A nice little thriller story, packaged and equipped with all the right tools for raising your blood pressure, and topped with a tight bow. It’s been awhile since I’ve dived into a psycho thriller book, but let me tell you, it satisfied all of carnal desires for reading about investigators and killers, packed under one roof. In my mind, when it comes to contemporary writers in this day and age, Seb Kirby’s name will stand out among the rest of the thriller writers, and those of the past such as Jim Thompson.

To not give to much away and not focus so much on each of the protagonists (yes, there is more than one) I will try to say this in a way that sums it up. Seb Kirby does a great job focusing the attention mainly on Emma Chammberlin but then chops it up thoroughly throughout the story to bring the POV of the other two “heroes” to form this ultimate triad of problem slash mystery solving. Crime investigation at its finest, there is a dichotomy between the two vigilantes who by all means wish to bring justice to the London law system and a wronged path. Of course, Ives, the main lead detective wants nothing more than to track down these two vigilantes for what he thinks they are and discovers other truths neatly tucked away in pockets throughout the story. I thought an overall Dexterish type mode sequence was going on here, but in a good way no doubt.

It is no surprise that a journalist gets wrapped up in the wrong situations (they ask to many questions) which leads to the best kind of story telling with a commendable plot driven outcome. As mentioned earlier, this little story of a gem comes with well fleshed out characters packaged into a nice little burrito with all of the extra fixings you expect from a crime thriller. There is closure and it is satisfying. Then theres pace, did I mention pace? No, well, it is damn good. Sometimes a chapter was only half a page, but many times, thats all you need, especially in this kind of story. At first in the beginning, I thought there were a lot of names to follow and for a moment I thought I was going to be overwhelmed, but, in the end, it subsided and I caught up. Seemed there wasn’t enough Cargill in the story, but once the little tidbits pieced together, it made sense, and I wouldn’t change it one bit.

Thank you Seb for giving me the opportunity to read your work. It was entertaining.

Now one has to ask themselves, could this story be made into a movie? I say yes, yes it could.

5 out of 5 stars.

~ F. D. Gross

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