I haven’t finished the book yet so will finish this review when I do. I love how the story is building and that the MC is a climber. An intriguing character and an incredibly well written book. More later x

Jack (Jaqueline) Kent’s first outing in this police procedure, she is an avid rock climber and is investigating burglary and now murder with a suspect she believes to climb into flats. She is also a lesbian who is wondering if her father’s solo rock climbing that lead to his death is because she came out to him. Also a story of her dead love that died while climbing with her in the Himalayas.
A bit of a mish mash of stories that had a good premise but for me didn’t gel together. I didn’t feel any sort of bond with the protagonist and didn’t care one way or another what happened to her until the last couple of pages of book.
Thank you NetGalley, Storm Publishing & Nicky Downes for an advanced copy of this book.

Detective Jacqueline “Jack” Kent may have never worked a murder case before, but that’s not going to stop her trying. It seems Ana’s murderer may have scaled the ten-story building to get in. This can’t be the killer’s first innocent victim, and if Jack doesn’t act fast, it won’t be their last.

Silent Fall by Nicky Downes has some strong female characters. I enjoyed learning about the climbing world.

However, the story was a slow burn and took quite a while for me to get into. The culprit, once revealed, seemed to come out of left field, and I'm still deciding if that was good or bad because it was such a shock.

Overall, the story was just okay for me. I would try more books by this author to see if I could connect to any characters.

#SilentFall #NetGalley @Stormbooks_co

Hmm, I just had a hard time getting into this story. I couldn't relate to the main character, but the setting and climbing background was interesting. There were some good ideas, but the plot didn't mesh together as well as it could have. Good effort, mildly interesting.

I received a complimentary copy of the book from the publisher and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I enjoyed the climbing talk and education but a few things in the book were a bit odd. The story was slow to get into and didn’t seem to flow very well. It was almost like ideas were just put onto the page without and real transitions.

DI Jack Kent runs her small team from the station in the centre of Birmingham, a long way from the mountains she loves to conquer. A well renowned climber, Jack has been involved with the climbing community since she was a child, following in her father’s footsteps, and relishing the challenges a new route brings.

When a series of burglaries start to occur in the apartment blocks around central Birmingham, Jack is asked by her Super to investigate. At first there is a lot of resistance from Jack, she wants to be in charge of a murder case, not ordinary, everyday crimes. That is until she realises that these burglaries could have only been accomplished by someone who knows how to climb, as the break ins are always done from the roof of the tower block, entering via the balcony.

This was a really hard, slow book to get into. Climbing plays an important part, and this did not pique my interest at all. However, if you can get past the flashbacks and the mountaineering jargon, then it’s not a bad story.

There are one or two iffy moments, for example ‘Darius Moore - despite his name, he was white’, which I found strange, plus Jack couldn’t decide if she was unfit due to not attending the gym regularly, or could chase criminals until she caught them as she was a regular at the gym!

The denouement was very convoluted, made to fit rather than a natural progression of the plot.

An ok read, and I enjoyed the Birmingham setting.

2.5* upped to 3*

Thank you Storm and NetGalley