Publication Date: 7th April from Zaffre
Source: Review copy
A woman at home in Liverpool is disturbed by a persistent tapping at her back door. She’s disturbed to discover the culprit is a raven, and tries to shoo it away. Which is when the killer strikes.
DS Nathan Cody, still bearing the scars of an undercover mission that went horrifyingly wrong, is put on the case. But the police have no leads, except the body of the bird – and the victim’s missing eyes.
As flashbacks from his past begin to intrude, Cody realises he is battling not just a murderer, but his own inner demons too.
And then the killer strikes again, and Cody realises the threat isn’t to the people of Liverpool after all – it’s to the police.
This is the beginning of a new series for David Jackson, a writer I have much admired even if quietly in the crime writing stakes so I was really keen to read “A Tapping at my Door” and see what was what. Loved it. The very definition of a page turner, great characters, terrifically addictive and dark story and a beautiful depth to the writing that just added icing to the cake.
Starting with a shiver inducing murder and staying pretty shiver inducing throughout, A Tapping at my Door has the advantage of being a brilliant police procedural enveloped within some pretty cool pyschological character study, Nathan Cody and his inner turmoil adding some intriguing and fascinating layers into an already fascinating plot.
Weaving a great mystery element around a terrifically drawn cast is not as easy as the huge plethora of crime fiction out there would suggest, you sometimes have to dig deep to find the gems and this is a gem – engaging and thrilling whilst being thought provoking and often horrifying. Some hard hitting scene setting and descriptive prose occasionally had me clutching my head, the beautifully placed little twists and turns worked well, perfectly paced and entirely absorbing throughout.
This novel also has the advantage of having a bang on ending, a resolution that rings true and digs deep, resolving and restarting, this is a series that I am adding to my must read list. Whatever is next for Nathan Cody he ain’t doing it without me.
Highly Recommended.
Find out more here:
Follow David on Twitter here:
You can purchase A Tapping at my Door by clickety clicking HERE.
Happy Reading Folks!
Just finished TAMD. When and where is the next book, the sequel? You left a lot of unanswered questions!!!
Hanging on the cliff-
Mary Devine