The Mayfly: As Chilling as M. J. Arlidge

Many twists and turns. Very satisfying thriller. And a new investigator to follow - Charlie Priest. Hazel depicts his characters wonderfully.

Well written and "edge of the seat" plot.

Very well written. Plausible and exciting until you get to the ending.

I chose to read and review an eARC of The Mayfly but that has in no way influenced my review.Charlie Priest, where have you been all my life? I’m also absolutely kicking myself as this book has been sat on my NetGalley shelf for *ahem* a wee while. Best not to dwell on past mistakes and let’s instead look at the (sort of) here and now. I read The Mayfly. I LOVED The Mayfly.Ex-detective turned lawyer, Charlie Priest, is unwittingly drawn into a macabre plan, seventy years in the making, when a man in uniform tricks his way into his house. He’s looking for a memory stick. A memory stick Priest has never laid eyes on. The following day the intruder is found grotesquely murdered – Priest’s business card found amongst his clothes, which leads the police straight to his door. It doesn’t help that the detective in charge, McEwen, has it in for him after working together years before. Time is running out for Charlie and the only way to clear his name is to find the mysterious memory stick, and discover what terrible secrets it holds…The Mayfly is such a brilliant book. I bloody loved it! Charlie Priest is a very likeable character and I was very happy to be swept along into this story with him and his wonderful team. The opening chapters set the tone of this gripping, grisly story perfectly and I was loathe to put the book down for any length of time. Charlie’s career, for a start, makes him an interesting character, but then you discover he suffers from dissociative disorder which is a condition I’ve not really heard about before. It added an extra layer to his personality and I was keen to know more about how it impacted his interactions and day to day life. What absolutely, categorically cemented my love of this book though is that Charlie’s brother is a convicted serial killer. It’s almost like this book was written especially for me!The supporting cast of characters are all very well written. I was rooting for Georgie, in particular. She reminded of Tilly Bradshaw from MW Craven’s Washington Poe series on several occasions. Vincent Okoro is another character I would like to see more of as the series progresses. And, as you may have gathered, I may be a little in love with Charlie Priest. Moving swiftly on…Would I recommend this book? I most definitely would, yes. The Mayfly is brilliant and I’ve already downloaded the second book in the series. I loved the chapters set at the end of the Second World War. The unease the author creates is palpable. I didn’t see the big reveal coming but it was perfect and done very well. The entire plot had me hook, line and sinker. If you love tense, gutsy crime novels with just about the right amount of ‘grisly’, you will love The Mayfly. Crime fiction at its finest. Highly recommended.I chose to read and review an eARC of The Mayfly. The above review is my own unbiased opinion.

The cover is what first caught my attention, but it was the blurb that sealed the deal. I mean, a psychological thriller AND a connection to WWII? That’s basically combining two of my favorite genres and simply irresistible. This story mosty definitely didn’t disappoint. I actually didn’t know that The Mayfly is the first book of a new series, but now now I’ve finished this story I will be looking forward to see more of Charlie Priest in the future. The Mayfly reads almost like a private detective story, but Charlie Priest is actually a lawyer instead (and ex-cop). Charlie has a lot of flaws and a messed up personal life, but his character didn’t feel like a cliche at all. In fact, with a serial killer for a brother and his dissociative disorder Priest scores top marks for being an intriguing character. The plot itself is fascinating and I loved the chapters that went back to events set just after WWII. The references to the Holocaust add a whole different level to this story and really made The Mayfly stand out for me. There were quite a lot of twists and while I expected some things to happen, I didn’t guess the full truth until the very end. I could have done without the love triangle and romance scenes in general though, although it’s just the love triangle itself that didn’t add anything substantial to the plot. Also, some of the things that happen can make you doubt the credibility of it all… For example: how did they manage to go on for years without being catched? But those are only minor complaints about what is still essentially a highly entertaining rollercoaster ride.

Lawyer Charlie Priest faces an intruder in his London home, searching for something in particular. Follow Charlie to discover what the item is, why it is important and the history behind it all.I thoroughly enjoyed reading The Mayfly and found it to be very entertaining, thinking this would make a great film. This thriller is very gruesome and has a great plot. Character development of the people involved is very good and the pace of this story is spot on.One of my pet hates is when novels rock backwards and forwards in time frames. The Mayfly has two major time periods, 1946 and the present day! However, this time shifting actually works and it does not annoy me. This time shifting gives the reader background information so that you understand the history and nature of the beast. The fact that you are little ahead of Charlie in finding out what is going on does not spoil this story. The joy for the reader is getting the bigger picture rather than the snippets Charlie gets along the way. I enjoyed reading the 1946 parts of this story - an era I generally avoid - because it was so engaging.I loved how this story was told and how it developed. Everything is revealed and sorted out by the end with a regular dose of conspiracy thrown in for good measure. I think The Mayfly is a top class thriller, quality writing with lots of research and I loved how things were explained to the reader so they can understand the nuts and bolts of what was going on. I can find nothing wrong with The Mayfly and consider it an OUTSTANDING 5 star read.

So: The blurb states: .... "With the suspense of Jeffrey Deaver, the tension of Thomas Harris and as gripping as M J Aldridge.". Only trouble with that is that I haven't read any of those mentioned writers. I can, however, say I found the book gripping, tense and suspenseful. A cracking good read. I have read a lot of fact based books around the holocaust of late, and it was good to read something as good as this crime thriller. I liked the well written quirky lead characters Georgie and the rest of Charlie Priest's team. Charlie is very engaging a character and his condition of Dissociation Disorder and the challenging circumstances of not only having his parents die in a plane crash but a brother who is a convicted mass murderer gives him a huge burden to contend with before he tackles anything else. His condition is incurable, untreatable and unpredictable so he is a far from perfect hero. He is likeable and self deprecating and easy to root for. It was a five star rollercoaster ride all the way through this exciting story; the switches to just after the war and the present day were well linked. In the end it was four stars because, for me, much as I enjoyed it, the scenes towards the conclusion were a bit too reminiscent of some of the old Dennis Wheatley novels of the past, like the Devil rides out. , At that point in the novel, I found it just a bit too occult and far fetched .... whereas, up to that point, I had bought into the evil Nazi doctors experimenting with poison in the camps and beyond. Excellent read though.... Hard to put down. Highly recommended. Looking forward very much to the writer's next book. A new writer for me, but will read more from him. Like the style and characters.

Oh my goodness. This book was all the stars for me and I am so shocked and embarrassed that I let it languish on my tbr for so long!Charlie Priest was formerly in the police force, he's now a pretty successful lawyer although he tends to leave a lot of the day to day stuff with his employees. When we first meet him he is being attacked in his own home by someone who is convinced he has a memory stick and wants it back. Charlie has no such thing and it's only by the skin of his teeth, or more accurately his hand, that he manages to escape and his attacker runs away. But then he finds out that the man who attacked him is dead and Charlie is visited by the police; his business card having been found on the deceased. Then he is visited by the man's sister and father who want him to investigate the circumstances around the death. He declines initially but it soon becomes apparent that there are powers at work that compel his involvement.And so begins a wild and wicked journey for Charlie and the rest of the characters. A story that begins way back in time to the Nazis and WWII, where foundations are laid for things to come. Things that shock the core of society, things kept hidden by powerful people. What will it take to bring the house down once and for all?I loved Charlie from the off. Like all main protagonists these days, he has his quirks. He suffers from dissociation, much like his brother. But unlike his brother he hasn't turned into a serial killer, yet! The rest of his investigators all have their own peculiarities but I will leave you to discover them at your leisure. Suffice to say they're a oddball bunch but they work well together.The story is a bit over the top in places but not totally without credibility. I was especially impressed with how things merged at the final showdown which put paid to some of my misgivings along the way. I was especially intrigued by the way the author weaved the holocaust and Buchenwold into his narrative, this topic being of interest to me.With twists and turns injected at just the right times to keep me on my toes, this was a book that gripped me from page one, ticked every box for me along the way and left me satisfied at the end. With book two of this series out next month, I really can't wait to see what happens next for Charlie and gang!

Wowzers! This is an absolute firecracker of a debut novel that pulls together some remarkable characters, a fiendishly clever motive, some very brutal deaths and tops it off with an irreverent sense of humour that draws it together perfectly. The resulting novel, The Mayfly, introduces a former Detective Inspector, now turned successful fraud lawyer who is the original lovable rogue - a rough diamond of a man characterised by his social ineptness and dissociative disorder. The Mayfly opens deep in the midst of winter in South Wales with DCI Tiff Rowlinson attending a grotesque crime scene and a mutilated corpse discovered in a woodland glade and with the Attorney General, Sir Philip Wren himself, attending. A macabre means of death has been employed.. and despite never being gratuitously gory, it is guaranteed to stay foremost in readers minds!Despite his many detractions, protagonist Charlie Priest is impossible not to fall for. Not in a romantic sense of the word, but if his flippant irreverence and cheeky banter do not leave readers wanting a repeat experience, then I will be staggered. The action opens with Charlie attempting, rather unsuccessfully, to pan fry lemon sole but being distracted by the arrival of an agitated and unspecified individual who attempts to to knock seven bells out of him under the misnomer that he has been received a flash drive, sent from whom and containing exactly what is left undisclosed. Leaving Priest a little worse for wear, the man heads into the night only for a sore Charlie to be visited by the next morning in his offices by the sweating and incapable ‘tool’ that is DI McEwen. Showing Priest a picture of his visitor of the previous night and detailing his excruciatingly painful death by impalement on a greased shaft, Charlie is informed that the man's identity is Miles Ellinder - black sheep and step-son of Kenneth Ellinder, CEO of a powerful pharmaceuticals company. DI McEwen’s first question is to ask Charlie just why his business card was found amongst the clothes stripped from Miles prior to his extremely painful demise. The unexpected arrival of Kenneth Ellinder and his daughter, Jessica, to the offices of Priest & Co requesting Charlie’s assistance in discovering just what motivated Mile’s murder and citing their scepticism of DI McEwan acumen, which all seems very sensible to Charlie, presents him with an opportunity to clear his name. But just as Charlie starts to make headway in discovering what lies behind the sordid affair, the news that the Attorney General, Sir Philip Wren, has hung himself and his only daughter has gone missing see the stakes raised significantly higher.London based Priest & Co. are staffed by an assortment of quirky oddballs, all endearing in their own right and very distinctive, from eager associate Georgie Someday, with her remarkable processing capacity to the OCD encumbered and likely autistic accountant, Solly. The characters who proliferate Priest’s time away from the office are also equally memorable, from his PhD serial killer and now certified criminally insane brother, William, his ever forgiving sister, Sarah, her layabout husband and his vindictive ex-wife, Assistant Commissioner Dee Auckland. With his ex police contacts, an Attorney General godfather and his derealisation - an alternative manifestation of his dissociative disorder than makes real life even foggier - Charlie Priest is a humorous and beleaguered central character in the world of crime fiction that offers something new.Despite the rave reviews from many friends, I was reluctant to try this novel due to its split timeline, one strand of which was related to the liberation of Buchenwald Concentration Camp in 1945 and continues with the interrogation of a Nazi doctor, Dr Kurt Schneider, responsible for some horrific experiments on prisoners of war. However, James Hazel never lingers on these scenes and they merely provides a wider context for the overarching premise of his wider story.Brilliantly researched, with some obvious attention to detail, the background of information that is conveyed is enormous, but it never feels for a minute like an overload or information dump. There is so much detail conveyed between the characters in the simple course of general conversation and banter, that makes this book is child's play to get pulled into. And suddenly, despite the suspension of disbelief required, it makes gloriously irresistible reading matter. The Mayfly is a pure adrenaline rush with a hatful of great characters and a tightly knotted plot with no obvious loose ends or lingering questions, except, what is next for the irrepressible Charlie Priest? Either way, I shall be following closely behind. Fast, furious and fresh, The Mayfly is a crackerjack of a thriller which hangs together so well and is characterised by a devilishly scathing humour.Review written by Rachel Hall (@hallrachel)

The Mayfly is the first in an exciting new series featuring a really engaging and fascinating character, Charlie Priest.Charlie is an ex-policeman now lawyer with a select clientele of rich and powerful people.  His brother is currently serving life as a convicted serial killer and his younger sister is constantly trying to fix him up on a date.  His ex-wife HATES him, his staff adore him and there's the little issue of him suffering from dissociative disorder meaning he frequently zones out from reality, which can be quite unhelpful when he finds himself investigating a gruesome murder.With two timelines running through this story it's fair to say this book is not for those with aversion to gore as there are some very disturbing murders and flashbacks to the Holocaust.This is a really well researched and gripping thriller and I personally can't wait to read the next book in this series The Ash Doll which is being published late September 2018.