Cold Reckoning

The DS Adam Tyler series by Russ Thomas has become one of my favourites. Cold Reckoning is the latest book, and it is perhaps the most personal book yet for Adam, as he grapples with the mystery of his father’s death decades earlier, and the mysterious disappearance of his boss, DCI Diane Jordan. I definitely think this is my favourite book in this series to date.There are a lot of strands in this novel, but Russ Thomas did a brilliant job of keeping everything flowing smoothly, and I never felt, as I was reading, that I was in anyway feeling lost with the story. The mysteries of what happened to Adam’s father and his boss really pulled me into the book. I could feel the sense of urgency there was for his need to get answers. I was kept intrigued right the way through. I was urging the police to take Diane’s disappearance more seriously, even though she is a police officer, it felt as though Adam was the only one pushing for an investigation.The pacing never drops. There are some very mysterious chapters where there is an exchange between two unknown individuals, and I wanted to know how this was going to be connected to the rest of the plot. I really liked the way how Russ Thomas brought this all seamlessly together as Adam finds out the truth. There are some brilliant twists as the novel nears its conclusion, and I could not put it down, as we reached this point. There were some tense scenes between Adam and some of the characters in this book, and I’m not going to say who, because I don’t want to spoil it, but it made me unsure of whom Adam could really trust. This is what makes the novel so tense, especially as we get towards the ending. This book will have you looking at every character with suspicion.Russ Thomas is definitely a writer who knows how to leave his readers wanting more. I’m desperate to find out what happens next in Adam’s journey following the conclusions of this book. I highly recommend this series.

With a taut narrative and pay-off in the character arcs, this book makes for a great finale in the three-part mystery of what really happened to DS Adam Tyler's dad, tying off many of the dangling threads but still allowing enough space to carry on the story in future novels - which I certainly hope we'll get. But as that sentence points out, these first three books in the series have been less about DS Tyler himself and more about the family history overshadowing his life, which is why I've knocked one star off the total and also why I'm hoping for more books featuring the police officer: so that we get to see and know him better once he's stepped out of that shadow and starts living his own life rather than dealing with the ghosts of his past. Russ Thomas is a great writer, so I hope to see him taking his lead character further. There's enormous potential in the detective, and in the series.

*Sorry for the awkward English, I'm no native English speaker.I'm so glad to get 3rd book of DS Adam Tyler series. The story and characters are so well written and it's quite satisfying to see the development. I hope we will get the series in translated soon in here, Japan, and it gets new fans. It deserves more!

Great story and interesting characters. Kept me gripped until the last page. Can’t wait for book four.

Despite my title, I did enjoy this, largely because of the fast, complex plotting. My main reservations are akin to those I have with ”serial killer” books: there really are so few of them and ( I still think) so few major high-level conspiracies that I find my ability to suspend my disbelief sorely tested at times. I have read both the previous books in this series and enjoyed them to the extent that this was on pre-order and my other major criticism is the need to have read the first two to fully understand this. Several readers have said that it works as a stand-alone novel but I am less sure; I read the second in the series so long ago now that I found myself frequently annoyed by not being able to recall characters and events enough to fit them into the current scenario. While I do not think a blow-by-blow resume would be appropriate, I’d not have minded a couple of carefully worked in nudges in the right direction.As others have said, the character development is well done; Tyler is a complex man, driven by numerous demons and frequently coming across as not the most socially adept or likely to make number one in the friendship charts, but he does get his particular job done. As ever, much of this is by ignoring and/or bending rules. What literary police officer does it any other way? I’d like to see Mina Rabbani and Jim Doggett further developed and hopefully they will be in future instalments of this very promising series. There are enough loose ends and intriguing questions left to fill at least another two books and I shall be buying them.

In just a couple of books Russ Thomas has become an author whose books I buy as soon as they come out.You can never assume anything in these books & this one in particular is a real rollercoaster.

Got the first in this series out of curiosity as they are set in my local area (Sheffield and Derbyshire) but instantly fell into the storytelling and couldn't wait to follow DS Tyler. The cliffhanger endings make you wish Russ would write quicker! Cannot wait for my pre-ordered book 4 to drop.

Followed on very closely from part two - and this is a book where you have to have read the previous books in the series of you might well become very lost in the plot. I enjoyed this read very much, found it much easier to read than the first two. Probably because I am more used to the author's writing style. To me there appeared to be less extraneous material than was the case with part two of the saga. I did enjoy the trilogy immensely and hope it will shortly be turned into a quartet.