At First Light (Dr. Evan Wilding)

What makes someone take revenge on people they have never met. One of Thomas reasons is found in the brilliant villain who steers the police and others in the wrong direction for most of this books journey.

This book held me captive from beginning to end. I couldn't anticipate the twists and turns although I tried. If you like police thrillers/mysteries, I highly recommend giving this book a read.

Fabulous! I couldn't turn the pages fast enough. This was one of the rare stories that I truly didn't want to put down.The Viking lore and the handling of the MC's uniqueness took this from an ordinary crime thriller to something quite special. At First Light was well paced, had great charters and at the end, I wanted to read more. Come on November 15th. I'm reading for the next in the series.

Loved the book!

I like poems being used as riddles. It had twists and turns. You will be surprised who the murder is.

It keep me guessing. I love a book that keeps me on the edge on my chair.Look forward to reading more of her books.

Excellent mystery murder story but a bit much history to follow for me. Required a lot of thinking. Never a dull moment.

I enjoyed “At First Light” because it’s a page-turner, but also because it opened a whole different world to me with its runes and ax-throwing and tales of the Viking gods. Then, beneath all that, are two complex characters I could care about, plus minor characters quickly drawn. Finally, the book was fun. A great combination: heart-stopping action, intelligent discussion of ancient ways, likable and funny characters, and a little romance to top it off.

The author should be commended for the research that she invested in this book. However, there’s so much that it overwhelms the -very weak- storyline. From beginning to end it was like being in a history lesson that never stops. As a result, I skimmed through many pages, not losing the thread.The characters are weakly drawn with a nod to the usual list of ‘tick box’ inclusions- maverick cop undermined by her supervisors- quirky civilian aide; in this case an intelligent professor with dwarfism- romance simmering under the surface- etc etc.The focus of a murder is an Anglo Saxon setup with clues of ancient language, runes, bog bodies and Vikings and boy, every other page contains some over the top waffle, including some full pages of squiggles and indecipherable poems.The police investigators are pathetic. No impact whatsoever. The plot is unbelievable, tilting towards ridiculous.Whilst this book will appeal to many readers who enjoy history there was far too much for my liking. I found it difficult to decide on what rating to give. As a thriller/police procedural, 1star ( and that is generous ). As a researched history lesson 3stars. I’ll stick to two stars.

When I was younger I used to finish every book, no matter how poor because I always thought they may improve further on. To be fair, sometimes they did and I would have missed out on some real gems. Now I am older I find that I don't want to waste time if a story is poor, far-fetched or just not engaging and I'm afraid this is one of those. I really liked the idea of the main character and his differences, but I found that as a Brit, his Britishness was unbelievable. This was annoying in itself, but I also found that the story didn't flow well and the writing was stilted. I do hope that for those of you who stick with it that you think it was worth your while, but I'm sorry, this one's not for me.

I don’t like to leave 1* reviews but as this was an Amazon first read I feel obliged to leave a review and this was all I could give this. We have a hard drinking dwarf, an Amazonian axe throwing undergraduate, a “tough” female detective and the inevitable sexist police chief. Not the most likely set of characters! There are pages of Viking runes which made no sense to me and ‘bog bodies.’ Make of that what you will. Sadly after 50% I could take no more…sorry!

I found this a good fun detective story where the freelance consultant is the real star. Well researched on how the runes used to leave messages related to ancient myth stories. Not just a quick five minute check up on old myths, must have taken quite some time to get the background knowledge required.Evan Whiting is not your normal clever consultant, he uses his mind to analyze things and, in this story, to translate the puzzling messages left behind. Very puzzling cryptic messages, open to multiple interpretations, which adds greatly to the enjoyment. Personally, I enjoyed the explanations of the Viking history and Old English stories (Beowulf) that were weaved into the plot. I noted that many who gave a poor review didn't like those parts.I found the book well written with many cleverly phrased comments slipped in and I liked the author's style. I am sure I will get the next in the series to follow Evan's adventures. Being an academic myself, it's nice to come across an investigator who isn't a super fit. 6 ft tall ex SAS person and uses his brain instead of his muscles and guns.While I'm sure I've read another murder story where the clues were in runes, that didn't distract from the story. After all, there are thousands of detective stories where the super-fit fighting detective wins the day, so one where the hero is a bit small and not a fighter, unlike his post doc assistant, makes a refreshing change.So if you want a story that's a bit different and sets your mind thinking, you should enjoy this. And book 2 is due out this month...Why only four stars - the boss detective was a standard male chauvinist git who treated the lead female detective as if she was the tea lady at times. He was just a bit too much standard stereotype. Although at the end of the book, he might be changing this attitude a little bit.Go on, enjoy something a bit different.

I am a huge fan of Barbara Nickless, having read all her Sydney Rose Parnell series and enjoyed them very much. When I discovered that she had created a new character I was keen to read the first in the series. I was definitely highly impressed. From the minute you start reading, you feel as if you have known the characters all your life. They are all so well-crafted and realistic and this is a fantastic start to a new series, which totally involves you from the very beginning. Dr Evan Wilding is an immediately likeable character, being intelligent, sensible, and British. I found I could relate to him extremely well. Detective Addie Bisset took a little bit longer to grow on me, but she got there in the end. I found the story itself both complex and interesting. Viking mythology is not something that I have really taken to in the past, but this side of it was quite disturbing and leant itself nicely to the purpose of the plot. There were intense, exciting, and frightening parts in this story which held my attention all the way through to the very end, and I found the finish nicely rounded and satisfying with no lose ends left hanging. This author is a very talented writer, and I will certainly be buying the next in this series when it is released.