A very slow burner this book is and you do wonder at times if its getting anywhere, but then comes the magic moment where a comment in the book suddenly joins the dots and then it all starts to come together and turn into an exciting read. I've not read any of the other books in the series so some of the things mentioned made no real sense but it didn't detract from reading this book.

Brilliant book. I absolutely loved it.

Amazing writing. The opening chapters captures the desperation and numbness of grief so well. My heart was breaking for Nikki.

The plot was quite dark with plenty of twists. Although I worked out who The Fixer was it didn't take anything away from this thrilling read. I read it in two sittings as I didn't want to put it down.

Can't wait for the next one now.

The story starts at the scene of a brutal attack where the main character, Nikki, thinks the dead boy is her nephew. In reacting badly, she contaminates the scene and is put on sick leave. She has a therapist who is helping her with her mental health and in whom she confides about her past. It is soon clear that there is a fixer responsible for the killings. I found the identity of the fixer a little bit cliched and the social media quotes sadly depressingly true to life. This was a good book but I’m not sure I will pursue the series. Thanks to Netgalley for an ARC.

Great crime thriller with well developed and complex characters.

The premise is unusual as it involves young people and really draws you in.

Really good read.

Blood Games by Liz Mistry

THREE MURDERS. ONE MISSING BOY. THE GAME IS JUST BEGINNING…

When a body is found at the edge of Chellow Dene reservoir Detective Nikki Parekh and DC Sajid Malik are quick to arrive.

This is the third murder in the space of a few weeks. Each murder has a completely different MO, but there is one common theme… all the victims are teenagers. The dead boy reminds Nikki of her nephew, and she feels more helpless than ever.

This is the fourth book in the series but it is the first book that I have read. There is hints that there are backstories that may be relevant to the story but I found this book easy to follow as a stand-alone. This is a very complex storyline with a very fast pace, so it is not for everyone. My only negative about this book is that I personally thought that there were a few too many characters to keep track of.

Rating: 4/5

Another great book by Liz Mistry. A very captivating read. Deals with a very serious and topical issue in a gritty and gripping way.
Shows both Nikki’s strengths and weaknesses. Her sensitive side, her loyalty to her colleagues and friends and her determination to deal with all life throws at her and bring down the people committing the atrocities.

This is the first of the DS Nikki Parekh book I have read, and it is the fourth book. I do feel that reading the first three would have allowed me to settle into this book a bit quicker, as it starts by picking up on how Nikki is coping following major personal events that took place in book 3, having said that it didn’t take me long to get comfortable with the story. I read all the Gus McGuire books, so I am familiar with the authors way of writing.

The book is based in Bradford, and living ‘down the road’ in Farsley, I enjoyed being able to picture the locations. The premise of the book is a really scary concept and takes so-called ‘honour killings’ to a whole new level. I was totally surprised that my hunch as to who ‘The Fixer’ is, was correct! As expected with a crime thriller dealing with the murder of numerous teenagers, there is quite a lot of violence and a fair amount of racism, which can make for an uncomfortable read in places, however, both are central to the book and, in my opinion are not gratuitous or overused.

Having read and really enjoyed this book, I fully intend to read the full series.

What a gripping read. It was very fast-paced. The characters were beautifully portrayed. It showed the dark happenings and high tensions surrounding racism, religion etc.
How new working relationships unfold and how people shouldn't be judged on first impressions.
Loved it.

This is the fourth in the series and to be fully cognisant of the characters and their situations I would recommend that the previuos books are read. However it is stand alone story.
This touches on topics that a lot of authors stay away from but are very relevant in todays society, racism, mental health, homophobia, knife crime and forced marriages to name a few. The vigilante scenes are well describedmand did in places make me squirm so be warned that the violence has not been hidden in this book.
The main background covered mental issues of DSI Parekh and the honour based killing situations.
A well written book that kept me reading and trying to work out who the two top people really were.

Thank you to NetGalley and to HQ digital for the opportunity to read this book
I can see from the reviews that it’s me not the book but I didn’t enjoy it at all
I couldn’t relate to the characters, possibly because I’d not read the previous books in the series nor could I engage with the plot
I’ve reviewed it here but obviously I won’t upload this to my social media or Amazon

Blood Games by Liz Mistry is the fourth book in the Nikki Parekh series. If you enjoy dark police procedurals, with terrifying twists and exploration of the human psychology at its worst, then this book is for you.
The storyline is complex and multi-layered. Blood Games explores such relevant issues as racism, youth knife crime, fundamentalism and honour-based violence, the influence of social media and the power of the dark net, as well as mental health.
Blood Games is a heart-stopping police procedural and psychological thriller, that will keep you up till the early hours. Like the other books in the series, it is very dark, raw, intense, and impossible to put down.

It's been brilliant to catch up with Detective Sergeant Nikki Parekh and her team in Blood Games. Nikki is understandably having a difficult time following the events of the previous book, but I love that we can still see glimpses of her feisty, determined character despite her mental health issues. Mistry has approached the subject of mental health with the greatest sensitivity and understanding. Nikki's partnership with Detective Constable Sajid Malik is wonderful once again and I love the way they bounce off each other and have each other's back. As the case that is central to the novel involves the young people in Bradford, I enjoyed getting to know Charlie and Haqib a little better too.

As Blood Games is set in Bradford, I am familiar with a few of the locations that Mistry uses. The sense of place throughout the novel is very strong and it helped me to be able to picture exactly what was happening. Although I am familiar with the geographical locations, there is also a strong cultural element to Blood Games which is less well known to me. I feel that Mistry has handled these sensitive issues very well in a way that allows the reader to learn more about the situation whilst still being kept on the edge of their seat by a fast paced novel. It is researched well and it is very relevant to the issues in modern society.

Throughout Blood Games, there are chapters narrated by "The Fixer". I was intrigued the whole way through as to who this person was and what their motives were. The author has done a very good job of keeping their identity hidden, particularly in the early stages of the novel, so that the readers are kept on their toes! I really wanted to know the answers and I had to keep reading until I found out!

When I saw this book and chose it (from reading the synopsis), I didn’t realise it was the fourth book in a series. This usually doesn’t bother me, and I read it as a stand-alone, and that’s typically fine. However, I felt like I had missed a lot of the background this time, making it a better read. I will probably re-read it once I have read the first few in the series and try it again.

There are numerous murders in the local Bradford area. The victims are all teenagers, but each murder has a different MO. DS Nikki Parekh and DC Sajid Malki work to solve the puzzle until Parekh goes off sick for a while and a new DI takes over.

I liked this concept, the confusion caused by what seems like numerous murderers, the lack of a link between the victims or the apparent cause. However, I found this hard to get into and the pace difficult. I couldn’t really grasp all that was happening because I was so far through the series and did not understand the backstories or why these things were relevant. Some became clearer as I got through towards the end, but I admit to struggling to continue in places.

Continue I did, though, as I really wanted to know what happened and who was behind all the events. The characters were well developed, but obviously, a lot came from the previous books, so I didn’t feel like I understood them well. They were primarily likeable, though, and I got the gist of their pasts.

The ending was interesting, and I enjoyed it; it’s well set up for the next book.

Overall, I felt that the plot was chaotic for me, which I assume is down to not having read the previous books. A large slice of the vital information needed to solve the case was quickly handed to Parekh, making it unbelievable. Some of the events became more understood after knowing perpetrators; why it was that way became more apparent. Still, I would have thought they would have been extra careful given their lack of experience.

This is obviously a well-developed series, loved by many, so I am sure that it would have made for a better story; it just didn’t work out that way for me.

This is not something I either hide or talk much about, but I have experienced many bouts of mental illness. I have learned not to be ashamed of it. I don’t try to hide it. I have been hospitalized once and should have been on several other occasions. Anxiety, depression, ADD–if I were better looking I could be a poster child. I have my own collection of prescriptions that greets me twice a day. Miss one for a couple of days and I am a train wreck for a week or two. If you weren’t already persuaded that my remarkable wife can handle anything, the fact that she has put up with me for 35 years should convince you that she is simply an extraordinary person.

DS Nikita Parekh has also experienced mental illness, and in Blood Games it is very much at the center of the story. A series of vicious attacks has left two people dead from machete wounds and a young woman traumatized and hiding in her home after vinegar was thrown in her face by an unknown assailant (she initially believed it to be acid). When a third victim is found, Nikki and her partner DC Sajid Malik go to the crime scene as usual.

But Nikki is not her usual self. Her mother was recently murdered by her estranged father. Her father is still at large, sending her postcards from abroad that warn her he is coming to kill her and/or her sister. Drowning in grief and rage, Nikki has escalated the patterns of self-harm that give her relief – cutting herself, snapping her wrist with a rubber band. She is barely holding herself together, withdrawing from her family, disengaged from her colleagues, trapped in a world by walls built within her own mind.

Seeing this latest victim breaks the scaffolding holding Nikki’s mind together. A teenage boy with brown skin and black hair who looks superficially like her nephew. Suddenly, Nikki’s mind snaps and she kneels down and picks up the body and keens her grief. The victim is not her nephew, Nikki has irreparably compromised the crime scene, numerous colleagues have witnessed her breakdown, and Nikki is compelled to take medical leave until a psychiatrist deems her ready to return to work.

The rest of the book follows Nikki’s progress through her own mental anguish, Sajid’s efforts to solve the case without his partner and mentor’s support (and with personnel issues in the department both related and unrelated to Nikki’s absence), and the ongoing developments in Bradford as machete attacks continue to terrorize the city.

I shared some of my personal story here because author Liz Mistry has created a protagonist that is as authentic and real as I have ever seen–and I share enough experience with the character’s mental health struggles to have an insider’s view. Nikki Parekh is very different than I. Differences are obvious: British, woman, mother, mixed-race, detective. But the internal pain this character carries is all too familiar. Disconnecting and withdrawing, self-harm, suicidal ideation, numbness occasionally and unexpectedly shattered and devolving into uncontrolled emotional outbursts. The long struggle back to “normal,” or at least functional. The family and friends walking on eggshells, both caring and afraid of this person you’ve become. The constant awareness that the pit you’ve come out of is still there and eager to suck you back in. I’ll never be a detective, I’ll never be a woman of color, and though I’d love to visit I may never make it to England. But I’ve walked through the same shadows, I’ve faced the same demons, I’ve longed to end it all but been saved only because I lacked the energy to pursue it.

DS Nikita Parekh is a very good detective. More importantly, she is a survivor. Any detective is likely to confront external enemies. Any person, though, might face a greater enemy within her own mind. The inside view of her struggle against that monster is vivid and compelling. And it’s part of a terrific series that I like better and better as it continues.

This is the first book for me by this author and therefore the first of the series involving DS Nikki Parekh. Perhaps I needed to have read at least one of the previous three as I felt it difficult to read and do not believe it works as a stand-alone. There were two many unexplained references to the past especially concerning this Police Officer whose present depression starts the book presenting us with a character already on sick leave. All in all I found it difficult to engage with the plot and after twice nearly giving up I finally admitted defeat prior to midway. Sorry just not for me.
My thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for this opportunity to give an honest and unbiased review.

Book 4 in the series and for me personally, I found this book the best so far. It may not be for everyone as there is quite a lot of violence and racism which makes for a dark read however the way in which Liz writes, highlights a lot of what goes on in our society today even though most of us won't be affected by it. Every religion has its sects and offshoots who believe that they are legally and morally right and then, there are those who exploit this which is what the story is about. "The Fixer" gets paid for helping families out however uses teenagers as the ones doing the deeds to their peer group. Nikki Parekh has a meltdown at the start and is forcibly put on leave but is slowly dragged into the incidents when her friends and family become involved.
The # twitter comments throughout the story again may not be to everyone's cup of tea and yet when you accept that this is how most teenagers communicate nowadays and it is also how a lot of hatred is sent too, then it does become an integral part of the story.
Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC to review.

I enjoyed this a lot. Liz Mistrys previous book in this series was also excellent and Blood Games continues the quality. DS Nikki Parekh is a well written character and the plot line flowed brilliantly. The other characters were well developed and the descriptions of a Bradford believable. I’d recommend this series.

Thank You To Net Galley and the publishers for an advance copy.
This is the first book I have read by this author and therefore the first in the DS Nikki Parekh series in which this is the fourth book.
There is no doubt that my enjoyment and my understanding of the main characters would have been enhanced by reading the first three books but that being said I enjoyed reading this without having done so.
The plot is centered on Bradfords large South Asian population and the author seems to have a good understanding of the tensions within that community.
The writing is sharp and edgy and the plot holds the attention throughout A very good example of modern British crime writing and definitely not your average "whodunnit". I shall now be buying the first three in the series.

In multi-cultural Bradford, a series of machete murders is occurring among the teenage population. A series of murders but not a serial killer, because forensics identifies more than one killer and more than one weapon. Behind the scenes, however, a clandestine figure known as the Honourable Fixer is organising these deaths, using the Dark Web, in return for payments. There is a high probability that they are so called “Honour” killings within the Moslem and Hindu communities, but the death of the mayor’s son, a white Christian, points otherwise. The killings and other more minor offences are being carried out by other teenagers known as the “Eyes”, managed by the “Headhunter” at the order of the “Fixer”. This is an obvious case for the empathic DS Nikki Parekh, but unfortunately she has had a serious mental crisis and is currently signed off sick and undergoing statuary psychotherapy from Dr Helen Mallory. In her absence her assistant, DC Sajid Malik, is paired with a new Inspector, Ahad, a stickler for protocol. Who are these killers, How are they organised, Why these victims? When the son of a family friend disappears, Nikki slowly gets involved but without her warrant card she can’t do much. Spurred on by this she persuades Mallory to pass her fit, although she is close to breaking again.
Nikki is a well-conceived character, but I wasn’t so convinced by Malik or Ahad or Hegley (their overall boss). This is the fourth in the Parekh series and some of the plot, especially the reasons why Nikki is so stressed, is derived from the earlier books. This is not a hinderance because the book, provides enough detail to allow the story to flow smoothly. Although it is a police procedural set in a British city, it is an atypical city and I had to put in a bit of an effort to get into the background, ‘my bad’ as one of the characters might say, but it moves rapidly so it is easy to get swept into these events in this hybrid community. Once in, it was an entertaining adventure. The writing and language seems authentic (the author lives in this community) and the style is a bit rough round the edges (some might call it gritty). I was initially annoyed, and then came to like, the interspersal of messages between the young characters, based (I’m guessing) on SnapChat, which fills in their feelings and ideas without getting bogged down in detail. The plot progresses in a logical manner but there are no great obfuscations so working out who the baddies are wasn’t a challenge. I did like the ending.

I maybe would have enjoyed this book more if I had read the earlier ones in the series. Too many things simply weren’t explained but I understand if they had all been covered the book wouldn’t have worked either.
The whole thing was also not my era including so much of the language.