A Tapping at My Door: A gripping serial killer thriller (The DS Nathan Cody series)

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But after the first murder, and the introduction of detective Nathan Cody, I was hooked and enjoyed this listen from that point forward. com crime fiction blog featuring reviews, author guest posts and other fabulous booky things (with the odd psychological thriller and horror novel making an appearance! And then the killer strikes again, and Cody realises the threat isn’t to the people of Liverpool after all – it’s to the police. I have had many pints of beer in many of the pubs in Liverpool, and a few of these are described in the book. Though I would try another of this guy's books before I would read a number of reliably disappointing bestselling authors in this genre, I don't actually plan to do so.

My blogging friend Raven over at Raven Crime Reads shared a brilliant guest post from David about the Liverpool setting and I highly recommend you give it a read. This book starts off like one of those creepy horror films that I pretend I don’t mind watching but end up seeing more of the back of a cushion than my tv screen! Which is why, even though I think 'A Tapping At My Door' was a four-star read, I don't want to read any more of this series. To start off I thought they had mixed the genres up as it was literally like something straight out of a horror movie. I just hope Cody will get a grip soon, and come back to his senses, seeing that he is decided not to resort to psychiatric help.

From the best-selling author of Cry Baby, the beginning of a brilliant and gripping police procedural series set in Liverpool, perfect for fans of Peter James and Mark Billingham. You know those real read-in-one-sitting thrillers, where little short of impending starvation or natural disaster would move you from the sofa? But I read detective novels solely for the detective mystery and police procedurals Every fictional detective are molded from the same template. The first scene with the woman going to her door to find out what's scratching and tapping takes 13 pages.

You have an unerring sense of the devil on his shoulder, but this is counterbalanced well by the curious mix of bravado, and at times deep self-questioning, that Jackson imbues into his character. It was the first crime novel I read in a while, and I really wanted to be swept away into a interesting murder investigation. During the course of the book we also meet a slimy reporter, a browbeaten wife with a brute of a husband and - I kid you not - a cop who comes to an unfortunate end on his last job.

Intelligently plotted and very well written, DS Nathan Cody, DC Megan Webley and their boss, DCI Stella Blunt, could easily establish themselves as one of my favorite police procedural teams. DS Cody is on the hunt for a cop killer but will he find the murderer before more bodies are added to the tally, or will Cody’s own demons get in the way…? There is a gruesome torture scene later in the book, which reminded me of my avoidance of male-authored crime novels which seem to do this more often than female-authored books.

When similar murders follow, it becomes clear that these are not random attacks but targeted ones by a sadistic but clever killer. In fact there's only one upcoming 2016 book that I can even see being any competition for my crime fiction top spot. Prefaced by some lines from Edgar Allan Poe’s poem The Raven, rarely have I been so spooked by a book as I was on opening this book where Terri Latham is sat at home having a glass of wine when she hears a tapping at her door… I’m don’t have a particularly nervous nature but I was there, alongside Terri while she debated whether or not to investigate! Disturbed by a tapping at her back door, and in a move as stupid as going to the basement in a horror film, Terri Latham goes to investigate finding a raven is responsible for the noise. There are several great moments in the book, but the introduction to the main character is my favorite.In this first novel, readers don't wonder if DS Cody will survive because of course this is going to be a series so he has to. Pretty standard for crime fiction these days, but the way David Jackson develops this character and gradually reveals more and more about Nathan's background and history is brilliant. Listening out for any unrecognisable noises and hoping against hope that you don’t hear any tap-tap-tapping.

Later, when I learned that the motivation of the murderer was linked to a single, at that point unrevealed, word I know what the word would be. I have had the first four books in this series sitting on my shelf for way too long, and I finally made a start. S. of A, Jackson has stayed closer to home with this one, setting it in his native city of Liverpool.But the "birds" theme falls flat for me, ultimately trivializing what must have been a horrific event.