Hello, Book Dragons! Happy Lockdown Valentine’s Day!!! ❤ Any plans? To be honest, I have no idea what we are going to do… Take away? A drink? We will see…
Today I would like to welcome you all on my stop of the Blog Tour for The Killing Choice By Will Shindler and I would like to share a review, with all of you. Thank you very much to Jenny from Hodder & Stoughton for the invitation. Please do show some love to all the wonderful book bloggers on this blog tour by following and sharing their work. 🙂
Thank You very much to the publisher – Hodder & Stoughton for the review copy.
ISBN13: 978-1529301755
Genre: Crime, Thriller, Mystery
Release date: 11 02 2021
Price*: Kindle £6.99 (GBP)/ Hardback £13.09 (GBP)
Kindle $6.99 (USD)/ Hardback $26.99 (USD)
Pages: ~ 336
My rating: I liked it.
You can get this book here:
Amazon UK
Bookshop.org
What I learned from this book: It got me thinking of what I would do, if I would be told to choose who is going to die…
Description of the book: It felt like a normal Friday evening before Karl and his daughter Leah were ambushed by a figure in a blank mask. At knife point, Karl is forced to make an impossible choice. Stay and die, or walk away from Leah and take this thug’s word that they both will live.
Should Karl trust a villain and leave his daughter with a knife at her throat? Could he ever live with himself if he did?
It’s not long before more seemingly unconnected and innocent people across London are offered a deal in exchange for their life. More blood is spilled, more families shattered, and more people are left to suffer with the consequences of their decisions.
DI Alex Finn and DC Mattie Paulsen must hunt for a killer that appears to have no face, no motive and no conscience before more victims are forced to make their choice. This is second in Will Shindler’s Finn and Paulsen series.
How this book made me feel: The blurb was the reason I could not resist to review this novel. It just sounded too controversial. 😀 Even though it is a second book in the series, and I have no idea what happened to characters in the first book, but I think this book can be read as a stand alone.
This novel is told from multiple perspectives, sharing the thoughts of a very wide variety of characters. The detectives Finn and Paulsen are the ones tasked to solve murders that happened in a very strange circumstances. This crime story is very strongly driven by it’s characters. There are a lot of thoughts shared not only by police, but by the victims’ family as well. The characters are very different and all of them troubled, none of the character is happy in this book. 😀 Every character analise different topic and different feelings, and it does become a little overwhelming sometimes. I really enjoyed the diversity and inclusion of the characters in this book, I like wider representation of people.
As I mentioned before, this novel is more character driven than the plot, that is why, I think the investigation part was quite thin in this book. The surprising discoveries just kind of appear, missing the juicy surprises while investigating. I think all the thinking parts made this book seem quite slow, but on the other hand it allowed the reader to get to know the characters better. I liked that this book has different storylines, and it was interesting to see how all the stories get connected at the end. The topics discussed in this book were all possible aspects of grief, family relationships, drug dealing, guilt, council estate life, mental health issues, revenge, and many more.
The writing style of this book is enjoyable and easy to read. The setting of this book keeps changing, depending on the character, and I really enjoyed that. When the book has many perspectives, I find it difficult to know who is who, especially when their names and surnames are being used without one another. Personally, I prefer either names or surnames, otherwise I am wondering who that person is. 😀 The chapters are pretty short and the pages just flew by for me. I liked the ending of this novel, it rounded up the story very nicely.
So, to conclude, it is a very thought provoking crime story, filled with complex and deeply troubled characters as well as a layered plot. It is a slow burner, that allows the reader to delve deeply into the character’s world. I enjoyed this book, and I hope you will like it as well. 🙂
Thank You for Your time! ❤
About the author: Will Shindler has been a Broadcast Journalist for the BBC for over twenty-five years, spending a decade working in television drama as a scriptwriter on Born and Bred, The Bill and Doctors. His time on these leading prime time dramas has given him a rich grounding in authentic police procedure, powerful character development and gripping narratives. He currently combines reading the news on BBC Radio London with writing crime novels and has previously worked as a television presenter for HTV, a sports reporter for BBC Radio Five Live, and one of the stadium presenters at the London Olympics. He is the writer of The Burning Men and The Killing Choice.
Twitter: @WillShindler
*-the price was taken from Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com on the current date. The price might change at the time of your purchase. The links used in this post for book purchases are affiliates.
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