I’m excited to welcome you today to my stop on the blog tour for the excellent Nothing to Hide (DC Constance Fairchild Book 2) by James Oswald. Thank you to Anne Cater and Wildfire Books for giving me the opportunity to read and review this brilliant book.
About the book:
Suspended from duty after her last case ended in the high-profile arrest of one of Britain’s wealthiest men, DC Constance Fairchild is trying to stay away from the limelight. Fate has other ideas . . .
Coming home to her London flat, Constance stumbles across a young man, bloodied, mutilated and barely alive. She calls it in and is quickly thrown into the middle of a nationwide investigation . . . It seems that the victim is just the latest in a string of similar ritualistic attacks.
No matter that she is off-duty, no matter that there are those in the Met who would gladly see the back of her, Con can’t shake her innate determination to bring the monsters responsible for this brutality to justice.
Trouble always seems to find her, and even if she has nothing to hide, perhaps she has everything to lose . . .
The new book in the brilliant Constance Fairchild series, from one of Scotland’s foremost crime writers.
About the author:
James Oswald is the author of the Sunday Times bestselling Inspector McLean series of detective mysteries, as well as the new DC Constance Fairchild series. James’s first two books, Natural Causes and The Book of Souls, were both short-listed for the prestigious CWA Debut Dagger Award.
James farms Highland cows and Romney sheep by day, writes disturbing fiction by night.
My Review:
I make no secret of the fact I’m a massive fan of James Oswald’s DI Inspector McLean series of books, so when I heard he was introducing a new female lead, I jumped at the chance to read it! I loved the first book in the series, so couldn’t wait to get my hands on Nothing to Hide, which continues DC Constance Fairchild’s story. Although this could easily be read as a standalone, I do feel that reading the first book in the series adds to the richness of the story.
DC Constance Fairchild is back, but this time she’s been suspended from duty after the outcome of her last case, which ended in the high profile arrest of one of Britain’s wealthiest men. Known as the ‘posh cop’, she is being harassed by the paparazzi, with them even going so far as to camp out on her doorstep. Staying out of the limelight is hard, especially when fate deals her another blow as she finds the mutilated body of a young man outside her home. He is still breathing – just – but the discovery lands her right back into the midst of the action.
Unpopular with her colleagues and with her bosses desperate to keep her out of the spotlight, Con is sent to Scotland to do a little digging as part of the investigation. It is here that we are introduced to Madame Rose, a character I’m already familiar with from James Oswald’s previous books. I have to admit I love Rose and was so pleased when she turned up here! A brilliant and larger than life character, Madame Rose somehow always manages to steal every scene she appears in. She’s a fascinating and memorable character that I hope we get to see even more of in future books!
On a personal front, Con’s brother is about to get married and her mother has somehow managed to get herself involved in The Church of the Coming Light and the sinister Reverend Masters. With her personal and professional life spiralling out of control, Con begins to fears for her own safety as even more mutilated bodies turn up. What is the link between the victims of these horrific murders? And why are they being so horribly mutilated? Add to that her brother’s impending wedding and the sticky situation her mother has found herself in, is it any wonder that Constance finds herself so close to breaking point!
Nothing to Hide is James Oswald at his very best. Full of the twists, turns and drama I have come to expect from his work, there is as always a darker element at work here, something we can’t quite grab hold of, never quite knowing which direction it’s going to take us in next. The unpredictability of the storytelling is part of what makes these books so intriguing for me, with the strong and feisty Lady Constance Fairchild fast becoming yet another favourite character of mine, easily stepping up to take her place alongside the always brilliant Tony McLean from Oswald’s DI Inspector McLean series of books.
Nothing to Hide is a fast paced and surprising crime thriller with a difference and I can’t wait to see what James Oswald has in store for us next! A superb addition to this new series that I would highly recommend.
Nothing to Hide by James Oswald is available to buy now: Amazon UK
Check out what these other fabulous bloggers have to say about this book:
Cal Turner Reviews 