#BlogTour Death Before Coffee by Desmond P. Ryan

Today it's a pleasure to help kick off the BlogTour Death Before Coffee by Desmond P. Ryan. It's crime fiction with a good ol' boys in blue camaraderie, authentic characters and an intriguing plot.

Click here for a Cheeky Deal: For the next week, you can pick up your #Kindlebook copy of Death Before Coffee for only 1.99 

About the Author
For almost thirty years, Desmond P. Ryan worked as a cop in the back alleys, poorly-lit laneways, and forgotten neighbourhoods in Toronto, the city where he grew up. Murder often most unkind, assaults on a level that defied humanity, and sexual violations intended to demean, shame, and haunt the victims were all in a day’s work. Days, evenings, midnights--all the same. Crime knows no time.

Whether as a beat cop or a plainclothes detective, Desmond dealt with good people who did bad things and bad people who followed their instincts. And now, as a retired detective, he writes crime fiction. Real Detective. Real Crime. Fiction.

Follow @RealDesmondRyan on Twitter, on Facebook, on Amazon,
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Buy Death Before Coffee

About the book

By 2:27 on a Thursday afternoon, the one-legged man from Room 8 at 147 Loxitor Avenue has been beaten to death with a lead pipe. Twenty-eight minutes later, Detective Mike O’Shea is testifying in a stuffy courtroom, unaware that, within an hour, he will be standing in an alleyway littered with beer cans and condoms while his new partner—the man who saved his life thirteen years ago—flicks bugs off of a battered corpse with a ballpoint pen. When a rogue undercover copper prematurely hauls in the prime suspect, Mike blows a fuse, resulting in an unlikely rapport developing between him and the lead homicide detective sergeant, a woman known for her stilettos and razor sharp investigative skills. At the end of his seventy-two-hour shift, three men are dead and Mike O’Shea is floating in and out of consciousness in an emergency room hallway, two women by his side.

Death Before Coffee, the second book in the Mike O’Shea Crime Fiction Series, weaves a homicide investigation through the life of an inner-city police detective intent on balancing his responsibilities as a son, brother, and newly single father with his sworn oath of duty. When faced with death, Mike is forced to make decisions that stir up old memories, compelling him to confront his demons while fighting the good fight.

Review

This is book two in the Mike O'Shea series. It can be read as a standalone novel, however I would recommend reading the first book in the series. It gives some interesting insights into the characters and a storyline that flows from the first into the second book.

Detective Mike O’Shea is haunted by the death of his partner, his marriage is less than spectacular and he drags himself to work in a tired, hungover and less than enthusiastic state. Then homicide of a one-legged man brings an old colleague back into his work sphere.

It's snarky, tragic, honest and witty. O'Shea is down-to-earth and a man with a conscience. He also has a penchant for attracting trouble, criminals with weapons and colleagues with an attitude.

This book got me thinking about the effect PTSD has on police officers and whether they are in a similar position as soldiers during or after well-known battles or conflicts that took place centuries and decades ago. That their mental health or conditions caused by mental health issues due to trauma, stress and witnessing or experiencing insurmountable inhumane events, were not acknowledged, misdiagnosed or glossed over by those in charge and society.

Depending on where a police officer serves or works they can be in a daily situation which is the equivalent of front-line warfare. In fact I am sure there are plenty in city districts who would describe it as being at war. Then there is the fact that emergency and police services have to witness and often experience the kind of traumatic events that the majority of us would probably have difficulty dealing with. Murder, abuse, rape, human trafficking, paedo-rings, drug casualties and crimes. Often on a daily basis. How do they cope?

The trauma, guilt and I think in this case certainly PTSD, plays a major role for the main character. His waking and sleeping moments are filled with regret and doubt about the way he lost his partner, and how he failed a young trafficking victim.

Ryan delivers what he promises - an authenticity derived from experience. He mixes the playful banter and acerbic humour cops need to keep their heads above water in a world full of heinous crimes with a compelling plot, which is woven into the crime that plays out in this book. It's crime fiction with a good ol' boys in blue camaraderie, authentic characters and an intriguing plot.

Buy Death Before Coffee at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher: Copper Press; in eBook and paperback on 8th February 2019. Buy at Amazon com. Buy at Kobo.

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