#ADGIFTED all opinions are my own in exchange for a review, life is too short for bad books, so I choose authors and genres I enjoy. I always choose thriller, murder mysteries. So I have a blast reading them.

DEVIL’S CHIMNEY BY ADAM LYNDON

MEET DETECTIVE RUTHERFORD BARNES IN THIS BRILLIANT NEW CRIME SERIES FROM A SERVING POLICE OFFICER.

Discover an absolutely gripping crime thriller with a massive twist.

On a wild and stormy night on England’s south coast, ambitious young police constables Rutherford Barnes and Harriet Holden are doing the rounds when they see a burglar fleeing the scene of the crime.

And it’s Harriet’s house. The ground floor is ransacked. Scrawled in red across one wall are the words: DEAD COPS SLEEP LONG.

Then a few days later, Harriet’s battered body is discovered in a shabby seafront hotel.

Newly promoted to Detective, Barnes vows to discover who killed his partner, and why.

Harriet had a dark secret. As Barnes uncovers a layer of corruption which threatens to expose people at the highest levels of the force, he has a terrible choice to make: justice for Harriet — or his career.

Perfect for fans of Joy Ellis, Helen H. Durrant, Bill Kitson, Michael Hambling, Peter James, Angela Marsons, Rachel McLean, J.D. Kirk, Rachel Abbott, Elly Griffiths, J.M. Dalgliesh or Patricia Gibney.

WHAT READERS ARE SAYING ABOUT DEVIL’S CHIMNEY:

“Packed full of unexpected twists and turns.” Sheila M.

“Pulled me in and held me to the end.” Dawn T.

“Cracking good police story. Complex and twisty.” Joan

“Very good and gripping.” Kay C.

“Some really convoluted twists and turns. I loved it.” Rob

“Excellent sense of place, strong characterization . . . authentic and detailed police procedure, and a thrillingdenouement” Oliver T.

“A real page-turner. I thoroughly enjoyed it.” Mike B.

THE DETECTIVE
DC Rutherford Barnes is young, good-looking and ambitious — perhaps too ambitious for his own good. His all-consuming desire for promotion makes him vulnerable to temptation. His happy marriage to nursery school teacher Eve is marred only by the couple’s inability to conceive, leading Barnes to throw himself headlong into his work.

THE SETTING
Set against the picturesque landscape of the South Downs, the Sussex seaside town of Eastbourne is packed with tourists during the summer — but it can seem pretty dismal during the winter months. Only fifty-odd miles from London, the town is not immune to the violence which occasionally spills over from the city. Pockets of deprivation and criminality exist alongside reminders of Eastbourne’s more genteel past in the grand Victorian hotels that line the seafront, the pier and the bandstand. The town also boasts one of Britain’s best-known — and most infamous — beauty spots, Beachy Head.

ADAM LYNDON
Adam was born and raised in Sussex. He has been a police officer for twenty years both in the UK and in New Zealand, working across a range of disciplines including uniformed ops, firearms command and as a detective in CID and specialist investigations.
He went around the world a couple of times, living in New Zealand for a year before realising home was where all the stories were. Adam writes gritty, Eastbourne-based police-procedurals with hard-edged authenticity, forming a daisy chain along the south coast alongside the likes of Graham Hurley and Peter James. He has been married for twenty years and has four children. His ambition, as his children keep reminding him, is to own a dog.

My Review A totally new author for me this time round. I have high hopes it’s dark and gritty, and moody. Like some of the itv and BBC dramas are. I’m in the mood of sinking my teeth into a gritty novel.

Dash of nostalgia with mobile phones that aren’t smart, remember them? When you’d programme in your own ringtone and feel like the coolest hacker, or spend hours playing snake!

I would say it’s a slow burner, and you need to be focused, and not let your mind wander. But it’s sometimes nice to have a slower darker pace of realistic police work, rather than instantly solved and they know everything immediately. I will definitely be trying out this author again for sure.