My rating: 5 of 5 stars
“After all, it's one thing to run away when someone's chasing you. It's entirely another to be running all alone.”
----Jennifer E. Smith
Joseph Knox, an English author, pens his debut crime fiction, Sirens in which the author weaves a bone-chilling and terribly horrifying yet honest tale set against the ugliest and grimy backdrop of Manchester where a disgraced police detective is blackmailed to bring back a reputed MP's teenage runaway daughter safely and discreetly from the clutches of a notorious drug seller, but within few days of investigation, the detective finds some ugly clues about another missing girl's whereabouts.
Synopsis:
Sirens is the brooding and assured debut from Joseph Knox, the next big name in crime fiction.
Set in a sprawling, twilight northern city, Sirens introduces Aidan Waits, a disgraced young detective caught stealing drugs from evidence and subsequently blackmailed into going undercover. When an MP's daughter runs away from home, Waits is sent to track her down and finds himself at the center of a maelstrom of drugs, blackmail and deception.
Uncovering the motives of those involved, he's thrown forwards through politicians, police and drug lords - towards a conclusion and a truth he really doesn't want to know.
Detective Aidan Waits, who disgraced himself by stealing drugs from the evidence, is put to act undercover to discreetly bring a reputed MP's teenage runaway daughter back to her home and on the pretext of blackmailing from Waits' superior. Without left with much choice, Waits agrees to the proposition for which he needs to swim deep into the lair of the city's ugliest and shadiest drug alleys, where a barely seventeen year old girl, Isabel, has found solace and that too in the arms and the support of a notorious drug warlord, Zain Carver. Barely knee-deep into his investigation, Waits found disturbing links and clues to the case of disappearance of another girl who went missing 10 years ago in those same alleys. And with a distraction from a dangerously beautiful and cunning girl, it is becoming difficult for Waits to change Isabel's mind to get her safely back to her home. Can he save Isabel from becoming another victim?
All the while when I was reading this book, I was wondering, whether this is a debut book of the author. I was bowled over by the intensity, complexity and the intelligence behind such a well plotted urban noir. Right from the very first page itself, the story allured me into its core and kept a firm grip onto my mind, that I could let myself go from. Rarely I've come across such book where not only the mystery will intrigue me but the characters and their emotions too will engross me pretty much the entire length of the novel, and no wonder, this book strikingly falls into that category.
The author's writing style is excellently eloquent enough that is laced flawlessly with emotions, layers of twists and turns and so much tension, that will not once let the readers turn away their heads from this book. The narrative style of this book is fascinating and highly absorbing and it will feel like a strong drug gradually taking control over the minds of the readers. The story is arresting right from the very beginning itself, that it will constantly provoke the thoughts of the readers. The pacing is really fast and will read like a rush of an unpredictable wild west wind that will push the readers to the edge of their very seats.
The mystery is really well concocted by the author, perfectly with enough tensions and twists to make it look not only riveting but also frightening in the eyes of the readers. And not to mention, the author pens this tale with visually graphic scenes and their details that gives a thrilling edge to the story line. The author ends each chapter on the note of a suspenseful cliffhanger and that will keep the readers hooked into the story till the very last page.
The backdrop that is painted by the author gives a shockingly terrifying and vivid picture of the city of Manchester where the author reveals some ugliest truth buried behind the booming economy and the poshness of this city. The author brings alive this city with his exquisite words that the readers will find it interesting and perfectly well themed with the story.
The characters from this book are well developed with enough flaws and realism in their demeanor to make the readers connect with them. The main character, Aidan Waits, is a flawed-to-the-core human being, whose wit and intellect make the story smart and whose emotions make the story sensitive. Although Waits' past or back story is not that well crafted out, yet the readers can be able to feel a vibe of his sad past and the effect of it on his present-day investigation. Aidan will grip the readers' minds psychologically and they will comprehend with him till the very end. The supporting cast too will leave an imprint onto the
minds and the souls of the readers.
In a nutshell, this is a must read page-turning thriller that a reader needs to look out for early in the year of 2017 that will compel him/her to read the story with thick anticipation till the very unforeseeable climax.
Verdict: A worthwhile debut book of the year 2017!
Courtesy: Thanks to the author's publishers for giving me the opportunity to read and review an ARC of the book.
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Author Info:
Joseph Knox was born and raised in and around Stoke and Manchester, where he worked in bars and bookshops before moving to London. He runs, writes and reads compulsively. Sirens is his first novel. "Sirens is a secret I've been keeping for years, writing around bar-jobs and book-selling. The novel grew out of night-walking around Manchester and a seeing a whole other side to the city."
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