Today it's my turn on the BlogTour Blood Red City by Rod Reynolds.
Rod Reynolds is the author of four novels, including the Charlie Yates series. His 2015 debut, The Dark Inside, was longlisted for the CWA New Blood Dagger, and was followed by Black Night Falling (2016) and Cold Desert Sky (2018); the Guardian have called the books ‘Pitch-perfect American noir.’
A lifelong Londoner, in 2020 Orenda Books will publish his first novel set in his hometown, Blood Red City. Rod previously worked in advertising as a media buyer, and holds an MA in novel writing from City University London. Rod lives with his wife and family and spends most of his time trying to keep up with his two young daughters.
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About the book
A witness with no victim. A crime with no crime scene…
When crusading journalist Lydia Wright is sent a video of an apparent murder on a London train, she thinks she’s found the story to revive her career. But she can’t find a victim, much less the killers, and the only witness has disappeared. Wary she’s fallen for fake news, she begins to doubt her instincts – until a sinister call suggests that she’s not the only one interested in the crime.
Michael Stringer deals in information – and doesn’t care which side of the law he finds himself on. But the murder on the train has left him exposed, and now he’ll stop at nothing to discover what Lydia knows.
When their paths collide, Lydia finds the story leads through a nightmare world, where money, power and politics intersect … and information is the only thing more dangerous than a bullet.
A nerve-shattering and brutally realistic thriller, Blood Red City bursts with energy and grit from the opening page, twisting and feinting to a superb, unexpected ending that will leave you breathless.
Lydia is a journalist hungry to regain her position after being demoted to the society gossip column. Her eagerness to dig until she finds the truth is what got her thrown down the career ladder like a cruel game of snakes and ladders.
When a friend sends her video footage of a crime being committed in public she starts searching for answers, but is both alarmed and curious when the crime seems to have no victim and the witness appears to have vanished into thin air.
The game is afoot as Lydia chases what she thinks is a story of corruption, instead it takes her down a rabbit hole of money, power and politics. Her path crosses that of fixer Stringer, a man capable of ruthless actions - it's unfortunate that Lydia has come to his attention.
It's urban crime that pulls on the two worlds that inhabit every city - the face behind the mask that is held up to society. The underbelly beats and thrives as everyone else goes about their daily business. Reynolds captures that elusive sense of walking a thin line which can throw you from safety into turmoil in an instance.
There is also the acknowledgement that there isn't necessity for a structured clean ending.Sometimes bringing all the threads together creates other threads to develop further stories, so it will be interesting to see if we have heard the last of Lydia and Stringer. Two people with little in common and yet brought together by violence and circumstance.
Buy Blood Red City at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher: Orenda Books; pub date 11 June 2020 - Paperback Original £8.99. Buy at Amazon com. Buy at Orenda Books.
