Firewatching by Russ Thomas #Review #BlogTour #Thriller

ONE WRONG MOVE
A body is found bricked into the walls of a house. From the state of the hands, it’s clear the dead man was buried alive. Soon, the victim is linked to an old missing person’s case and DS Adam Tyler is called.
WILL IGNITE
As the sole representative of South Yorkshire’s Cold Case Review Unit, Tyler recognises his role for what it is – a means of keeping him out of the way following an ‘incident’. When this case falls in his lap, he grabs the opportunity to fix his stagnating career.
THE CITY
And then Tyler discovers he has a connection to the case that hopelessly compromises him. He makes the snap decision not to tell his superiors, certain that he and only he can solve the crime. But now Tyler must move carefully to find out the truth, without destroying the case or himself.

Meanwhile, someone in the city knows exactly what happened to the body. Someone who is watching Adam closely. Someone with an unhealthy affinity with fire. . .

A taut investigative thriller bursting with character and tension, introducing an enigmatic, fresh lead detective unlike any you have met before – Detective Sergeant Adam Tyler – for fans of Adrian McKinty, Tana French, Steve Cavanagh and Sharon Bolton. 

Review

It is refreshing and exciting on picking up a book to find within a few pages, enough reasons to not only know you’re going to love it, but to be absolutely certain that if you could, you’d give it more than the five stars amazon allows!

The characterisation is fabulous. Anyone that reads booksaremycwtches will know that I love to celebrate the inclusion of LGBT+ characters in a novel, so Firewatching gets a big thumbs up from me for that. Not only is there an LGBT character, but DS Adam Tyler is the lead and that is still rare enough to be celebrated, he is also what we all what in a thriller, a flawed, determined, fascinating character, who is broody and a bit of a loner.

Okay, so why else did I love Firewatching? Well it is quite frankly, thrilling and as the cliché goes, I didn’t want to put it down. The Firewatcher of the title is extraordinary and remained a mystery to me, right until the writer wanted me to find out. I have read an awful lot of thrillers in the last few years and it has become harder shock and thrill me to the extent Russ Thomas has done with his exceptional thriller. I actually sat back and went f**K me on more than one occasion! I admit I am easily scared, but seriously, this story had me reading with one eye closed, trying to block out the shocks to come. The images of the victim being buried alive made me shudder and yet I had to read on, the writing and story being so compulsive, it was impossible to run away from my fears. So face them I did and it was so worth it.

The group of characters felt so real that I could imagine them as anyone’s neighbour. None felt clichéd. Each was there to move the story forward and throw you off the scent of who the firewatcher was. It was like a great Agatha Christie novel, in which we get to know each one as an individual, so they weren’t one dimensional filler. All were consistently well written devices, any of whom could have played a deadly part in the murder, of the body found bricked into the walls of a deserted house. From old ladies with secrets to hide, a police officer with a point to prove, a priest who is an enigma, you’re constantly having to reassess who the real criminals are.

If you loved TV programmes like Broadchurch, you will love this book. It celebrates first class story telling, combines characterisation and storyline to produce and intelligent and thrilling read.

Many thanks to the author, the publisher and blog tour organiser for the ARC in return for an honest review.

You can purchase this novel from Amazon

About the author

Russ Thomas was born in Essex, raised in Berkshire and now lives in Sheffield. He grew up in the 80s reading anything he could get his hands on at the library, writing stories, watching large amounts of television, playing videogames, and largely avoiding the great outdoors. He spent five years trying to master playing the electronic organ and another five trying to learn Spanish. It didn’t take him too long to realise that he would be better off sticking to the writing.

After a few “proper” jobs (among them: pot-washer, optician’s receptionist, supermarket warehouse operative, call-centre telephonist and storage salesman) he discovered the joys of book-selling, where he could talk to people about books all day.

You can follow the author on Twitter