Dead Wrong/Dead Inside

Greetings peeps - how are we all doing? I have lots planned for the Easter weekend......not! Thinking of doing a bar crawl and leaving various bottles of alcohol in different rooms of the house just for a change of scenery! The gutting thing is I would have been flying off to Santorini this weekend - will just have to eat Greek food in the garden instead and smash a few plates, although my wife would say that's nothing different to how I normally do the washing up!


Anyway, back to business and my review of Noelle Holten's gripping new thriller Dead Wrong. I have also reproduced my original review of her first book in the series Dead Inside - I say reproduced, I mean copy and pasted it! 😄

Dead Wrong is the second book in a series featuring DC Maggie Jamieson, however it is also a great ensemble piece, giving the reader further insights into the characters of psychologist Dr Kate Maloney; Maggie’s boss DI Rutherford and her colleague Nathan Wright, all of whom share some of the spotlight throughout the story. Although a direct follow up to Noelle’s debut in the series, Dead Inside (see my review below), there is enough background info here to allow it to be read as a stand-alone novel.

Plot wise, Dead Wrong is a page turning cat and mouse thriller with Maggie Jamieson going head to head with not only convicted serial killer Bill Raven, but also her boss and colleagues as she battles to ensure he is not released on bail pending his appeal against conviction. The difficulty being that the body of one of the victims that he confessed to killing three years previously has just been found, and the pathology report shows she could only have been killed within the last two days. Maggie is convinced that Raven is guilty; the trouble is she is walking a fine line between convincing her boss that she is acting professionally and not holding a personal vendetta against him. The plot, as they say, thickens – and in this case, it not only thickens but twists, turns and gets darker on every page.

As the body count rises, so does Raven’s chances of release. With mounting pressure from DI Rutherford and a baying press hungry to scapegoat Maggie for convicting an innocent man, the clock is ticking down to Raven’s appeal, however Maggie is determined that will only happen over her dead body – but is that what Raven wants? Add to this a creepy sub plot involving Dr Kate Maloney and you have a compulsive and highly entertaining police procedural in your hands.

There is a real Hannibal Lecter/Clarice Starling element to the exchanges between Raven and Maggie as she reluctantly engages with him to “assist” with her enquiries. He is clearly a manipulative and calculating psychopath, playing games with Maggie and the Justice System to get what he wants. I can’t help but think that Noelle has drawn some elements of his character from similar individuals she would have come across in her previous career. Her years of experience in the Probation Service have been utilised to great effect throughout, highlighting the multi-agency approach to public protection and the important work that the Probation Service does that pretty much goes unnoticed.

Dead Wrong is dead brilliant – a slick, well written and highly absorbing thriller, great characterisation, meticulously researched with an authentic and intricately woven plot - and one hell of an ending! The third in the series, Dead Perfect is released later this year and I have already pre-ordered it. Definitely recommended.

Dead Wrong is published by Harper Collins and available on all formats now

I have nothing but huge admiration for anyone who can write a book. It's something I would love to do but quite frankly I haven't got the slightest beginnings of an original idea for a storyline or the patience to write one so I'll just stick to reading. One thing that is always said when embarking on writing a novel is for the author to "write what you know". Dead Inside is the perfect embodiment of someone writing about a subject matter they clearly have a wealth of experience of. The fact that it is a debut novel and the subject is domestic abuse and the impact of this upon all those it affects really raises the bar further.

Noelle is a former Probation Officer and has clearly drawn on her years of experience to accurately reflect and highlight exactly how difficult this role can be through one of the main characters also being a Probation Officer. It's a refreshing change to see this other side of the criminal justice system being depicted within a crime novel and I hope it goes some way to really show the complexities of the job to members of the public as it is definitely one of those roles you only tend to hear about if anything goes wrong (and I speak with eighteen years’ experience myself).

Dead Inside is a serial killer thriller with a difference. The difference for me was that I was on the killer's side. Noelle has not shied away from frighteningly realistic depictions of the horror of domestic abuse and the life changing physical and emotional scars it leaves on its' survivors. The brutal acts of power and control acted out by the abusive perpetrators made for some very uncomfortable reading, so when such characters get their well-deserved comeuppance, you can't help but punch the air and cheer. Despite my own professionalism, it is hard not to be affected by such crimes and quite frankly makes you ashamed to be a man sometimes. Thankfully, these so called "men" are a minority, but I digress....

Dead Inside is a fast moving, harrowing and very realistic psychological crime thriller and the start of what looks to be a fantastic new series from Noelle. A very confident, no holds barred debut not afraid to tackle an extremely emotive subject with equal amounts of personal knowledge, experience, objectivity, respect and understanding. Had me completely hooked from the opening chapter. Highly recommended.

So there you have it - two fantastic books to see you through the Easter weekend if you have not already read them.

Just want to also take this opportunity to thank all of you for taking the time to read my silly little blog. I do it for fun, and to share my love of reading. I am in awe of the hundreds of bloggers out there who are prolific and highly professional with their reviews. You might not think it from reading them, but it takes me a while to write a review without resorting to "I really liked this book" every time or sounding like Trump (it's a big book, very big, lots of words, big words and big chapters, also some numbers, some small and some big, bigly big......) and keeping it as original and "spoiler free" as possible. It's just nice to have the freedom to write a review without some of the restrictions of that other site with the jungle river name!!

Have a fantastic Easter folks, stay safe and well - see you in the next chapter!