Dead Lands by Lloyd Otis

Read from Oct 28th 2017 - Nov 3rd 2017.

Published Oct 12th 2017 by Urbane Publications.

Format    Paperback -  320 pages.

Synopsis - 
Taken from Goodreads - Dead Lands is a thrilling crime story set in the 1970s. When a woman's body is found a special team is called in to investigate and prime suspect Alex Troy is arrested for the murder. Desperate to remain a free man, Troy protests his innocence, but refuses to use his alibi. Trying to protect the woman he loves becomes a dangerous game - questions are asked and suspicions deepen. When the prime suspect completes a daring escape from custody, DI Breck and DS Kearns begin the hunt. Breck wants out of the force while Kearns has her own agenda and seeks revenge. Breck has his suspicions and she wants to keep it from him, and a right-wing march provides an explosive backdrop to their hunt for Troy. Lloyd Otis brings a startling account of the past back to life over a burgeoning '70s landscape, and delivers a thrilling piece of crime fiction that will excite any fan of the genre.

My Review - Firstly, I'd love to tell you all about Lloyd Otis as this is the first book blog tour I have partaken in and I am honoured to be reviewing his book as my first. Yes, it's MY day today. MY turn. I have never met him but before receiving the book I received information about him, photo's etc. I have put an extra tab on my blog to share these lovely book tour writers with you as it covers pages and pages and then we can leave this bit for the product itself - the book. 

Please check him out on that tab. I think he looks one cool dude myself. ;-)

As soon as I was asked to get involved in this tour, I jumped at the chance. The book looked amazing. The initial thing that caught my eye was the wonderful shiny cover. This is always an attractive eye catcher to the reader scanning the shelf for their next new read. It also has a simple but eye catching graphic. Red on black? great choice there Lloyd and Urbane. This simple design runs through the book at the start of each chapter, not in colour. A gun makes it absolutely clear that it is a crime story with killings involved, so if you are looking for a warm, cosy Agatha Christie then walk away, this is not for you.

I loved the teaser of an opening at chapter one, a short welcoming paragraph worded around that continuing graphic of a gun. This was a theme throughout at the beginning of each and every chapter which set the scene.

This book was very easy to read and just flowed, like sucking on your favourite perfectly round sweet that fits easily in your tongue. The wording never too intense, almost making it a light read if it wasn't for the content. It sure isn't a heavy deep mind bending read.

Lloyd astounded me with his punchy chapters, no, no waffle here. Straight in, no long monotonous intro's to everything. I liked that.

Saying that, I did have a criticism. I didn't feel atmosphere in the settings. There was no feeling to me. A super read but in these areas it lacked. Was this down to not enough description? Maybe it was stripped a little too much for me then. 

The detectives, wow! I loved the conversations between them. It was like I was the third wheel just looking in on them. The dynamics between them were very odd mind. They both gave off an air of distrust about them which made for a rather itchy relationship, but to be fair with personal histories like both of them have, I am not surprised they give off those kind of vibes.

Set in the 70's where police had to work on their own intuition and things were not always done above board and I'm guessing more so in a place such as London with a very diverse and growing population, with racial tensions brewing, it only added grittiness to this fantastic crime novel. I was only born mid 70's so can not comment from experience but I have seen 70's police shows compared to police shows of today and the police were brutal and got away with so much more. I think Lloyd captured some of that in this novel. I would have liked to have read more of how the 70's police/detectives worked which is different to now in more of a descriptive way but Lloyd was very consistent throughout.

This novel is a fabulous, gritty read which keeps you full of intrigue and as soon as you think something is solved, up comes a spanner in the works.

I would certainly love to read more from Lloyd Otis in the future and would like to see where these detectives get to. I wonder if Lloyd will let us know?

4 stars out of 5.