The Dead is the third novel in a crime series based in Newcastle. David Blake is a Newcastle based gang leader who is wanted by the police for a brutal murder. The victim is the only daughter of the lead police officer who has been working to bring David and his gang down. The only problem, is that David is innocent of the crime. It becomes a race against time for David to find the murderer before the police try and convict him. Having recently read several crime novels, I have to admit to feeling a little jaded about the genre by the time I got to this book. However all that changed in the first few chapters. I really enjoyed the fact that the story is about a gangster. David Blake is not necessarily a nice guy. He’s been busy plotting routes to bring heroin into the country, and he’s also been responsible for a fair few wounds and dead bodies in his past. But I liked the fact that he was outraged, and determined to solve the case himself. He’s fairly honest about his reasons for doing so – he’s the one who will go to prison otherwise. The story romps along at an excellent pace, with various other side stories taking place at the same time. Whilst this is the third novel in the series, previous events are explained in enough detail to enable to story to flow, whilst leaving enough of a mystery for enjoyment of the first two, if you were to go back and read them. All the characters are written well and the story was believable. It’s not for the massively faint hearted or shy, although there is little graphic description of any brutality, there is enough mention of it to leave little to the imagination. I will definitely be looking out for the first two books in this series and I suspect I’ll be reading the next ones as well.

The story starts with D.S. Fraser finding a body of a dead girl wearing a short skirt and a skimpy top over the edge of a river bank. The dead girl has no handbag credit cards or a mobile phone. D.S. Fraser thinks a jealous boyfriend killed her and dumped her body D.s. Fraser phones D.I. Robert Cartlon at a black tie party to come and investigate. When D.I. Cartlon arrives he finds that it is his daughter Gemma who is dead and starts to scream..

never heard of Howard Linskey before, but was easily drawn into this North East gang land thriller. Loved the fast pace, the action, the accents you could peel off the page, the intrigue and the loyalty all revolving around David Blake. A cracking page turner, that lasted a day on my holiday and had definitely got me looking for more of Howard's books. Go and grab a copy now

The Dead is not a book that I would typically buy or check out from the library, and I haven't read Linskey's previous two novels that feature the character of David Blake. Yet I couldn't stop reading and found myself swept away by Linskey's narrative. There's a lot going on plot wise, but each strand is handled well and the momentum just keeps pushing you forward into finding out just how Blake will handle all of his problems. From the blurb I thought that Linskey would have filled his novel with tons of gratuitous violence. However, even though there are moments that made me flinch, there's no examples of violence just for violence's sake. This coupled with Blake not being your typical mob boss made for a much more interesting read. David Blake's third outing is a perfect holiday read, and there is no need to have read the first two books to be able to enjoy Howard Linskey's latest tale. Although be warned; you may need to pack another book in your suitcase as you are likely to finish The Dead within a day.

David Blake has come back to his native city, and though he still rules Newcastle his proprietary grasp on the underworld is difficult to maintain and is being challenged by rivals both domestic and foreign. His family life is no less complicated, with secrets from the past just waiting to burst out. The police ask him for help with a murder case and this starts a chain of events which it would seem can only end badly for everyone involved. When I picked up this book I hadn’t heard of the author before and on reading some of the cover quotes and the blurb on the back of the book I had a bit of a heart-sink moment. Comparing the book to Martina Cole’s work was the first problem as I’ve read a couple of her books (the first as an experiment, the second to check that the first wasn’t just an anomaly – it wasn’t, it was just as dreadful as the first) and hated everything about them. The second problem was the mention of Serbian gangsters and a Russian oligarch – I feel like this theme has been done to death (no pun intended!) recently in novels, film and TV, and usually as a way to get lots of extreme violence into the particular work. So having noted all this I didn’t have any great expectation of enjoying the book. But I was wrong – I liked it (though I could still have done without the Serbians and the Russians). The first person narration really drew me in and is a clever way to get the reader to sympathise with David Blake, a man who does unspeakable things, but who is still an attractive, complex character. The author makes him so attractive that at times I had to take a breath and remind myself that Blake is far from being a saint, but then I’d get caught up in the narrative again and find myself completely rooting for him. The supporting characters, who show varying degrees of unpleasantness, are also well-drawn and seem realistic. Something I didn’t really notice while I was caught up in reading the book, but which has occurred to me since is that the novel’s portrayal of women is a little problematic. There aren’t many women in the book at all, and those that are there tend to be someone’s victim, rather than individuals in their own right. There also seems to be a bit of a polarisation in how women are portrayed – the usual Madonna or whore territory. I realise that the gangster milieu is a man’s world, but this portrayal of the female characters dates the book and make it seems like a period piece rather than contemporary. The Newcastle setting is more unusual than that of most crime novels and the writing is very cinematic, both of which make the book feel very vivid. So despite its problems – which for me were the Serbians, the Russians and the outdated portrayal of women – this is a solid and enjoyable crime novel which will keep you turning the pages until the whole story is revealed.