*This novel was read and reviewed without reading the first novel*

~ TLDR ~
Done with murder and puzzles, former CID detective and ex prisoner Scott Jericho returns to his roots at the Jericho travelling fair. A series of murders targeting fortune tellers and mediums however, forces him back into his role as detective as he tries to solve the case, while dealing with personal relationships.


~ Summary ~
📖 Plot: Very linear from going clue to clue. The ending is tedious and cliche, with Jericho confronting the killer, detailing exactly how they did it, while the killer just stands and listens - typically do not enjoy this type of conclusion as it always feels long winded.

👤Characters: Jericho himself is an interesting character and I quite enjoyed following his story. However, the side characters involved in the main murder story were uninteresting to me. I didn’t really care about them or what happened to them.

✍️Writing Style: Rich and evocative, though occasionally unnecessarily descriptive. Enjoying the overall tone but not the plot, I'm going to go back to the first novel, as the recapping of it in this novel piqued my interest.

~ Highlights ~
I thoroughly enjoyed the writing style - it’s one which I wanted to continue reading even though the plot was lacking. Jericho is an engaging and rich protagonist - with a lot of characteristics standing out from the typical detective.

The setting is unique and looks at the culture of travellers.

Damian Lynch does a fantastic job narrating the audiobook. He captures the characters in an immersive way, and although many of the characters felt lackluster, he did a good job of making them unique and real through his voice work.

~ Lowlights~

A lot of the side characters involved in the main story lack dimension and didn’t feel particularly interesting to me. I was more interested in the history of the characters that appear in the first book.

The recapping of and involvement of characters linking back to the first book were far more intriguing to me than the main storyline, and had me wishing I was reading the first novel instead, as I have accidentally started on book 2 first. I am confident that had I already read the first book, I would still be uninterested in this plot - it had the makings of a gripping story, however it somehow fell a bit flat for me.

Jericho’s suspicions of (view spoiler)

~ Recommendation ~

For fans of: Crime novel fans looking for a unique protagonist with LGBTQ themes.

Format: Audiobook.
Rating: 3🌟


Thank you Bonier UK Audio for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

Celebrity psychic, ghost hunter and TV star, Darrel Everwood has a big event planned, the most significant one of his career. On Halloween in a TV spectacular, he will summon ghosts in the most haunted house in Britain, a nineteenth century vicarage. It is much needed because his reputation has been trashed in the tabloids and now a physicist debunker of the supernatural is out to demonstrate he is a charlatan. Still, he’s planning for huge numbers on site, with Jericho’s Fair an added incentive for people to come, as well astronomical viewing figures. If only he can pull off the greatest show of his life.

Scott Jericho is not taken in by Everwood’s hubris but has other things on his mind, his relationship with Harry, who has joined him on the circuit, is faltering. His attention is grabbed and investigative mind reawakened when somebody close to him, a long-established member of the fair is brutally murdered. Left behind in the savagery is a wax doll, echoes of a voodoo doll, which has been mutilated. When Scott makes a link to an earlier killing, he becomes concerned that a serial killer is taking revenge on fake spiritualists and fortune seekers. What better target than prime time TV on Halloween.

Another dark and bloody serial killer tale with a touch of black humour. Mediums and spiritualists are an easy target, but there is something delicious when some are hoisted by their own petard. Fortune telling at the seaside or fair is generally a bit of fun, nothing to be taken seriously. However, a few individuals fall under the spell of some of the shadier spiritualists they can become exploited either financially or psychologically. Here the reader will get a taste of how it’s done, cold readings and dickering and then just when you believe it is all hokum a seed of doubt is place. So nicely judged.

Scott’s relationship with Harry is fraught and seemingly close to collapse when a visitor from Scott’s past arrives. Enforcer and ex-dalliance Benjamin Halliday, with his magnificent Hull accent appears to remind Scott of other times. Can Sal knock some sense into him.

The fair is being haunted by two disturbing individuals, a self-styled clergyman and a suspected killer, adding to Scott’s list of suspects.

A wonderfully entertaining serial killer story.

The Narration - The range of voices was good and he managed a fair stab at my local accent, which is somewhat derided by the author. A bit softly spoken but an enjoyable listen.

I would like to thank Net Galley, the author and publisher for access in exchange for a fair review,

Jericho’s Dead is a sequel that I was SO looking forward to, and it did not disappoint!! I read this as a dual read between the physical and the gifted audiobook version from NetGalley. I highly recommend both formats as both made me feel incredibly immersed in the story.

Following on from Killing Jericho, I wasn’t quite sure which direction Hussey would go in. The vibes of hauntings, mediums and media clashes brought everything and more to the sequel that I wanted! This was another twisty, complex mystery full of murder and messages. Alongside Jericho’s hunt for the truth, we saw his relationships in a new way, as well as his past coming to rest its ugly head. This all made for an absolutely ADDICTIVE read that I’d recommend to anybody!

Queer rep, loads of action, an insight into the traveller community, and tonnes of mystery. What’s not to love?!

Engaging and unique, the second outing of former police officer Jericho is easily enjoyed whether you're already familiar with Hussey's fairground traveller/petty criminal turned former cop character or, completely new to the series like me.

Having returned to his fairground family, having been released from prison, Jericho is trying to rebuild his life and former relationships while trying to decide what the future may hold. When a series of murders see one of his own being killed, Jericho is quickly embroiled in a battle to determine who is behind the crimes, while also having to grapple with former enemies and secrets from his past, some which could damage his future.

A very interesting take on police procedural crime, this is a delightful read and expertly cast audiobook. I think this is a series which will definitely be added to my crime reading list.

Scott Jericho was a CID Detective and will need his skills when his Aunt is murdered and her body butchered. Her’s will not be the only killing leading up to a live TV event on Halloween night. Plenty of tension in this well paced novel.

Really enjoyed this very well written and well narrated novel (I listened to the audiobook). Great characters who have their flaws. Plot twists and danger throughout. Who wants fortune tellers and psychics dead and why? Enjoy finding out.

Jericho is back!

What's it about?

In "Jericho's Dead," former CID detective Scott Jericho is drawn back into the world of crime when a serial killer targets someone close to him. As fortune tellers and psychics are murdered, each crime scene marked by wax effigies, Jericho races against time to solve the case. The killings are linked to a live Halloween TV event, and celebrity psychic Darrel Everwood fears he will be next. Amid these events, Jericho confronts startling truths, an old enemy, and suspicions about his lover Harry's possible involvement, leading to a murder that threatens to become a major media sensation.

What did I think?

It was great to return to Jericoh's world, he is such a unique and complex characters and I love that he is so different to any protagonist I've read in a crime thriller series before. This story is dark, violent and mysterious with very creepy "other worldly" undertones. The atmosphere and tension the author creates keeps you on edge, turning the pages as they drop plot twists along the way. It's a very dark crime thriller which I love, with a flawed original main character who despite their complexities, you are rooting for. Overall, a great follow up to book 1, it's just as tense, dark and shocking.

Jericho’s Dead is the second book in the Scott Jericho series. However, if you’ve not read the first book then don’t worry as William Hussey does recap the important bits of his back story that you need to know. This does make for a slower start, but once started then the pace picks up. The story revolves around the CID detective and psychics and fortune tellers are being slaughtered. The premise of the story is great, and if it wasn’t for the slower start then I would have thoroughly enjoyed this book.
I listened to the audiobook version of the story, and I have to say that the narrator’s tone is gentle and smooth and easy to listen to. Lynch provides good differences between the different characters and whilst there’s a lot of violence and gore, he doesn’t over act this which is quite nice.

This is a well narrated audiobook experience, which feels immediate and immersive as the story unfolds. The narrative itself does leave something to be desired - though the first installment of this macabre series hit a lot of similar marks, Jericho's Dead loses its way in parts, making it difficult to suspend our disbelief as Scott comes across yet another serial killer intent on harming the circus community.

Good Audiobook, Narrator was good.
Having read Killiing Jericho which I really enjoyed I was pleased to get the audiobook.
An interesting read and it was good to catch up with Scott Jericho again. Some shockingly macabre murders of fortune tellers, would Scott be able to work out who had carried then out without overstepping the line into police territory.
Thank you to Netgalley, William Hussey and Bonnier UK Audio, Zaffre for an ARC in return for an honest review.

William Hussey presents us with a unique tale of crime fiction, with a dash of the supernatural.

We enter the world of the Fairground, with it's fascinating characters, community and language.

You are kept guessing, as a string of multiple suspects are created.

JERICHO'S DEAD is the second book in the series, but it can be read as a stand alone.

I listed to this novel in audiobook format, and enjoyed the narration.

DNF AT 20%
i just couldn’t get into this audiobook at all and im gutted as i have loved williams other books

Proper smashing thriller. Loved that the protagonist was from the travelling community and also that he was a gay man. The character building made the book for me. Although the premise and plot was equally great. Very well written, I don’t know why I left it so long to listen, as I really enjoyed it. Going straight on to book 2

I'm afraid that what attracts people to the Jericho novels, i.e., Scott Jericho, is exactly what turns me off. I find this overly aggressive, macho ex-detective really irritating. I know he has "reasons" for being this way but I find this "don't mess with me/ you wouldn't like me when I'm angry/Danny Dyer" clone just a bit too much of a caricature. Throw in him being an ex-detective, ex-traveller (now back to traveller), bouncer but gay and in love with a kind, green-eyed, handsome guy that everyone loves, and I think you've ticked every box.

I'm also not too keen on very violent, bloody murder mysteries. I guess I would have known this had I managed to finish the first book (Killing Jericho). And I'll say one thing to anyone who wants to read this as a stand-alone - it gives away the end of Killing Jericho so read that first.

However I listened to the audio (which I often find helpful if I'm struggling with the prose style) and it is extremely well read by Damian Lynch who didn't make it melodramatic and made a good distinction between the various characters. He has a pleasant voice to listen to and I enjoyed that (if not the content) very much.

The story itself revolves around the psychic community as a prominent celebrity medium builds up to a show on Halloween. He fears for his life and won't say why but he is being hounded by various secular and religious types who call him a fraud. However, before he even begins, there are other deaths that show all the hallmarks of a killer on a mission to bring down all psychics.

The end was, for me, a bit of a letdown. The explanation of the crime was so incredibly long and detailed that I drifted off, but if you're someone who dislikes any loose ends, you'll enjoy it.

Simply not for me.

Thankyou to Netgalley and Bonnier UK Audio for the excellent audio advance review copy.

Loved this Audio book and such an usual storyline of Fortune tellers and psychics are being slaughtered funnily enough they don't see it coming ?
Loved the Scott Jericho character apparently this is the 2nd book so I have reserved the first audio book from the library

I really enjoyed Killing Jericho, the first in this series. Jericho's Dead has all the same ingredients - a serial killer with a theatrical bent, an insight into the world of the travelling showmen, and Jericho's trademark insights and dark humour, but I didn't fall in love with it in quite the same way.

A couple of reservations: while the plot runs like clockwork, at time the twists feel a little contrived. I also felt many of the secondary characters among the showmen, particularly his childhood female friend, seem to appear only to tell Jericho and especially his partner, Harry, how great they are. There was also an awful lot of time spent recapping the plot of the first book (if you haven't read Killing Jericho, you do need to read them in order) and some of the characters from the first book felt shoe-horned into this one. I also wonder how often a man who is no longer in a police/investigative role can keep happening across serial killers.

On the plus side, the audiobook narration was great and it was a fun, pacy read with lots of contemporary cultural references.

In the second installment of William Hussey's Scott Jericho series, our eponymous hero is trying to move on from the horrifying events of his first outing, focusing on his rekindled relationship with his boyfriend, Harry, and on re-establishing himself as an integral part of his father's travelling fair. Naturally, it doesn't take long for him to become embroiled in a serial killer's twisted puzzle, and when someone close to him is targeted, Jericho will stop at nothing in his quest for justice.

As I wrote in my review of Killing Jericho (Scott Jericho #1), Hussey has created an exciting, original protagonist in Scott Jericho - a gay, disgraced former CID detective who grew up in the community of travelling showmen who make their living by visiting towns with their collection of rides, stalls and foot outlets. Famously insular, the showman culture still cultivates a certain mystique, and generates a fair amount of prejudice and ignorance from the settled community.
The setting is unique, and Hussey really sells us on the tight knit, fiercely loyal community. As in the first entry in the series, he does an excellent job of bringing the vibrant context of the travelling fair and its populace to life, and of celebrating its rich history and the unique bond its members share.

Cultural specificity is always important when writing a novel with such a particular context, but it does at times feel forced and disrupts the flow of the story. When I listened to Jericho's Dead, I had just finished Kevin Kwan's Crazy Rich Asians, a novel peppered with words and phrases in Cantonese, Hokkien and Malay which are unobtrusively footnoted. In contrast, having Jericho translate the showman vernacular for his joskin boyfriend is not the smooth device the author thinks it is. [HARRY, A JOSKIN IS THE NAME WE USE FOR A SETTLED PERSON WHO IS NOT A SHOWMAN.] On a related note, everyone in this novel uses 'traveller' synonymously with showman, which I found odd given that in my own experience - my dad's family have been showmen for generations - the community tends to be at pains to distance themselves from English and Irish Travellers and the negative sterotypes commonly attributed to these groups.

The subtext is very much the text at the beginning of the book, with Hussey ensuring that readers cannot possibily misconstrue the demons Jericho is currently wrestling with:
'If he meant harm to me or my people then he would pay, not only for his sins but for my own. My inability to save the innocent victims of Bradbury End; my complicity in the final murder that had occurred there; my guilt at not seeing my old boss Peter Garris for the monster he truly was; my now faltering relationship with Harry; all of it.'

Once this has all been established, the story really gets going, and it's a nicely-paced, engaging mystery with a slew of intriguing potential suspects intertwining to keep the reader on the hook. We are also introduced to some new characters who fill in more of Jericho's back story, which helps him to feel like a more substantial, developed character than in the first book. The prose feels more subtle and less overwritten than in Killing Jericho as well, with only one line making me laugh out loud it was so ludicrous - 'That still bleeding face, red and slick as a freshly dipped toffee apple', in case you're wondering. There are some preposterous leaps of logic to propel the plot which really require the reader to suspend their disbelief, as well as some utterly implausible interactions between Jericho and the police DCI investigating the murders, but Hussey delivers a solid ending which is at once surprising and makes perfect sense, and which sets up the next installment perfectly.

I listened to the audiobook of this title and really enjoyed the narrator, Damian Lynch, who adeptly captures a range of characters, including preening TV psychic Darrel Everwood, a pompous professional sceptic Dr Joseph Gillespie, the salt-of-the-earth showmen, a menacing mobster and a selection of well-bred old ladies.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bonnier UK Audio for the opportunity to listen to and review an ARC of this book.

Another unique and gripping case with crime fiction’s first traveller detective!

I really enjoyed Hussey’s first novel KILLING JERICHO, as it felt really fresh within the genre. I enjoyed this one for exactly the same reason! Hussey blends crime and investigation so well with traveller culture and tradition. Jericho’s way of life and his history is just as interesting as the crime he becomes embroiled in. I was fascinated by the mix of spiritualism and the supernatural, which Hussey brilliantly jarred with the pragmatism of Jericho’s logic and deduction. The gradual unraveling of the case is expertly crafted and I really enjoyed trying to gauge whether there were supernatural elements at play. This also allows for lots of exploration around manipulation, deceit, charlatanism and greed, which helps build tension in the plot. The case had me on tenterhooks until the final revelations and Hussey manages to manoeuvre readers down paths of misdirection like Mystic Meg at her crystal ball!

In addition to the crime, we continue to get more tension in Jericho’s relationship - even to the point where he questions whether Harry is involved in the murders - which adds another layer of suspense and emotion to the proceedings. All of this plays out over the audio really well and the narration really captures all of the different underlying emotions. Similarly, all of the atmospheric tension is perfectly captured and I felt genuinely unsettled at points whilst listening. Needless to say, I was totally hooked and my headphones were practically forcefully removed from my head!

Another brilliant case for Jericho and I can’t wait to see what he faces next!

Book two in the Scott Jericho series is focused on a series of gruesome murders targeting fortune tellers and psychics, culminating in a high-stakes Halloween broadcast featuring celebrity psychic Darrel Everwood, who ominously predicts his own death. When an attack hits closer to home, ex DCI Scott Jericho is sucked back into his former world, inserting himself into the investigation.
 
Hussey delves deep into the life of Scott Jericho, a complex and disgraced former detective now working at his father’s fairground.  Our protagonist is a multifaceted and compelling character; he’s hot-headed, intuitive, determined, and deeply flawed. His ability to read people, honed by both his detective background and his roots in the Traveller community, set him apart. Jericho's internal struggles and tumultuous relationship with his boyfriend Haz are explored with sensitivity and compliment rather than distract from the main story.

The fairground setting, rich with the lingo, lifestyle, and camaraderie of the travelling community, provides a vivid backdrop that adds depth and authenticity to the story. The supernatural element delivers a creepy, atmospheric, and dark layer.  There are a host of great supporting characters that enrich the story, providing both camaraderie and tension.

Each character is well-developed, contributing to the novel's overall intrigue and complexity.
Hussey provides multiple suspects and motives for our consideration; he throws in various clues and red herrings to keep us on our feet – I was hooked. 

Again I’ve read out of order (sorry!) proving this can be read standalone.  The reviews for book one (Killing Jericho) are glowing, so don’t do like me – read in order!

If you’re looking for a highly original thriller, with a unique and loveable protagonist I’d recommend picking this one up. I hope there’s a book three on the cards.

A huge thanks to Zaffre, the author, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this in exchange for an honest review.

The follow up to Killing Jericho and just as good. I like how the characters grew in this book making them more rounded. Love the series so far and look forward to the next book. Damien Lynches excellent narration adds to the overall feel of the books and hope he continues for the future books. Thanks to Bonnier Books audio and Netgalley for this audiobook ARC.

🎧Audio Book Review🎧

Jericho's Dead
William Hussey

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

I was very late to my introduction to both this author and to Scott Jericho - having read the first book in this series - Killing Jericho - back in December, 8 months after it's release.
I was completely obsessed and couldn't wait to get hold of this second book in the series - yet still struggled to fit it into my packed schedule.
I am beyond happy that I've now managed to make time to read this because quite honestly, this was just as brilliant as the first, if not better!

Following on from the events of book 1, we now see Scott more settled in his role with the fair and back with Harry.
But as they set up to compliment the set of an upcoming TV broadcast with celebrity psychic Darrel Everwood - things take a macabre turn as Darrel is convinced he will die here.
As Scott investigates, a killer emerges and he is once again flung right into the middle of a complex case.

I absolutely love our flawed, determined, caring and relentless Scott.
He's one of those characters that jumps right off the page and you just can't help getting involved in!
I have absolutely nothing in common with him but find it so, so easy to connect, empathise and root for him the whole time - even when you know that he's maybe bending those rules just a tad!

Once again, the setting is wonderful.
I loved the way that Hussey brings the fair to life with the most vivid descriptions and immerses us completely.
The focus on the fortune teller/psychic element here and setting this over Halloween, gives this a slightly creepier, paranormal vibe than the first book and I absolutely loved this shift.

The plot was again complex, giving us plenty of new characters to get to grips with and a host of suspects to whittle down.
I was still stumped until we neared the big reveal where the tension builds up and the threads begin to come together leading us to a shocking conclusion for the case and an even bigger killer cliffhanger.

I'm already excited for book 3 and desperate to see what will follow, but Scott better get healing quickly - because I can't see anything good coming from this final sucker punch!





💕Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for my ARC copy - this is my honest review 💕