Born Bad (Manchester #1) by Marnie Riches

Description from Goodreads:

"The battle is on…

When gang leader Paddy O’Brien is stabbed in his brother’s famous nightclub, Manchester’s criminal underworld is shaken to the core. Tensions are running high, and as the body count begins to grow, the O’Brien family must face a tough decision – sell their side of the city to the infamous Boddlington gang or stick it out and risk losing their king.

But war comes easy to the bad boys, and they won’t go down without a fight. So begins a fierce battle for the South Side, with the leading Manchester gangsters taking the law into their own hands – but only the strongest will survive…"

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I seriously can’t believe this has been on my "to-be-read" pile since it came out in 2017! I should have dived into it ages ago.

Born Bad is a fast-paced thriller that kicks off after gang boss Paddy O’Brien is stabbed, sparking a brutal turf war in Manchester’s criminal underworld. Riches excels at showing the intense fallout - from the desperate choices of people like Leviticus Bell on the bottom rung, to the resilience of figures like Sheila O’Brien.

The book is raw, gripping and uses authentic dialogue with the necessary dark humour. If you like your crime fiction realistic and don’t mind the punches it pulls, pick this one up and don't leave it as long as I did!

Many thanks to the author, Avon Books UK and NetGalley for enabling me to read and, eventually, share my thoughts of this great book.

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The Gardeners' Club by Marnie Riches

 

Description from Goodreads:

"Gardening is dirty work – but should it be deadly?

When Gill Swanley decides to take up gardening to fight a midlife malaise, she never expected it to become quite such a dangerous hobby.

Pushing herself to 'get out there', Gill picks herself up the secateurs and joins the Bromley Botanists. Here she finds a seven-strong group whose main agenda is how to win the coveted Golden Trowel for best community club of the year.

But when a dead body turns up in the community greenhouse, they suddenly have more serious matters to consider than victory. They must uncover whether their arch-rivals, Croydon, are taking things to another level or whether someone more dangerous is targeting their rag tag group.

Can they dig up the truth before someone else is left pushing up the daisies?"

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Oh my word ... I can't put into adequate words how much I absolutely loved this book!  I absolutely devoured it in quick time such was the quality of the story I was reading.

I'm not going to go into the story line as the blurb says it all but what I will say is that it's full of fantastic characters each of which are unique and 'special' in their own way but, equally, they could be your neighbour, work colleague or family member such is their relateability and how well they have been written and developed.

The story is much more than a cosy, murder-mystery; it's about life and everything that is thrown at us and gardening of course!  I cannot rate this book highly enough and would recommend it to anyone and everyone.

Many thanks to the author, Michael Joseph, Penguin Random House and NetGalley for enabling me to read and share my thoughts of this excellent book.  This is the first in a new series and I can't wait for the next instalment to find out what is in store for The Bromley Botanists' Golden Trowel gardeners' club.

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The Silent Dead (Detective Jackie Cooke #2) by Marnie Riches

 

Description from Goodreads:

"She was lying as if asleep on the wooden kitchen floor, beneath the fridge covered with a child’s colourful crayon drawings. But her frozen expression showed she would never wake again…

When Detective Jackie Cooke is called out to the scene, she’s expecting a routine check. The bottle of pills on the kitchen table, next to the note with the single word SORRY written in a shaky hand, make it seem obvious what’s happened. But Jackie is shocked when she recognises her old schoolfriend Claire – and she is convinced Claire would never take her own life.

Determined to dig deeper, Jackie soon discovers evidence that proves her right: a roll of notes has been thrust down the victim’s throat. And when she finds another woman killed in the same way, she realises someone may be targeting lonely single mothers. As Jackie talks to Claire’s distraught children, one of them too young to understand his mummy is never coming home, she vows to find answers.

Both victims were in touch with someone calling himself Nice Guy – could he be the killer? Pursuing every clue, Jackie is sure she’s found a match in dead-eyed Tyler, part of a dark world of men intent on silencing women for daring to reject them. But just as she makes the arrest, another single mother is found dead – a woman who never dated at all.

Forced to re-evaluate every lead she has, with her boss pressuring her to make a case against the obvious suspect, Jackie knows she is running out of time before another innocent woman is murdered. And, as a single mother herself, she cannot help but wonder if she is in the killer’s sights. Can she uncover his true motivation and put an end to his deadly game… or will he find her first?"

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A great addition to what is fast becoming a great series and whilst this can be read as a standalone, I would recommend reading the first so you get the most out of this and also because it's an excellent read.

Like the first in the series, there is a lot to like about The Silent Dead - the characters, the plot, the twists, the back-stories, the writing style, the pacing - pretty much everything really!

Jackie Cooke is an excellent character; battling with a boss who clearly doesn't like her very much and a soon-to-be ex-husband who's moved on to pastures younger and left her with a new baby and twin boys and having to rely on her mum more than either of them would like all whilst trying to find a heinous murderer who is targeting single mums.

From the very first to the very last word, this book had me hooked and thanks must go to Bookouture and NetGalley for enabling me to read and share my thoughts of The Silent Dead and I am very much looking forward to the next in the series.

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Check out the other books by Marnie Riches I have read and reviewed:

The Lost Ones (Detective Jackie Cooke #1)

The Lost Ones (Detective Jackie Cooke #1) by Marnie Riches

 

Description from Goodreads:

"The young woman was sitting as though she might get up at any minute, her dark brown hair hanging over her shoulders. But her blue eyes were staring into the distance, into the future she would never get to see…

Despite all Detective Jackie Cooke’s experience, the murder of vulnerable teenager Chloe Smedley shakes her to the core. Chloe’s body has been left in a cold backyard, carefully posed to make it look like she could get up at any minute. As Jackie studies her innocent face, she vows to find the monster who did this.

When Jackie tells Chloe’s mother her daughter is gone, the woman’s cries cut through her. She knows the pain of an unsolved crime only too well – the disappearance of her brother as a child still haunts her family. Determined to solve the case, Jackie sets to work, finding footage of Chloe waving at someone the day she went missing. Did she know her killer?

But then a second body is found, arranged on the side of the road in another macabre scene, and Jackie becomes sure she is hunting a serial killer. Someone has been preying on the missing and vulnerable for decades. Only Jackie seems to see that they were never lost. They were taken.

Her boss is pushing for a quick solution and has no time for Jackie’s theory. But then Jackie returns home to find a brightly coloured bracelet on her kitchen counter – the same one her brother was wearing the day he vanished. The killer is taunting her directly. And Jackie will bring him to justice, no matter the risk… "

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Oh my goodness ... what a cracker of an opener to a new series!

There is so much to like about this book - the characters, the plot, the pace, the twists, the back-stories, the inventiveness of the murders, the writing style - pretty much all of it to be honest which made this a particularly hard book to put down.  Luckily, I was on holiday so didn't have the usual work and life distractions so was able to devour the pages at my leisure.

Jackie is a strong, female character; she might be heavily pregnant, the mother of twin boys, with a musician for a husband, her mother living in her basement and a boss that clearly doesn't like her but she doesn't let these hold her back or prevent her and her team from investigating what is a horrific set of murders.

The book is packed full of tension, secrets, lies and the twists and turns and the scenes of peril just keep coming.  A warning here though, the descriptions of the murders are quite graphic so if you don't like to read that sort of thing, you might want to skip over those bits.

My verdict - an excellent new series to get my teeth into and I can't wait to see what happens next with Jackie and her team and I must give my thanks to Bookouture and NetGalley for enabling me to read The Lost Ones and to share my thoughts.

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