Having just read and reviewed a book where the story heavily depended on the victim wanting revenge on the perpetrator but the criminal escaping justice due to a legal technicality and the shortfall of the criminal justice system leading to vigilantism, I was not expecting to come across another title that is based on those same issues so quickly! That said, I have a soft spot for John Nicholl books so this blew the other title completely out of the water.

This is exactly the sort of book i've come to expect from Mr Nicholl - it is certainly not for the faint-hearted. He has a vivid imagination and as an ex police and child protection officer some of these ideas may have come from his previous employment and transferred into his fiction. "Before I Met Him" is the third book in the DI Gravel series and what a dark and gritty read it is. Nicholl seems to like to verge on the sick and twisted side in terms of his crime fiction which has me hanging on his every word.

What makes this book different is that you actually side with the killer when usually most of us would side with the detective with a view to justice being done. There are deeper topics explored here than in your bog-standard thriller and I appreciated that. I also marvelled at just how engaged and enthralled I was for the whole gruesome ride!

Many thanks to Bloodhound Books for an ARC. I was not required to post a review and all thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

This book is dark, twisted and full of complex characters. With such tough subject matter I was hesitant to finish reading Before I Met Him. Due to the complexity of each person in the story I knew I owed to myself and to them to keep reading.
I felt an array of emotions while reading, which is to be expected when the topic is so difficult. But I found sympathy to be the strongest of them all and that was hard for me to experience.
If you can keep in mind this is JUST a book give this story a read. But it is not for the faint of heart.

This books is based on revenge. Rebecca was sexually abused aged six and her abuser avoided punishment. This sent Rebecca into a bloody rempage of revenge 17 years later. The hunters become the hunted.
I found this book not as easy flowing as John Nicoll's other books. I think the storyline of Grav being on holiday was a bit pointless. Still a good read.

Thank you NetGalley, John Nicholl and BloodHound Books for the free ebook in exchange for an honest review.

Rebecca was only six when she was violated by a pedophile and is now disturbed. DI Gravel feels like he failed her because no justice was ever served in her case. Rebecca is now 23 and she is taking justice into her own hands on the Internet! She acts like a young child and lures in her prey to murderous traps. DI Grav and his partners are on the hunt for a new type of serial killer. Is vigilante justice ever justified?

Again I loved the beginning of this novel and was very into it and I love the new DI Kesey character. However, about half way I became less interested in the novel. There are some very gruesome torture scenes in this novel that even made me a bit squeamish, Nicholls is very good at those types of scenes. I enjoyed the premise behind the novel and I liked the idea of justice from what she suffered. It reminded me a bit of a Criminal Minds episode. I still really enjoy the Gravel character and how grumpy and unpleasant he can be.

The ending to this novel was really enjoyable to me, I liked that it was different from the last novel by Nicholl I read. This novel did have a lot of similarities to the second DI Gravel novel and I found the repetitiveness a bit annoying. I also found the middle of this novel dragged a bit, also like the second novel, but it does pick up and become more interesting. Overall, this novel is a good, slightly graphic mystery novel and if you enjoyed the first two Gravel novels, definitely pick this one up!

Out July 24th!

Before I Met Him is a dark psychological thriller that will stick with readers long after they put the story down.

Rebecca Smith lived though hell and decided as an adult she would make sure no child would live though the same hell.

Rebecca takes the law into her own hands and hunts the men prey on children. The story gets very dark as she tortures, kills and dismembers the bodies of those who would pray on little children.



While Di Gravel searches for clues he has to ask himself as do readers Is Vigilante Justice ever justified?

Before I Met Him will have readers horrified at what can happen to children and how justices something is just and people are able to slip though the cracks. This story is very dark and won't be for everyone.



The system isn't perfect which will have reader questioning everything they know.



Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher Bloodhound Books for the advance copy of John Nicholl Before I Met Him

Just loved this book, gory, easy reading, gripping and an exciting page turner. Johns's books will appeal to everyone who enjoys psychiatric thrillers.

I cannot fault the skill of this author and I can thoroughly recommend.

An excellent ending and I hope we read more from Grav in the future.

Good foundation story. Strong characters. Not. Many twists in this thriller but lots of gore. Kinda sympathise with the killer.!

You have got to hand it to John he has an amazing mind, a little sick, but amazing, but then again, I read what he writes to that might put me into the same category. This is his best book, they just keep getting better and better, 5 stars for this one.

In a way you can totally understand the woman in the book, Rebecca, after all she went though in her childhood, but that doesn’t justify what she does as an adult. The details written of what she does are quite gruesome.

We welcome back DI Gareth Gavel (Grav) who returns early from a holiday (who on earth does that!!!!!) to solve the case.

This might not be a book for those with a weak stomach, even more so listening to the audio version with Jake Urry as the narrator, he really make certain scenes come alive and they are really scary.

Wow a serial killer story with a twist, you know the killer from the beginning. 6 year old Rebecca was abused as a child, the CPS decided not to prosecute as they felt they didn’t have enough to convict leaving Rebecca and her parents reeling from the injustice. Roll on 17 years and Rebecca is supervisor in the IT Dept in the Police Department. She has never been able to let go of what happened to her, its eating away at her, her relationship with her parents has disintegrated, did they fail in protecting her?

Rebecca poses as a child in different chat rooms to lure the depraved pedophiles' to her door to serve up justice, HER STYLE, word to the wise, make sure and don’t eat whilst reading this, it is very descriptive in the torture department and is not for the faint hearted.

Meanwhile body parts are washed up on the beach and so ensues a murder investigation, with only Junior DS Laura Kesey to head the enquiry, DI Grav is recalled from forced vacation. Grav is not doing so well since the death of his DS and friend Clive Rankin under a cloud, the coroner recorded death by suicide but Grav just cannot accept it, suffering from PTSD from that and his last case and the death of his wife to cancer some years previous.

This book reels you in from page 1, you literally cannot put it down, I felt myself rooting for Rebecca, can two wrongs make a right? But surely what she is doing is saving future victims of abuse, that can only be a good thing right?

A gritty suspense thriller, I love the DI Gravel series, Nicholls leaves you wanting more, so when’s the next instalment due?

Many thanks to John Nicholl, Bloodhound Books and Netgalley for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

Another book from the Master of The Dark.
Six year old Rebecca's childhood stops when she is abused by dance teacher. After giving harrowing evidence of what happened to her the CPS decide not to prosecute as there is not enough evidence. This devastates her family and the police. Nothing more can be done.
Now twenty three year old Rebecca spends her own time posing as a child on her computer looking for paedophiles, she slowly reels them in and when they are ready she invites them to her home. WELCOME TO MY PARLOUR SAYS THE SPIDER TO THE FLY. They never leave.
Body parts are found in the river and DI Gravel must catch the killer.
As I expect from this author from page one I was hooked. I HAD to read this book in one sitting. It is bloody, gory and very entertaining. This girl is on a mission.
This is a child who was abused the system let her down and she never got over it.
Revenge is a dish best served cold. Rebecca did what any of us in the same situation would like to do but never would. The Master of the Dark has done it again. This is definitely my favourite author.
I would like to thank the author John Nicholl, Bloodhound books and Net.galley for giving me the opportunity to read this book in return for giving an honest review.

Before I Met Him by John Nicholl was nothing less than I’ve come to expect from Mr. Nicholl…. an incredibly dark and gritty thriller! Before I Met Him (or really any Nicholl book) is seriously not for the faint of heart or those with a weak stomach!! There are scenes that are conspicuously cringe-worthy… just… very disturbing… yet I was instantly drawn in and could not look away! Nicholl can write a fantastic suspense/thriller.

This book makes you consider the old age question can two wrongs cancel out a wrong and so make it all right? Is it really an eye for an eye? Mr. Nicholl opens your mind to these questions. Is it acceptable to take the law in your own hands when it fails you? When the rules and laws of our country fail us, can we exact revenge? Most people won’t agree with going out and taking care of your unjust. We get to see this type of dilemma through the eyes of Rebecca.

Rebecca was sexually abused as a young child by a pedophile that escaped prosecution. Now as a grown woman, Rebecca is seeking her own type of justice against these sexually deviant men when the system failed her all those years ago. Really though, could you blame any victim if they were to consider an appropriate level of revenge after the law appeared to be working against them? The law is the law but how is condoning a sexual predator acceptable? It isn’t, Rebecca challenges the system in her own way.

We get to catch up again with DI Gareth Gravel, or Grav. The good detective is a bit over-worked these days. He seems to be suffering from burn out and from PTSD. He’s on a long overdue (read mandatory vacation ordered by his superiors). Gray is an angry alcoholic who is barely functioning through life. But, as a detective there is no better (who knew that could ever work)! So when body parts start washing up on the beach, he quickly forgoes his vacation and heads back to work. Grav’s character had so much depth! He was so crass! At times I wasn’t sure if I even actually liked him or not… but it worked for him (and I seriously enjoy him, even when I think he’s a jerk!)!

I totally found myself on the serial killers side… normally on rooting on the detective. I have to say, here, I found myself supporting Rebecca and cheering her on. The suspense was gripping and I couldn't tear myself away from Rebecca's plot for revenge. Just like in most of Nicholl’s other books, there are scenes of graphic torture that might not appeal to everyone.

I was fortunate to get this book via NetGalley. The description pulled me in right away. Reading Rebecca's story and what she had to deal with only made me root for her even more. No one should have to go through the abuse that she went through. She finds a unique way to deal with it. Before I knew it I was on chapter 4. The pages couldn't turn fast enough lol. Getting into her head and finding out how she wanted to make sick men pay was priceless. It reminded me of a movie I saw a long time ago it was called Hard Candy.

This book is even better than that. Okay, I will just say It, I will read anything that John Nicholl's writes from now on. He has the ability to make you get into the characters head as if they are real characters. I could swear that these people were real. It was gritty, dark and suspenseful. Nicholl allows the reader to delve into the character's life and find out why they do what they do. It was sickening and fascinating at the same time. This book is not to be missed. Or for the faint of heart.