Thanks to Zaffre Books, William Hussey and NetGalley for the ARC; this is my unbiased review.

Jericho's Dead by William Hussey
Zaffre Books, 29th February 2024
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Synopsis:
Former CID detective Scott Jericho is done with murder. Done with puzzles. Done with the dark rage that seems to haunt him ... until a vicious serial killer targets someone close to him.

Now Jericho is back, his thirst for justice remorseless. But time is running out. Fortune tellers and psychics are being slaughtered, and everything points to a link with a live TV event due to be broadcast on Halloween night.

As a startling truth is revealed and an old enemy re-emerges, a murder beyond imagining is about to become the media event of the century.

Review:
In Scott Jericho, William Hussey has created a unique, revelatory character who is quickly becoming a favourite among early reviewers, fellow authors and readers alike.

This second outing for the Traveller sleuth is shrouded in mystery, as unknown forces assail psychics and fortune tellers, the tale told in the author's inimitable way. With plenty of shocks and bombshells, Jericho throws himself into the case, and I felt like I walked beside him, consuming each and every piece of the puzzle, desperately trying to work out what was happening.

Jericho is so emotionally flawed, but so genuinely likeable, and that has everything to do with the way he was conceived. William Hussey should be applauded, and his books added to every reader's wishlist.

#ScottJericho #JerichosDead #WilliamHussey #ZaffreBooks #NetGalley #BookReview #Bookatagram

“Jericho’s Dead,” the follow up to “Killing Jericho” takes the reader back to the fairground life and to Scott Jericho, the battered, weary, homosexual traveller and ex-police detective.

So many conflicts in this man’s make-up, yet his overall “goodness” can’t help but seep out of him and into the world.

In this second book, Jericho gets involved with mysticism and fortune teller as it links to murder. Jericho can’t just look the other way and inserts himself into the police investigation, whilst running his own theories alongside.

William Hussey has created a new hero for the ages and writes a good story, mixing the action of the chase with the character development of a solid story line.

You don’t need to have read the first book to enjoy this, but it helps as it does contain spoilers. Either way, this release stands alone as a really enjoyable read.

This is a great crime thriller.
Jericho is devastated when someone close to him is murdered and is determined to find her killer.
The Detective in charge of the case tells Jericho to leave the investigations to him but soon realises he can’t stop him.
The killer seems to be targeting psychics and with a live show due to air in a few days near Jericho’s fair, tensions are high.
Jericho speaks to the family of a psychic who was murdered and soon starts to come across more leads to help him find the killer.
I really like Jericho’s character and look forward to seeing what’s next for him.
Thanks to Bonnier Books UK and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book.

Such a great book. Even better than the first.
Scott Jericho is a great character, flawed and a little bit frustrating but you fall in love with him.
The settings are atmospheric, creepy and a little bit fun. what's better than a funfair beside a haunted house!?
The story keeps you guessing the whole way through with a believable ending.
LOVED IT!

This is the thrilling sequel to William Hussey's marvellous Killing Jericho that immerses the reader in the fascinating, informative, illuminating and more nuanced depiction of the traveller community, so often facing prejudice. We have the complicated, flawed, vulnerable, and troubled protagonist, Scott Jericho, a former police detective who has spent time in prison, who has returned to the fairground community he had walked out on. Haunted by previous events, Scott is struggling, even his relationship with Harry is facing challenges. There are numerous threads that take time to connect in a well plotted and violent narrative where the past insists on intruding. Scott finds himself caught up in strange and horrifying murders that come too close to home.

At Halloween, Darrel Everwood, the well known psychic claiming to commune with ghosts is planning to go live, broadcasting from Purley Rectory, perhaps the most haunted house in the country, linking with Jericho Fairs. Darrel is convinced he will die in 4 days time, menacing controversy bubbles as the lines are drawn between those who believe in mediums, the supernatural, folklore, seances, tarot cards and more, and those who are determined to prove it is all nothing but a world of fraud. There is plenty of drama, twists and turns, errors of judgement are made, with Scott digging into the gruesome murders, possible suspects and motives, aided by DCI Tallis, and Pete Garris is not a man to be forgotten.

Hussey ratchets up the tension and suspense, writing a rattlingly good tale that is gripping from start to finish, although I do recommend reading the first in the series to fully comprehend this astonishing and vibrant sequel with a cast of characters that are being so skilfully developed. I cannot wait to encounter Scott in his next outing. A recommended series that is distinct, different, and stands out in a crowded crime and mystery genre. Many thanks to the publisher for an ARC.

3.5 stars. Ex detective Scott Jericho is back but trying for a quiet life back at his father's fair.
Unfortunately, there is a murderer out there who is targeting Pysics, and they strike close to home.
Darrel Everwood is putting on a televised live event in collaboration with Jerico' s Fairs on Halloween. He is convinced that he will die.
Can Jericho work out who the killer is in time? Does his partner Harry have something to do with it?
I loved Killing Jericho, but I really struggled with this one.
When Jericho does work out who the killer is, I just found the explanation too long winded. It's probably just me, but I wanted it over and done with.
Thanks to Bonnier Books for the invitation to read in return for an honest review.

This is a brilliant sequel to Killing Jericho and I actually liked this one better. This time the murders are a lot closer to home for Scott and he fights to stay in control while also figuring out the case along side the help of another detective Tallis. I liked how this story related to 'witches' and brought another layer of complexity to the plot and I just really liked being back with Scott again as he tries to deal with more than just the murders.

I received this book via Netgalley for an honest review

This is the second book in the in the Scott Jericho series, and much like the first one, this book doesn't disappoint.

Scott is a messy character, and I love that we learn more about his past and how he's been dealing with the events of the previous book. I love when authors do that, instead of ignoring the possible impacts of what the characters have been through in the previous story.

This book is gripping and flows incredibly well, to leave you guessing until the end.

With a mixture of incredibly interesting characters, this is a thriller perfect if you want something you won't be able to put down

I loved the first book in this series, so was very excited to read this second outing for Scott Jericho. It certainly didn’t disappoint. Great, intelligent writing, fantastically real characters and a stunning plot. I also loved the insight into the travelling fairground; the lingo, lifestyle and camaraderie. I am intrigued by Scott’s relationship with his former boss and enjoyed the revelation at the end of the book. Looking forward to the next instalment and finding out what the gangland boss (loved him and his husbands) wants from our hero. Stunningly page turning.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Bonnier Books UK for an advance copy of Jerich’s Dead, the second novel to feature former detective turned carnival worker Scott Jericho.

Jericho is working at his father’s funfair, which has a tie-in with a live tv event scheduled for Halloween. The presenter, psychic Darrell Everwood, thinks he will be killed, but before the show one of Jericho’s relatives is brutally murdered and she’s not the first psychic to be killed that way. Jericho has a murderer to catch, if he can work out the significance after the wax dolls found beside the bodies.

I thoroughly enjoyed Jericho’s Dead with one proviso. I have not read the previous novel and I felt that I missed quite a bit by that as there are frequent references to past events and characters whose place in his life isn’t quite clear. It made the first few chapters quite confusing. I would urge any reader to read the novels in order.

The novel is in some ways slow to start as the investigation does get started until about a third of the way in. However, the scene setting is necessary to introduce all the characters and establish their agendas. This comes in useful later on when motive and opportunity are examined. I said it was slow on the investigative front initially, but the narrative isn’t slow. It’s lively and introduces some interesting characters and concepts based around belief and psychic ability. I like a good tarot reading and don’t take it seriously, but this takes a look at those who do and offers a good, well rounded assessment.

There are more murders leading up to the big event, and when I say big I mean big. I never saw it coming, due to some clever misdirection from the author. Jericho does his thing suspecting everyone and believing nothing. He gets into some side issues before solving the case. I like the final twist, which again I didn’t see coming. Throughout it all the author maintains a fast pace and some lively dialogue.

The novel is told in the first person from Jericho’s point of view. There are pros and cons to this as he is a troubled man. There is an undercurrent of violence to his personality, both mental and physical and initially I didn’t take to it, but as I got to know him I began to understand it (if I’d only read the previous novel etc.). On the other hand he is a man of action so he’s quick off the mark in his investigating and smart enough to make sense of what he learns. What I would say is that nothing comes easily to him and there always seems to be pain involved.

Jericho’s Dead is a good read that I have no hesitation in recommending.

This is the follow-up to the brilliant series opener Killing Jericho which, for maximum enjoyment, I do recommend you read before this book.
We catch up with ex-copper, ex-con, ex-showman, Scott Jericho as he's still coming to terms with what happened in the previous book. He doesn't know much about what he wants but he knows he doesn't want more of what came before. (I know I am being elusive, but if you've read the previous book, you'll know). He's even having issues with his new found relationship. The world is not being kind to him at all.
Things are ticking along, albeit not really going anywhere, until one day murder strikes his life once again when the Fortune Teller in his family Fair is found brutally murdered. Coincidentally, or not, the Fair is sited nearby the most haunted house in England, one Purley Rectory, where celebrated psychic Darrel Everwood is due to "go live"...
And so begins a cracking story full of whos and whys and whats that kept me guessing all the way through, dragging Scott in and holding him in its clutches... It also seems that the past he thought was done with, isn't...
Oooo I blooming loved this just as much as I loved the first book. I simply adore Scott as a character. He really has it all as the angst ridden guy who just wants to find his way in life but can't help but scupper himself whenever he gets a foothold in anything. He really is his own worst enemy at times.
I also love the things I learn about the Fairground and the travelling community. I especially love the vocabulary, some of which I actually use myself and was unaware of its origins. In Portsmouth we use dinlo a lot!
The storyline, as in the previous book, is just sublime. It grabbed me from the off, sucked me in, and held me captive all the way through, spitting me out at the end exhausted but wholly satisfied.
If I have just one niggle though, there is probably too much catch-up from the previous book, rather than just a little as a memory jogger. I get that author's have to strike a balance but I did feel it held the book back a little at the start.
All in all, a cracking follow-up to what was one of the highlights of my reading last year. I really can't wait to reconnect with Scott in book three. My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

This is the second novel in the Scott Jericho series, the first being Killing Jericho. Scott was a detective but sadly his temper got the better of him one day and he ended up behind bars. Now he works alongside his father in the family fairground. It is in this very fairground that Scott's 'aunt' was brutally mudered, more than this she was ritualistically despatched. Scott's father tasks him with finding the murderer, Scott being a former detective. Scott soon finds out that fortune tellers and psychics are a dying breed and not by natural causes! With a celebrity psychic giving a live televised broadcast adjacent to the fairgound in four days time on Halloween Night, something billed as being the media event of the century, Scott has little time to find the serial murderer with a penchant for psychics.
The novel was well paced and intriguing, with four gruesome murders to be investigated. A bit far fetched but the murderer's rationale had an element of logic about it. There will doubtless be a third novel as mobster Mark Noonan has asked Scott a favour, one which wasn't explored in Jericho's Dead.

There are only two things I don't like about William Hussey's Scott Jericho books.
1. You can't put them down once you start to read them. Sleep and food are forgotten.
2. There are not enough in the series, I need more !
Otherwise they are brilliant intelligent books and I just can never see the twist coming. Scott is such a brilliantly complex character who seems to have a self district button, Harry is a great foil to him.
More please ......

This is the second in what's becoming a 'must read' series set among the travelling fairground community that the author grew up in.

Scott Jericho came from a fairground background, went to university, became a detective but was imprisoned and thrown out of the police after an incident involving a paedophile prisoner. He now works on the fair, living with his boyfriend Haz, but of course continues to get involved with murders.

The murders this time around take place in the world of psychics as well as the rationalists who try to expose them as frauds. Scott is partially co-opted by a friendly detective (I'm sure we'll see more of him in future books) to help solve the murders.

It's a page turner with a number of satisfying twists along the way. I didn't like Scott's ongoing (difficult) relationship with an ex-colleague he now knows is a serial killer so much. The detective/serial killer close relationship has been done many times elsewhere and I don't think it adds much to these novels. But very enjoyable and I'll look forward to reading more.

With thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for a review copy.

Thriller/Crime genres are hugly popular with me at the moment, I seem to bask in the twists and turns of a fast-paced plot.

I read the first Scott Jericho book via Netgalley as I thought it sounded interesting, never expecting it to captivate me so fully. As soon as Will announced he was publishing his second, I knew I had to get a copy by any means possible (Fortunaly no Scott Jericho-esque tricks were required, just another Netgalley request!)

I enjoyed this one as much, if not more than the first. You can tell Will has really settled into moulding and developing the character of protaganist Scott and his "castmates" They are more layered, the story even better plotted, yet it retains it's original charm. The plot focuses heavily on pyschics, religion and the notion of "belief" It's one that will always divide camps and still have some balanced precariously between on that cliched middle fence - all our well represented and believable people here.

Finally, I stated this before, but I love that Jericho is unapoligetically gay. Not a token character so often portrayed in novels who is a plethora of cliches! He's just a normal guy in love with his boyfriend and pushes firmly away from the sterotypes.

Bravo Will and thanks for writing the second book because I can now say I have a favourite crime series. Please sir, can I have some more?

Yet again, William Hussey does not disappoint with book 2 in the Scott Jericho series. Jericho's Dead is a gritty, gory, tense, unputdownable crime novel, much like book 1, Killing Jericho.

Scott Jericho is a disgraced former police officer, whose temper often gets the better of him. I like the background of the character, and the travelling fair community he is part of. He is complex, which makes the books more suspenseful. There are various background characters that appear throughout both books, and I like this continuity, although you could read either book as a stand alone read. I look forward to reading the next installment.

Still dark and twisted, but this one’s even better than the first Scott Jericho!

Love thrillers? Read this! Love cliffhangers? Read this! Love William Hussey’s YA? Read this!

Sometimes, I start reading a book by an author and when I finish it, I only want more, more, more. That’s what happened with me when I read Hideous Beauty. I adore that story! Then I read The Outrage, such an important book. And when I found out William Hussey also writes detectives, I was over the moon. And since I’ve read both Scott Jericho books, I want to scream out loud: ‘please William can you publish at least a book a month?’ Even though his YA and adult stories are different, I’m in awe of his writing and his talent for drawing me into a story. I dive in and never want to come up again. This time I didn’t guess who the killer was. And that ending!

Jericho's Dead is the second book in the Scott Jericho series by William Hussey.

I waited far too long to read Killing Jericho and knew I couldn't make the same mistake again; so, when I saw Jericho's Dead I clicked on that request button so hard and then sat with fingers crossed until I was accepted!

Jericho's Dead is a face-paced psychological thriller that will have you whizzing through the pages faster than a waltzer could spin you. I read this book over two days, and the only reason I didn't read it quicker is because, Life.

Scott Jericho is fast becoming one of my favourite literary heroes. He is both good and bad, shadow and light, coarse and soft. Often complicated characters are difficult to write well, but William Hussey knocks it out of the park for me.

The only problem with having read and enjoyed Jericho's Dead so quickly is that I now have to wait AGES for Book 3!±

Initially I thought woah slow down, I need a little time to get back in to the life of Scott Jericho but that's not how it goes for the former Detective is it ...

We find out what's happened to his former boss, how his relationship with Harry is going and what Jericho senior has arranged to bolster the popularity and income of the fair.

The occult element contrasts well with Jerichos disbelief in the supernatural as he uses his detective and traveller skills to read the people involved ( tactics for both not too dissimilar actually).

Jericho is very much a one man show but the other characters continue to add their own stories.
Whilst there are familiar characters such as his devoted friend Sal, there are also many additions to get to know with each one well developed throughout the plot. There is definitely potential for some of these to re emerge in the future, I am particularly intruiged by an old boss of Jerichos.

It's fast paced, action filled and full of atmospheric description. So Scott Jericho, what's next after that visit at the end !? @whusseyauthor

Thank you @netgalley, I've been impatiently waiting to read Jericho's Dead and it really was a gift to read over my Birthday.

I absolutely loved Killing Jericho, William Hussey's crime fiction debut, and especially the book's lead character, Scott Jericho. He was a troubled wee soul, still is to be fair, but there was just something surprisingly charismatic about this flawed, disgraced former Detective, and his story and unique ability to read people and situations drew me right in. Jericho's Dead, book two in the series, has been one of my most anticipated reads of this year and it did not disappoint.

So what makes Scott's ability to read folks so unique? Well, not only was he a Detective, a career which required him to be a touch more observant than your average Joe on the street, but he is also part of the Traveller community. If there was a better collective of people with an ability to read people and situations at pace, I can't think of it, and Scott Jericho is one of the best. Does he always get it perfectly right? No - no one is superhuman, as some poor unfortunate souls will find out to their cost during the course of the book, but he has a better instinct than most and a real sense of justice. You might find that strange given the reason he is no longer a Detective, but when you dog deeper into that particular mistake, it comes from a very honest, if reactive, place.

I really like Scott Jericho. I like that he's far from perfect, that he makes mistakes, particularly in his personal life it seems, and that he fights a constant battle with his demons which he mostly wins. He is plagued with guilt - it haunts him - but it doesn't stop him. He loves a puzzle and he is an honourable man for whom family comes first. And family in this community goes well beyond the bloodline between him and his father. William Hussey has done a brilliant job in bringing the Traveller community to life in a way that gives us some insight into their lives, the language, the loyalty and the hard work that they put in whilst all the time battling judgment and discrimination. He doesn't try to make out that everything is perfect, but neither is it as bad as the negative headlines that many would associate with the name Traveller.

As for this particular investigation, it's a dark one and one that cuts right to the heart of the Jericho Fair. Someone is targeting Mediums, those who claim to have a direct link to the deceased. The whole case revolves around a high profile Television personality who is set to broadcast a Hallowe'en special from one of the 'most haunted' buildings in Britain. It becomes a battle of science over superstition and as well as there being a creepy undercurrent to the whole case, the setting and season add an atmospheric vibe to the whole story. Add in links to tarot, voodoo (of a sort) , and some very violent methods of dispatch, and it is the kind of story that completely drew me in and appealed to my strangely macabre sense of intrigue. I do love a touch of horror and the occult, and the edginess of the case really worked for me.

This is no regular killer, and William Hussey served up no end of suspects too, with bereaved families, scientists hell bent on proving the whole thing to be an elaborate sham, and faces from Scott's past who have somewhat suspect views on justice and proportionality when it comes to provoking a reaction. It kept me guessing to just the right moment, my epiphany coming at exactly the same time as it hit Scott in the book. Maybe a step or two ahead of the reveal, but just soon enough to make me smugly happy. The ending of the book ... well that was a shocker. Probably just as well that Most Haunted was never under such fierce scrutiny or targeting or OFCOM would have been swamped. Didn't see that one coming at all.

Now it's not all bleak and grim happenings in this book, there is a surprisingly emotional side too. For anyone who has read book one, you'll know the rollercoaster Scott went on with regards to his personal life. Things between him and Haz are not all sweetness and light this time around either, but this provides a much needed distraction from the darkness for the reader, but also an effective distraction from the investigation for Scott. The balance is just right, the effect on Scott and his concentration feeding into the story. Then we have newcomer, DCI Tallis, who makes a brilliant 'partner' (after a fashion) for Scott as the investigation progresses, and the camaraderies between the two is a real highlight of the book.

Given the blinder that the author has pulled right at the end of the book I cannot wait to see what comes next. Poor Scott deserves a bit of a break, but I very much doubt he's going to get one. To be honest, that's probably just the way I'm going to like it. Definitely recommended.