Sometimes, I long for the simple pleasure of picking up – and paying for – a book by an author whom I have never heard of. Comforted by the knowledge that, whether I ended up loving the book or not, I’ll freely be able to write what I like about it. But then something like this happens, and that pleasure has to be put on hold for a little while longer.
Through his fellow Brighton-based crime author, Peter James, I knew of Graham Bartlett before he even started writing. I knew that he is a former police Detective-Superintendent, and that his predecessor is credited with being the inspiration behind James’ own character of Roy Grace. I knew that he had co-written, with Peter James, a book about real-life policing in Brighton (called Death Comes Knocking) and that he now makes something of a living running crime writing courses and providing advice to other crime novelists about police procedures. And more recently, I was fortunate enough to meet Graham at last year’s Harrogate Crime Fiction festival, where he gave a fascinating inside into the techniques used by both police officers and criminals during interviews.
This was easily enough to mean that, as soon as I became aware of a blog tour to promote Graham’s own book, City on Fire, I signed up eagerly. And only later stopped to think: oh, blimey. I really, really hope I love the book after all that.
What I didn’t know when I started reading was that this book is the third in a series, and that was a slight problem for me in the opening chapters. I think it would have been a help for me to be more familiar with the characters of Jo Howe, her colleagues and her journalist husband. As it was, being introduced to them at the same time as a whole host of other characters was something that my brain initially struggled to process, to the extent where I occasionally had to pause, flick back a few chapters and remind myself: who is he/she again? Let me be clear: this didn’t make the book hard to read, nor did it didn’t stop me from breezing through the first third of it in a single evening. But after I’d put it down, I remember feeling a little confused.
But I picked it up again the next night and, holy cow.
I’m not sure whether I was in a slightly better mood on the second day and able to better appreciate the writing, or whether I just happened to put the book down on a turning point. But what I do know is that I absolutely devoured the rest of the book in a single sitting, finishing it in the small hours despite it being a work night, and when I came to the end, feeling almost that I needed to gasp for air. The action is relentless, with – and I hope it’s not too much of a spoiler to say this – people dropping like flies and yet, this book is anything but a simple action thriller.
Graham admits in his author’s note that ‘Operation Eradicate’, a drugs reduction operation that is the subject of the book, is firmly based on a similar – and successful – operation that he himself worked on, and also that he consulted with some clinical psychologists over how Jo’s character might change if she were subjected to the stresses that he puts her under. Both the storyline and the main character feel authentic, and that’s probably because they are. And I think it’s because of that authenticity that every other character and every other scene feels relatable. Even the ruthless Sir Ben Campbell is given a simple and yet poignant dimension that reminds us he’s still human. We don’t excuse what he does even for a minute, but we do sort of understand why he does it. We’re also given a somewhat frightening insight into the outsourcing of some work that the police need – think recovery of crashed cars, as an example – to private contractors.
So to sum up: the beginning of the book had me just a little confused, but hopefully if you read the two other novels in the series first you won’t feel that way. But the middle and the end were so engrossing that they had me not so much glued to my kindle as chained.
It leaves me only to do what Graham Bartlett himself probably had to sometimes do in his career as a police officer, and give the suspect the benefit of the doubt. And as a result, award the book a resounding five stars.
My thanks to Allison and Busby for including me on the blog tour, and to Netgalley for the digital ARC. I will post my review on Goodreads, Amazon and my social media pages.
My rating: ★★★★★
23rd March 2024
The blurb
After losing her sister to a drug overdose, Chief Superintendent Jo Howe is desperate to tackle the world of drugs that consumes the shadowy backstreets of Brighton. Operation Eradicate is her response, deploying undercover tactics to collapse drug circles while also providing treatment services to victims of drug abuse.
But not everyone sees this as a positive development. The man behind Respite pharmaceuticals, billionaire Sir Ben Campbell, views Operation Eradicate as a threat to his business. His colossal empire relies on burgeoning numbers of addicts who survive on their substitute drugs.
With connections in the highest levels of government, media and organised crime, Sir Ben unleashes a brutal counterattack on Jo. The question is, how will she survive this fierce onslaught?
About the author
“I am a best-selling author and crime and police procedural advisor to fiction and TV writers.
I was a police officer for thirty years and mainly policed the city of Brighton and Hove, rising to become a Chief Superintendent and its police commander. I started writing when I left the police in 2013 and, almost by accident, became a police procedural and crime advisor, helping scores of authors and TV writers (including Peter James, Mark Billingham, Elly Griffiths, Anthony Horowitz, Ruth Ware, Claire McGowan and Dorothy Koomson) achieve authenticity in their drama.
I run online crime writing workshops and courses with the Professional Writing Academy and deliver inputs to Masters programmes at the University of Cambridge and the University of East Anglia as well as at the Crime Writing Certificate programme at West Dean College.
I live in Sussex with my wife Julie and, variously, my 24yr old triplets!”
My Cosy Book Nook 