Starting the book is like taking a walk in boggy marsh land ... and before you know it you're stuck in quicksand ... You want to get out of it, away from the book and resume with your daily chores but its mood and personas cling on to you and suck you back in! It is such an easy read, you let yourself slide in it. Once you close the book you're "scarred" and want more.

"Sirens" by Joseph Knox is the edgy, debut crime novel in the Detective Constable Aidan Waits series and a cracking thriller it is too! I was totally intrigued with the start of this intense and haunting book, really keeping my attention to a point I was refusing to put it down. Gritty, sometimes brutal, dark and I imagine quite often true to life, we really see into the murky, seedy and nefarious activities that go on in the criminal world of late night Manchester. The 'Sirens' are a network of young girls working for the 'Franchise' run by the powerful Zain Carver, collecting drug money in pubs and bars. When disgraced and damaged DC Waits is asked to help find the missing teenage daughter of MP David Rossiter he gets closer to her than he imagined and becomes embroiled in the Sirens and their gritty underworld activities. There's a lot of distrust, betrayal and flawed characters in the story and it's a superb thrilling ride to the end to see how it all pans out. Aidan Waits is a great character too, who is far from your typical crime solving protagonist. He soon gets under your skin and it's very interesting and intriguing to read how he became the disgraced cop he is and how his double identity helps to infiltrate Carver's empire. Fantastic narrative, brilliant writing by a very talented author, a taut and well thought out plot and an atmospheric setting make this a truly enjoyable read that I would without doubt recommend. I can't wait to read the highly anticipated "The Smiling Man" the next book to feature Waits - I just know it's going to be another cracker of a story and will be just as successful as "Sirens". The whole 5 stars!

A debut that sparked a 10-way scramble for publishing rights and left early reviewers salivating with praise, ‘Sirens’ is penned by a talent who, as a bookseller, has spent the best part of his adulthood drunk on good literature. And it shows. In its style and atmosphere, it feels like it was crafted by a writer with a deep backlist to explore, not one just starting out. ‘Sirens’ is a murky, grey, ominous-looking book, and it soaks its cover right through its pages. Set against a backdrop of a grim, brutalist Manchester, Aiden Waits is the anti-hero who drags the reader at speed through the murk and the gloom. The pace never slows, and that is Knox’s talent. There were moments, I swear, when I actually had to remind myself to breathe. There’s plenty of grey here, with no clear distinction between the good guys and the bad, day or night, heroes or monsters. It’s built up on wilful deceptions, greasy lipstick stains and shady power shifts. It slips around and keeps the reader both alert and unbalanced. As a reader, I was fizzing with judgements and theories and nearly always surprised by the twists and turns I was subjected to. ‘Sirens’ is one heck of a ride. Bent cops, dirty politicians, complex femmes fatales and flawed heroes meet liquor-soaked reasoning, a throbbing pulse of a narrative, and enough drugs to keep it all spinning in the peripherals… This is noir at its finest. And rumour has it that this won’t be the last we’ll hear of detective Aiden Waits… I can’t wait for more.

I had heard this book was rather good, yes I think those were the exact words used to describe it. (York, September 2016) That was enough for me to request an advance review copy...Thank you to Joseph and Alison for organising this, definitely appreciated. As we know some debuts can be a little weak, while others can knock you off your feet, this one will definitely knock you off your feet! I finished it last night at the cost of a few hours sleep and the book is still living it's self out in my head as I type. It is set in Manchester, you are immediately immersed in the night life it describes. There are a number of complex characters to get your teeth into! This I am hoping is the start of a new series for Joseph, which I could easily see being picked up for a TV series too!! I am more than happy to recommend this book, and if it had been coming out this side of Christmas it would most certainly have been purchased for a number of friends and family this year!!

Sirens is a fabulous debut novel from Joseph Knox. I actually found this difficult to review as a large part of me is sitting here shouting it’s fabulous just go and buy it! So I’ve broken down into sections. Location: Sirens is set in Manchester, now anyone who has read many of my reviews knows I love reading a good story set somewhere I know well. I love being immersed into a story set in the streets I’ve walked down, Manchester is my dad’s home town and I spent a lot of time there in my youth, though perhaps not in some of the areas featured in Sirens, and you can tell Joseph is someone who really knows the city, this isn’t somewhere just randomly picked out of thin air to be the setting of the book. Even if you don’t know Manchester I think you’ll appreciate the feeling it gives you. Characters: Disgraced Detective Constable Aidan Waits is a superb character, Waits has a great depth to his character, not the easiest person to work with he’s bounced around various teams before being caught taking drugs from evidence and convinced to go undercover. Waits certainly isn’t all bad, but he’s not your whiter than white perfect detective either, firmly encamped within the shades of grey for me Waits remains likeable flaws and all. I don’t want to talk too much about the other characters because I think a huge draw to the book is finding out more about them, I will say Joseph Knox creates a wonderful world of complex supporting characters. Plot: Caught out with nowhere else to go DC Aidan Waits finds himself trapped between a rock and a hard place, tasked with tracking down the missing daughter of a Government Minister while also inserting himself into the depths of Manchester’s drug scene, run by the infamous Zain Carver. The story is well paced as Joseph Knox leads you down the rabbit hole with Waits. The twists keep you turning the pages as you try to work out who Waits can trust, and the motives behind everything. I don’t want to say anything more on the plot as it was a joy to turn each page and read as the story developed and I wouldn’t want to ruin that for anybody Would I recommend it? Without a shadow of a doubt, this book is a must for anyone who likes their crime fiction a little on the dark side. I can’t wait for more from Joseph Knox, the only thing that annoyed me was I picked it up at the beginning of a very busy work week and I had to keep putting it down to sleep!