#Blogtour The Misper by Kate London

It's my turn on the Blogtour The Misper by Kate London.

About the Author

Kate London graduated from Cambridge University and worked in theatre until 2006 when she joined the Metropolitan Police Service. She finished her career working as part of a Major Investigation Team on the Metropolitan Police Service's Homicide Command. She has since written four novels in The Tower series, which is now a major ITV drama, starring Gemma Whelan. She is on Twitter @K8London. 

About the book

There's more than one way to go missing... When Ryan Kennedy is imprisoned after killing a police officer, he knows what he has to do. Keep his mouth shut about who he was working for, keep his head down, and rely on his youth to keep his sentence short. When he gets out, he'll be looked after.

Following the death in the line of duty of a fellow detective, DI Sarah Collins has left the capital for a quieter life in the countryside. But when a missing teenager turns up on her patch, she finds herself drawn into a much bigger investigation - one that leads her right back to London, back to the Met, and back to Ryan Kennedy, the kid who killed a cop.

This powerful novel from a former Met detective explores the devastation that organized drug-running gangs can wreak on young lives. It asks who deserves to be saved - and whether saving them is even possible...

Review

At first the story is a little bit like being in a glass funhouse and the reader has difficulty finding the right path. It's a bit choppy, but intentionally so, and what's really interesting is the way the main plot travels full circle and brings us back to where we think everything started.

The story begins with Ryan who kills and is convinced to stay quiet about certain details - a bit of prison time is worth it in exchange for being safe, right? His story leads us in a convoluted way to the disappearance of another young person, but what could the two things have to do with each other?

I like the fact the author has chosen a criminal element and scheme that is targeting the most vulnerable and youngest in our society. Easy pickings when it comes to influencing children and teens, reeling them in with things they might want and then moving the friendly relationship into a coercive one.

When you take the vulnerability of the victims into consideration, it's harder to define the lines between perpetrator and victim when they themselves commit a crime. It's a sophisticated scheme that keeps the big fish safe while the little fish in the pond do the crime and punishment. A never-ending wheel of criminal productivity churns consistently with a constant supply of young people.

It's an intriguing dive into modern organised crime, county lines is a crime everyone should be aware of, and this read gives a great glimpse at how complex it really is.

Buy The Misper at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher ‏: ‎Corvus; pub date 3 Aug. 2023. Hardback · £14.99, e-book also available. Buy at Amazon com.

#BlogTour Gallowstree Lane by Kate London

It's a pleasure to take part in the BlogTour Gallowstree Lane by Kate London. It's the third book in the Collins & Griffiths series, but can be read as a standalone novel. It's a dynamic police procedural with a character-driven plot.

Kate London - photo by Tim Flach

About the Author
Kate London graduated from Cambridge University and moved to Paris where she trained in theatre. In 2006 Kate joined the Metropolitan Police Service. She finished her career working as part of a Major Investigation Team on SC&O1 - the Metropolitan Police Service's Homicide Command. She resigned from the MPS in August 2014. Her debut novel Post Mortem was published by Corvus in 2015.

Follow @kate_katelondon @CorvusBooks on Twitter,
Buy Gallowstree Lane

About the book
Please don't let me die. Please don't. The final words of teenager Spencer Cardoso as he bleeds out on a London street, his life cut short in a single moment of rage.

When a teenage boy steps out of the shadows of Gallowstree Lane and asks a passer-by for help, it's already too late. His life is bleeding out on the London street.

The murder threatens to derail Operation Perseus, a cover police investigation into the Eardsley Bluds, an organised criminal network. Detective Kieran Shaw can't and won't allow that to happen. But fifteen-year-old Ryan has other ideas. He's witnessed the death of his best friend, and now he wants someone to pay...

As loyalties collide, a chain of events is triggered that threatens everyone with a connection to Gallowstree Lane.

Review
When it comes to modern day crime in Britain nothing could be more on point than the rise in knife crime in Britain, more specifically in the capital. It has become a veritable Wild West scenario, except the weapon of choice is knives and the majority of crimes are being committed by youths and teens. The MET, well the police in general are woefully understaffed and are trying to stay on top of what can only be called an epidemic at this point.

Sarah is called to the crime scene of a knife crime. A young teen has been killed as part of a gang vs gang act of revenge. His friend witnesses the stabbing and inadvertently becomes a pivotal player in a story that questions whether there is any escape from the inevitable destiny of a criminal and socio-economically depraved environment.

In this book it becomes even more apparent how much of a connection DI Sarah Collins and DC Lizzie Griffiths have. The common denominator is their gender in relation to working in what is considered to be a more masculine job. They both have to contend with having to work ten times harder to prove themselves.

Now that Lizzie is a single mother she finds it hard to reconcile the image and life she had before she was faced with finding dependable childcare and getting through her daily work commitments. She is struggling to cope and expects her baby daddy to do his bit to support, he however has completely different ideas. The kind of drastic solution only a manipulative and desperate person would come up with.

London makes a valid point about women who want both careers and children often being forced to choose one or the other, whereas their male colleagues never seem to have to make the same choices. Although society has come a long way to trying to level the playing field, it is still women who suffer when they want both worlds at the same time.

It's worth mentioning that although this is the third in the Collins & Griffiths series and that some plot elements lead on from previous books, this can absolutely be read as a standalone novel. It's a dynamic police procedural with a character-driven plot.

Buy Gallowstree Lane (Collins and Griffiths #3)at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher: Corvus; pub date 7 Feb. 2019