The Devil's Smile (The Yorkshire Killings #2) by Daniel Sellers

Due to be published 21-August-2025
 

Description from Goodreads:

"October, 1995. Adrian Brown's second year at Leeds University is a blur of throbbing bass line and neon-lit nights out. However, a violent encounter with a man he met in a basement club has the power to sober him up.

Sheila Hargreaves, who has grown fond of Adrian following their brush with the infamous Lollipop Man, has written a book about the murders and is busy with a new TV show, Yorkshire Crimetime. And then her erratic co-presenter Tony Tranter goes missing, and his body turns up riddled with stab wounds. Could his death be linked to several violent attacks on men?

Moving from dark city corners to the glare of the TV studio lights, Sheila and Adrian find themselves on the trail of another killer."

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I dived right into this as soon as I finished reading the first in this series, The Lollipop Man.  I was curious as to where Adrian and Sheila were in their lives and how they had developed and I wasn't disappointed.  This is the second in the series and I do think you need to have read the first to understand the back story of Adrian in particular but you might just get away with it as the author does provide some history.

The book takes place in Yorkshire in the 1990's and has a real eclectic set of characters which works really well.  There a two story lines, each of which were equally as intriguing as each other and kept me guessing as to whether they were related or not.  It is well paced and kept me reading to the end.

A good psychological thriller that I would recommend and thanks to the author, Allison and Busby and NetGalley for enabling me to read this, the second in a developing series.

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The Lollipop Man (The Yorkshire Killings #1) by Daniel Sellers

Description from Goodreads:

"When a young girl is snatched from a West Yorkshire town there are eerie similarities with a cold case from many years earlier. It can't be the same killer, can it?

Yorkshire, 1994. Eighteen-year-old Adrian spends his days working at the local newspaper, and his evenings in his local pub. But under this ordinary surface lies a haunting story. Aged ten, Adrian was kidnapped by a shadowy figure known as The Lollipop Man, who had abducted three children before. Adrian was the only one to escape.

The Lollipop Man might well have returned when another missing child whips up a media frenzy. Journalist Sheila Hargreaves, troubled with memories of her own involvement in the reporting of the previous abductions, is determined to dig deeper, atone for what she did nearly a decade ago and bring the Lollipop Man to justice."

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I haven't read anything by Daniel Sellers before but, once again, I have discovered another great British author.  This is the first in a new series and one I am very much looking forward to getting my teeth into if subsequent books are as enjoyable as this one.

After a bit of a slow start, this book gradually drew me in and by the end, had me hooked.  There are a lot of characters to get your head round so you need to keep your wits about you but I loved Adrian and Gav's friendship; it was a breath of fresh air to read about a male friendship rather than the usual female one.  The story is intriguing with plenty of twists, some of which I saw coming but others caught me unaware, together with tension and atmosphere.

Overall, a pretty successful start to a new series and I must thank the author, Allison & Busby and NetGalley for enabling me to read and share my thoughts of this, the first in a new series.

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