The body of a man is found among the rubbish, his own severed finger in his mouth. Then more bodies are discovered with the same mutilation. Smith and his team are met with a vow of silence from the suspects…
The Creed is the 30th book in the DS Jason Smith series of police procedurals. The whole series is brilliant so read them ASAP!
A sinister cult/group is targeting abusers. One member breaks her vow of silence to contact the police but this only leads to more questions for Smith and his colleagues. Could hypnotism be responsible for the silent suspects? Smith decides to explore this angle and it puts him at odds with his superiors once again.
On the personal side of the plot, Smith and Whitton’s plan to adopt Fran meets with difficulty in the shape of a jobsworth social worker. His colleagues also have their fair share of emotional turmoil in the form of break ups and this leads to the usual banter and teasing.
The style of writing is easy to read and the characters are brilliantly depicted and brought to life through their dialogue. There is a humour in the character relationships which lightens the tone as well as adding realism. The deaths were not as grisly as other books in the series and the hypnotism gave a unique angle to the case.
The Creed is another excellent addition to the series.
THE CREED (Detective Jason Smith #30) by Stewart Giles
From bestselling author: Stewart Giles comes another brilliant addition to the Detective Jason Smith.
Detective Sergeant Jason Smith thought he’d seen every kind of murderer there was to see.
Until now.
When the body of a man is found in an alley, Smith thinks it’s just one more unlucky soul in the wrong place at the wrong time.
But why was his index finger severed, and shoved inside his mouth?
When another corpse is discovered with a finger in his mouth, Smith is baffled.
He gets a break in the investigation in the form of an anonymous call from a woman who claims to know why the men had to die, but the trail hits a dead end when Smith realises what he’s dealing with.
A group of people are hell bent on killing, but every one of them has pledged a vow of silence to the creed they hold sacred.
As the bodies keep on piling up, Smith wonders if the silent killers devoted to The Creed are going to be the ones to finally outsmart him.
What readers are saying about THE CREED:
I adore this series and get through the books rather quickly as they are all tantalising page turners. Stewart has a gift of a twisty mind (that is a compliment! honest!) that can take the reader on a journey quite like no other whereas one small piece comes into place and then boom! – Misfits Farm
I enjoyed the murder investigation. Smith’s personal life is like a soap opera and this for me is the addiction! When I reach the end of the book, I am eagerly awaiting the next installment! Once again, a thoroughly enjoyable read, highly recommended.- Carol
This author never writes two books the same, mind-blowing cases that keep you entertained. Smith is a fantastic detective and a family man that brings the books to life. I loved it. Once again it’s a five stars and more. – Booklover Bev
There are usually plenty of bodies through these books, but they are fun reads mainly due to the great characters. The storylines are usually nasty and twisted, and goodness knows where Stewart gets his ideas from, but the darkness is certainly offset by plenty of humour. – Maureen
Stewart Giles – Author Bio
After reading English at 3 Universities and graduating from none of them, I set off travelling around the world with my wife, Ann, finally settling in South Africa, where we still live.
In 2014 Ann dropped a rather large speaker on my head and I came up with the idea for a detective series. DS Jason Smith was born. Smith, the first in the series was finished a few months later.
3 years and 8 DS Smith books later, Joffe Books wondered if I would be interested in working with them. As a self-published author, I agreed. However, we decided on a new series – the DC Harriet Taylor: Cornwall series.
The Beekeeper was published and soon hit the number one spot in Australia. The second in the series, The Perfect Murder did just as well.
I continued to self-publish the Smith series and Unworthy hit the shelves in 2018 with amazing results. I therefore made the decision to self-publish The Backpacker which is book 3 in the Detective Harriet Taylor series which was published in July 2018.
After The Backpacker I had an idea for a totally new start to a series – a collaboration between the Smith and Harriet thrillers and The Enigma was born. It brought together the broody, enigmatic Jason Smith and the more level-headed Harriet Taylor.
The Miranda trilogy is something totally different. A psychological thriller trilogy. It is a real departure from anything else I’ve written before.
The Detective Jason Smith series continues to grow. I also have another series featuring an Irish detective who relocated to Guernsey, the Detective Liam O’Reilly series. There are also 3 stand alone novels.
This week we said a final goodbye to my great uncle Roy. He was awarded an OBE for being an MOD languages lecturer for over 40 years and received the Order of the Rising Sun (the third highest honour in Japan, for his languages skills that promoted international relations).
It’s that time of year again where Duolingo tells you how you’ve been doing, and it felt apt that my language learning has been good again and Uncle Roy would have been proud.
Christmas 1924 is rapidly approaching and Lady Eleanor Swift and her fiance are looking forward to a quiet romantic festive period to plan their future together. But plans go awry when they are summoned to a shooting party by the Duke of Auldwyke and their host’s secretary is murdered within minutes of their arrival…
A Midwinter Murder is the 20th book in the Lady Swift series of cosy historical murder mysteries. Her redoubtable butler, Clifford, and long suffering fiance, Chief Inspector Hugh Seldon, assist her in trying to catch the killer and save Christmas!
Ellie turned down the invite to attend the duke’s annual shooting party but her RSVP was lost and now she feels honour bound to uproot herself and her staff in order to attend. Her host is the reclusive Duke of Auldwyke who hasn’t been seen in public since the death of his wife. The prize for winning the shooting competition is an audience with His Grace and the granting of a wish. But the only thing Ellie wants is to bring a murderer to justice.
There are a range of suspects among the guests and staff. Ellie, Hugh and Clifford have various motives to explore and their investigation reveals many alibis are not true. I was kept guessing until the reveal at the end, although I did deduce part of the direction the case was heading in.
Ellie brings her entourage along with her which offers some light hearted relief, especially Gladstone and Tomkins (the pets). I loved the festivities and jollity of the ladies which brought a real warmth to their parts of the narrative. There are some big conversations with her fiance Hugh as they plan their future together.
A Midwinter Murder is an enjoyable murder mystery and I enjoyed the historical details.
Book Description:
Homemade baubles, reindeer-shaped cookies and snowy walks across the rolling moors… but Lady Swift’s festive plans are ruined when a body turns up!
Winter 1924. When Lady Eleanor Swift unexpectedly finds herself a guest of the reclusive Duke of Auldwyke, she’s determined to enjoy Christmas with all the trimmings at his sprawling manor house. And that includes kisses under the mistletoe and cozying up by the fire with her fiancé, dashing detective Hugh Seldon.
Instead, the season of goodwill turns frosty as she finds the Duke’s studious secretary, Mr Porritt, dead in the storeroom. Clasped in his chilly hand is a golden pendant in the shape of a rose. The Duke denies ever having seen the necklace before. But Eleanor can see the lies in his eyes… Did it belong to his mysteriously absent wife?
Hugh and Eleanor must ditch relaxing with hot cocoa in favour of interviewing the Duke’s holiday guests. Every suspect has a secret they’d kill to keep: the socialite with the false name, the Sir with a questionable inheritance and the husband hiding a crack in his marriage.
As the blizzard outside rages, Auldwyke Hall becomes cut off. Trapped by the snow, Eleanor and Hugh must skate around the increasingly secretive Duke to unwrap the identity of the killer. But does the answer to the secretary’s murder lie with a ghost of Christmas past? And when an attempt is made on the Duke’s life too, they realise the killer is closer than they think…
A gripping and twisty Golden Age murder mystery set in a country house on the Yorkshire moors, perfect for fans of Agatha Christie, T.E. Kinsey and Lee Strauss!
Author Bio:
Verity Bright is the pseudonym for a husband-and-wife writing partnership that has spanned a quarter of a century. Starting out writing high-end travel articles and books, they published everything from self-improvement to humour, before embarking on their first historical mystery. They are the authors of the fabulous Lady Eleanor Swift Mystery series, set in the 1920s.
Detective Chief Superintendent Kat Frank returns to work after the death of her husband and is put in charge of a pilot scheme into the use of AI. Will this new technology have a positive or negative effect on solving crimes…?
In the Blink of an Eye is a police procedural with a difference due to the AI scheme.
It has been an emotional few months for Kat but she is ready to return to her policework, only this time she has an AI member of the team to contend with. Lock can take on different manifestations but cannot attune to the subtleties of human compassion and gut instinct that Kat thinks are crucial to being a good officer.
The first stumbling block is the choice of case to investigate. Kat has been told that she is only able to look at cold cases under the AI remit. Her team choose one case and the AI programme picks another. She decides to investigate both to compare and contrast human versus robot but she starts to notice unexpected similarities in the two cases.
The majority of the book is written to show the police investigation but there are also chapters to show an unnamed man being held captive and drugged. The latter creates a wonderful tension and I made the asumption that the man is one of the two missing teens, but which one? I was completely swept up in the plot and lives of the characters. The AI element gave a unique and fascinating dimension to the book which I really enjoyed.
In the Blink of an Eye is a brilliant police procedural with a great team (human and virtual!)
Book blurb
In the UK, someone is reported missing every 90 seconds.
Just gone. Vanished. In the blink of an eye.
DCS Kat Frank knows all about loss. A widowed single mother, Kat is a cop who trusts her instincts. Picked to lead a pilot programme that has her paired with AIDE (Artificially Intelligent Detective Entity) Lock, Kat’s instincts come up against Lock’s logic. But when the two missing person’s cold cases they are reviewing suddenly become active, Lock is the only one who can help Kat when the case gets personal.
AI versus human experience.
Logic versus instinct.
With lives on the line can the pair work together before someone else becomes another statistic?
Eleven years ago, Aaron Alexander was convicted and imprisoned for killing 9 year old Joshua by running him over while high on drugs. He has served his sentence and is released from prison and Joshua’s mum is determined to kill him. Can Tobias stop his wife from exacting her terrible revenge…?
Redemption is a tense and emotional thriller set in America.
Evelyn has been planning her revenge on her son’s killer and is now ready to put her plan into action. Her husband goes along with it but is hoping to persuade her to change her mind. So Evelyn drugs him and abandons him at a hotel so she can proceed. Tobias has to think on his feet to reach Aaron and protect him.
Wow. What a fantastically dreadful premise. The death of a child is one that no parent ever wants to imagine. Tobias and Evelyn have been driven apart by their grief and her determination to seek revenge. The book is written from the first person narratives of Evelyn, Tobias and Aaron. Each character is vividly depicted and the emotion was raw and honest. They are three dimensional characters and inspire a range of emotions in the reader.
There are some violent episodes and mentions of abuse and suffering. However these emphasise the emotional motivation of the characters rather than being gratuitous. I loved the dilemma scenario created and sustained throughout the book. Do two wrongs ever make a right? The book concludes satisfactorily and I felt uplifted by the hope for the future, that all characters got the redemption they deserved.
Redemption is a brilliant thriller full of complex emotions.
Book blurb
Aaron Alexander has just been released from jail after serving eleven years for causing the death of Joshua Moore in a hit-and-run. Now a free man, all he wants to do is stay on the straight and narrow and leave his troubled past behind him.
But for Joshua’s mother Evelyn, eleven years in jail isn’t nearly enough. Consumed by grief and rage, she has been waiting for Aaron’s release, counting down the days until she can exact the revenge he deserves. And now that time has come.
However, as Evelyn and her husband Tobias embark on a road trip to track Aaron down, they soon find themselves caught on two different sides of a gripping game of cat-and-mouse. Because Tobias knows what Evelyn is planning, and he will do anything to save her from herself. Even if it means protecting the man who killed their son.
Locked in a collision course set in motion eleven years ago, Aaron, Evelyn and Tobias are about to find out whether the road they have chosen leads to retribution . . . or redemption.
