City of Sins

Daniel Blake
2011
ISBN 9780007384501

Contains spoilers for Soul Murder, the first book in the series.

Soul Murder

Daniel Blake
2009
ISBN 9781439197486

Opening with a stock-standard raid in a bad neighbourhood, this book holds nothing back. Patrese and Beradino begin with a murder, an arrest, and a shooting, but are quickly catapulted into a whole different league: high profile men of the city are being burned alive.

With few clues and personal issues clouding the way, this book starts relatively slowly but quickly builds into a gripping, tension-filled ride of double-guessing and double-dealings.

I was kept guessing until the very end, and was taken by surprise, without feeling like I'd missed something obvious. The hints were in place, but presented in such a way that I don't know if anyone could have picked it.

Religion features heavily in this story. The fundamentals of both Christianity and Islam are explored more than I'd expected, and I found the casual way the Bible was quoted and God was referenced became a little distracting. Still, it was important to the story, and Patrese's reluctance to engage religion in any form helped to counterbalance the fervour of everyone else.

I really enjoyed this. Not being the usual kind of book I read, I wasn't sure how I'd go with it, but it was a refreshing change, and the heaviness of some of the details weren't so strong as to put me off reading.

Date finished: 08/12/13

Rating: 4/5