Steven Mason is back. We first met him in The Dead Hand of Dominique which was a quirky fast-paced crime thriller with Essex gangs and gangsters.
Then we had shenanigans in the Med. Book 2, Medusa and The Devil upped the ante. Darkly comic, eccentric and violent. Costa Del Lock Stock!

Now, Simon Marlowe completes the trilogy we never knew we needed but feels so right.
Mason is more foul mouthed and violent than ever. Drugged up and rude & crude on the streets of Amsterdam he's fallen about as low as it's possible to go.
His criminal career appears to be in tatters as he embraces a life of debauchery. Perhaps he's done with crime but crime hasn't done with him!

It's not long before he's initiated into the Bloodaxe gang and they are as violent as they sound. Is Mason capable of reaching his true potential or will he spiral down into a drug fuelled oblivion?

Where this book excels is that it reads really well as a standalone story to entice new readers and melds the crime and spy thriller genres together. The added dimension of the spy craft, conspiracies, nationalism & war crimes, far right politics and the pandemic elevates the adventure into something new, exciting & unpredictable.

It's like Le Carre meets Martina Cole but is unmistakably Simon effing Marlowe (as Mason would say), as the author absolutely stamps his authority over every single page.

The plot keeps you guessing and turning the pages. Once started it's difficult to put down. The Mason Made Trilogy is more addictive than whatever Steven has been snorting.
An absolute blast!

Thank you to the publisher and author for the ARC for review.

At last something a bit different! After reading so many run of the mill crime thrillers and procedural detective stories, I've been searching for something a bit more clever, challenging and surprising. This book ticked those boxes, and more. It was intelligent, witty and thought provoking....and yet it was still a mind boggling thriller with some of the darkest crimes thrown in the mix. Be warned. I found the first few chapters quite difficult to read as the content and language was not to my taste, but it still had me hooked. And later on in the book it becomes apparent why these first chapters are so important to the main character in the story.
I finished this book with that exhilarating feeling you get at the end of a rollercoster ride, and then want to go round again. 'Goodness, what have I just read?!' I need to read this book again.

Honest review in return for a Netgalley ARC

This was a strong third entry in the Mason Made series, it had that concept perfectly and enjoyed the use of horror to tell the story. The characters were everything that I wanted and enjoyed the overall story being told. I thought it used the Hell element perfectly and felt like the same world as the previous books.

DNF, this was not a good fit for me. Did not enjoy the writing style or the plot.
Would be willing to try another book by author