over mouth moment when you finally see what Charlie has figured out.

Suspense is the word that best describes this book.. it’s all about the build-up and Owen Mullen did this superbly. Some books make suspense plain boring but not this book!

For me this is one of the best Crime Fiction novels I’ve read, the development of the characters natural, the flow of the plot perfect. Owen Mullen is a master at his craft, I could not help but be hooked in.

Owen Mullen has a lot to offer the reader, so grab a copy now. With a cover like that I’m sure some of you already have 😊

I understand this book is the first one in a planned series and it has got the series off to a very good solid start. It introduced all the characters and the setting and I’m sure it will be a success.
I enjoyed the story which had enough parts that ended how I wanted and parts that ended how I didn’t want to keep me interested throughout. I’m not usually that keen on books about Private Investigators but I would make an exception for Charlie who charmed me from the start.
Future stories may need to spread their wings a bit but as Scotland has such a diverse landscape I’m sure that will happen. I would like the cast to move away from the narrow pub/club setting to brighten things up a bit in the sequels.

I'm glad this one was set in Glasgow - the main characters accent made much more sense here.

Good twisty story. I had no idea who did it until the end.

Games People Play is the first in a new series called PI Charlie Cameron. This is a Crime Thriller with aspects of Police Procedural set in Scotland.

It was a really good opening book for the series. It’s fast paced and filled to the brim with action, twists and turns.

There are several stories on-going in the book and that really builds the characters up, especially Charlie the lead.

I really like Charlie and I look forward to reading more from this series.

This book gives that old gumshoe kind of detective story feeling. Charlie Cameron doesn't need to work but is compelled to as a result of childhood trauma. It took a while to get accustomed to the writing style and the colloquial dialogue. But once I did, the story was enjoyable. The plot itself was a really interesting one and Charlie is a somewhat mysterious character. However, the racial slurs throughout the book were a complete turnoff for me. I recognize that this was completely acceptable in writing several decades ago, but not now. I don't think I will continue reading the series as I don't expect that Charlie and his pals will be getting any diversity training and changing their ways.

Ok I’ll be honest that cover does nothing for me but the blurb and writer had me grabbing this book. The book has a bit of wanderlust in it because so many things are happening. The author drives you in one direction only to have the ending surprise you.

What did I like? I like that Geddes was in this series as well, so while Charlie was new to me the book had familiar faces. The author has the ability to really handle several cases and what I really thought was him tying all the cases together will have you blown. As a PI book I really enjoyed it. Five stars!

Would I recommend or buy? This is a new author for 2021 for me and I’ve already read three books and all of them were five stars! I would recommend anyone liking mysteries or just case puzzlers would enjoy this book. I would definitely read more by this author!

I received a complimentary copy to read and voluntarily left a review.

This is my first time reading the work of Owen Mullen. My first impressions of his writing was that it reminded me of the ‘hard-boiled’ type stories of Raymond Chandler and the like. However, the tone smoothed out as the book progressed. Told from an un-apologetically male viewpoint, I quite liked Charlie Cameron as a character.

The story was set in late autumn/early winter in Glasgow Scotland. The grey, dour weather added greatly to the overall noir feel of the narrative.

Charlie Cameron is a private investigator who specializes in finding missing persons. His specialty was shaped by the fact that his own sister has been missing for thirty years.

One main setting of the novel was a Glasgow restaurant/night club called New York Blue. Charlie has an office upstairs from the New York Blue, and his closest friends and acquaintances either work there, or frequent the place regularly as customers.

At thirty-five years old, Charlie is a loner, yet he does have some close friends. DCI Andrew Geddes from Police Scotland; Patrick Logue, a personable and often inebriated charmer who does investigative work for Charlie on a semi-regular basis, and last but not least, a ninety-year old retired policeman named DI Ronnie Simpson who worked Charlie’s sister’s case all those years ago.

As a sideline to the crime story, Charlie meets a woman who could quite be the love of his life. She is Kate Calder, a talented singer who fronts a band which plays regularly at the club.

The story had several strands which were adeptly tied up by the end of the book. I was completely taken in by one of the author’s particularly clever ‘red herrings’.

The title was very fitting. The story described the myriad ways in which people ‘play games’ to further their own agendas.

The ending of the book tied up most of the loose ends, leaving just enough to pave the way for the second book in the series (which is already loaded on my Kindle).

Recommended to lovers of well-executed crime fiction, especially those who favour tartan noir.

The story begins with a traumatic struggle for life followed by a sinister child abduction. Charlie Cameron is a successful private investigator with a tender heart. A past emotional trauma defines him, and he never takes cases involving children until now.

The first in the series introduces the reader to Charlie, his friends and his clients. The writing style draws the reader into his world, and it's easy to imagine the characters and setting, which makes this addictive and engaging.

The plot is full of clues, false leads and complex, often toxic relationships. It showcases the best and worst of humanity in a heartrending and poignant way. Charlie is a dedicated and diligent investigator. Driven by his emotions and past experiences, he understands human nature and the devastation of a lack of closure and loss. His empathy gives him important insight but at the risk of his wellbeing.

Aptly named, Games People Play is well-plotted noir suspense, with relatable characters and a likeable main protagonist.

I received a copy of this book from Boldwood Books via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

Games People Play by Owen Mullen is the first book in a series to feature Private Investigator Charlie Cameron. I have read Owen Mullins books previously, but they are gangland thrillers and truly in the vein of Martina Cole, Kimberley Chambers and Mandasue Heller. This is a new series for me, although I have noticed it is a re-released book, so I really wanted to be a part of his book tour so I could again, shout about his writing.
Mark and Jennifer Hamilton were enjoying at day at Ayr beach with their young daughter, Lily. Deciding to have another swim before they left Jennifer ends up in serious trouble and Mark has no choice but to put Lily in her pram to try to save Jennifer. As they return Lily is gone!
A couple of days after Mark goe to Charlie's office, telling him he knows who has Lily and begs for his help. Charlie attempts to reason with him and tries to get him to report this to the police. Eventually Charlie gives in and takes the case, he understands the pain Mark is going through.
As the plot thickens we see multiple plot lined merging together as Charlie's investigation of Lily's abduction intertwines with a shocking police investigation and bringing Charlie's past back too.
The character of Charlie is definitely a multu- layered one. I liked him and really see the fact that no matter how good he is something always cocks up. We see what drives him and why he keeps trying even though he will probably never get anywhere. All the cast of characters have been brought to us as real people, with their flaws and problems. They made me want to get to know them.
A fast paced story that is over before you realise it and Owen Mullen has written a dark story that shows the gritty side of life and even brought humour and great dialogue to balance it all out. Overall, Owen Mullen isn't just a one trick pony! He really can write an intriguiging crime/detective novel too!
Thanks to Rachel's Random Resources, Boldwood books and NetGalley for the copy of the book.