Published by ‎ Pushkin Vertigo on March 1, 2022

All Was Lost is an appropriate title for a story of desperate actions taken by people who are willing to risk losing everything. The plot is noir on steroids.

Orla McCabe, an Irish transplant to Liverpool, is photographing a crumbling abbey at night when a “lurching figure” leads her to a “shooting box,” a small enclosure used by hunters. She takes photos of a scene that resembles a small-scale death camp when someone shoots at her. Orla drops her camera and driver’s license as she flees. Outside the shooting box, she pauses to take a gun from the hand of a dead man. She also grabs a suitcase full of money that the dead man must have been guarding.

Orla’s impulsive decision raises questions about the morality of theft. In Orla’s judgment, she took money from bad people who would use it for bad purposes. Why should they have money when she struggles as a cleaner, when her husband has a month left on his work contract, when their home has been repossessed and when she has a baby to feed? In Orla’s view, the worst thing about not having money “isn’t that you don’t own things, it's that you don’t own yourself.” The money represents freedom.

News stories soon make clear that, seen in a different light, the money represents the fruits of human trafficking. Orla’s husband Liam doesn’t want anything to do with it. To him, it’s the devil’s money and Orla has cursed their family by taking it. To Orla, the harm caused by the traffickers has already been done. She believes the money will make them better people and will give their daughter the life she deserves. She clings to that belief long after it becomes apparent to the reader that Orla has no obvious way out of the predicament she made for herself.

While the philosophical struggle between Orla and Liam persists throughout the novel, Orla spends most of her time running. She runs from people who want the money and, when one of them finds it, she runs after the money. Her primary stalker is Dolan, who has been tasked by Cy Green with recovering his money. The pursuit leaves death in Orla’s wake and threatens the welfare of her husband and daughter.

As that story unfolds, Cy’s interest in human trafficking has become an embarrassment to the in-law who presides over their crime family. He assigns his son, Millar Sweet, the job of cleaning up Uncle Cy’s mess. The fast-moving action leaves the reader wondering whether Sweet or Dolan will find Orla before they settle scores with each other.

Two cops, Lynch and Carlin, are also on Orla’s trail. Carlin has his own money problems, thanks to loan sharks who are threatening his family. Lynch has a different problem, involving an affair with a married woman he hopes to rescue from a dangerous man. It does not seem that things will end well for anyone in this violent story of temptations and bad choices.

Apart from a couple of children, Liam is the novel’s only innocent character. His flaw is that he is too trusting. Lynch is not entirely innocent, but he at least feels the need to do something good with his life, something unselfish. Orla and Carlin have made their beds, but the reader will worry that they might suffer undue punishment for their sins. Orla might not be admirable, but she is determined and resourceful. That’s enough to make readers care about her.

Maxwell establishes a grim atmosphere with fading light, barking dogs, and abundant blood without slowing the pace of this tight novel. The plot is built on one surprise after another as the short chapters count down from 67 to 0. The penultimate chapter changes everything. Despite the shocks, the story never feels contrived. All Was Lost is a brutal crime novel, the kind of story that isn’t meant for weak stomachs, but it is also an intriguing character study of the choices people make when they feel lost, when temptation bumps against their sense of being crushed by life.

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The publication of All Was Lost by Steven Maxwell is his third novel and a dark crime thriller. Three disparate scenes begin this narrative with detectives at a murder scene with multiple bodies, two brothers in a river washing blood off their bodies, and a woman finding a suitcase full of money and fleeing with her husband and child. A ferocious tale with plenty of physical violence, car crashes and more dead bodies result as the race is on to find Olga McCabe. The police, Baskin brothers and others all pursue the ill-gotten proceeds from human trafficking. This book is not for the faint of heart and whilst not adverse to hard crime, this was not one of the better ones. Overall, the overt gore was distracting and lessened the narrative and somewhat one-dimensional characters. The twist at the end made a mocking footnote to this nefarious tale. So, a disappointing read with a two-star rating, unless brutality is your thing. With thanks to Pushkin Press and the author, for an uncorrected advanced review copy for review purposes. As always, the opinions herein are totally my own and freely given, without influence.

Orla's found money, the bad guys want to find her. Law enforcement is trying to sort out the bodies found at a hunting lodge- who are the good guys and who are the bad guys? It's a bit of a chase scene combined with the topical issue of human trafficking but...it just wasn't for me. It's gruesome for starters. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. Over to others to decide for themselves.

Dark, grisly and utterly compelling. Thriller writing at its finest. A tense, fast-paced, and deftly plotted thriller, which kept me guessing right to the end. I'm already looking forward to the next book by this author.

Brutally Vivid…
A case of money, a family on the run, a deadly chase. Frantically moving, action packed thriller with a high tension factor, both very dark and very disturbing. The writing is brutally vivid and the pace never lets up for a moment. This is most definitely not for the feint of heart.

It is dark and grisly as described alright but I just couldn't get into it. I feel really bad about it. I'm happy to give another try some other time but at the moment I just couldn't connect to the storyline.

Thank you #NetGalley for the advanced copy of All was lost in return for an honest review.
Now I love a crime book and the story line for this book is right up my alley, but if you are a little squeamish then it might not be for you. This is a well written fast paced book with good characters some of whom meet rather gory ends. I enjoyed reading even with the gore and will be checking out more books by Steven Maxwell.

This wasn't for me. I wasn't sure I should request it, and I was right. Although not a horror story, the gory aspects were too much for me, and will be helpful warning for readers.

Thanks very much for the free ARC for review!!

Omg! Wow I don't even know what to say?! At times I was like ok this books good but then bam! Again! This book was very very morbid? Violent? Blood thirsty ? Gorey? Geez all the above! I did like the storyline and when it wasn't so gruesome it was a great book! I don't mind bloody violent books at all but this one?! It went a little beyond the norm! In detail! Anyway this book did have suspense, intrigue and many many bad guys chasing each other ,oh and killing each other in horrible ways! Lol I did cringe my way through and like I said its a good book! if you don't mind descriptive blood baths, this books for you! Lol I'm still giving it a decent amount of stars cuz I did like most of the book! Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for sharing this book with me!