Today I am closing the Book Tour forvTHE CHALK MAN by Adam Lydon . This is book 4 in the Detective Rutherford Barnes series. Available from Amazon for 99p/99c
THE CHALK MAN (Detective Rutherford Barnes #4)
Format – Kindle
Publisher – Joffe Books Mystery, Crime Thriller, Suspense
Publication Date – 7th May 2024
Genre – Crime thriller, mystery and suspense
Author – Adam Lyndon
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MEET DETECTIVE RUTHERFORD BARNES IN THIS BRILLIANT BRITISH CRIME SERIES FROM A SERVING POLICE OFFICER, PACKED FULL OF TWISTS.
Barnes finally has the family he always longed for. But someone is coming for them . . .
Detective Barnes crouches down by the body near the seafront. Male, mid-twenties. The face is blue-white, mouth stretched open in a silent yawn.
Suddenly his eye is caught by an abrupt movement. A woman has fallen over on the pavement opposite. ‘Looks like someone’s feeling crook,’ says Howlett, his detective constable.
Then Barnes sees another person collapse nearby. A young man, fit. He hasn’t tripped. His body starts to convulse on the ground.
As panic spreads through the crowd, Barnes’s mobile rings. It’s Tamsin, his normally unflappable partner.
‘Barnes . . .’ She sounds frantic. ‘It’s Maggie.’
Barnes goes cold. ‘What about her?’
‘She was supposed to be at rugby practice. But she never showed up. She’s . . . she’s missing.’
Barnes knows his stepdaughter has been taken — and he has a very bad feeling about who’s responsible . . .
THE DETECTIVE
DI Rutherford Barnes is no longer the ambitious, idealistic young police constable he was when he joined the force. Ten years with the police has left him world-weary and a touch cynical. He’s a dedicated police officer, although he’s made mistakes, ruffled too many feathers during the course of his career — and is no longer on the fast track to promotion. No one has ever been brought to justice for the murder of his wife, and it remains a constant running sore.
THE SETTING
Set against the picturesque landscape of the South Downs, the Sussex seaside town of Eastbourne is packed with tourists during the summer — but it can seem pretty dismal during the winter months. Only fifty-odd miles from London, the town is not immune to the violence which occasionally spills over from the city. Pockets of deprivation and criminality exist alongside reminders of Eastbourne’s more genteel past in the grand Victorian hotels that line the seafront, the pier and the bandstand. The town also boasts one of Britain’s best-known — and most infamous — beauty spots, Beachy Head.
MY REVIEW
This is book 4 in the brilliant Detective Rutherford Barnes series and although they work well as stand alone you will enjoy it much more if you have read the earlier books as they have the back story to the characters in this book.
Barnes is in a happy relationship with Tamsin and her 2 children. He finally has the family he has always wanted. When he is called to the scene of a death he expected it to be just a routine case but as he is examining the body he sees a woman fall over on the pavement, then another……
This seemingly routine call suddenly becomes much more sinister and while he is trying to process what is happening Tamsin rings to tell him Maggie is missing. Barnes immediately fears that his nemesis has returned. However, his boss is reluctant to accept that the cases are linked or even that finding Maggie is their responsibility. Barnes won’t accept that and is determined that if nobody else will help then he will do it alone.
The book is full of suspense from the very start and that continues all the way through. It slows down and you relax but on the next page is more adrenaline pumping suspense. Many red herrings and twists and turns as the race against time gains momentum. Can Barnes keep his family safe from the evilness that is Stratton Pearce?
The biggest shock for me was finding out who was involved with Pearce and that was a curve ball the likes of which I have never seen.
An absolutely brilliant roller coaster of a read and definitely worth the 5 stars.
Thank you to Joffe Books for the advance digital copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
ADAM LYNDON
Adam was born and raised in Sussex. He has been a police officer for twenty years both in the UK and in New Zealand, working across a range of disciplines including uniformed ops, firearms command and as a detective in CID and specialist investigations.
He went around the world a couple of times, living in New Zealand for a year before realising home was where all the stories were. Adam writes gritty, Eastbourne-based police-procedurals with hard-edged authenticity, forming a daisy chain along the south coast alongside the likes of Graham Hurley and Peter James. He has been married for twenty years and has four children. His ambition, as his children keep reminding him, is to own a dog.
BOOKS BY ADAM LYNDON
DETECTIVE RUTHERFORD BARNES MYSTERIES:
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DEVIL’S CHIMNEY
-
BEACHY HEAD
-
BURNT OUT SECRETS
- THE CHALK MAN
FOLLOW ADAM ON:
AUTHOR WEBSITE
