Having read this author before, albeit quite some time ago, I knew in advance that I admired her writing. My memory served me well, because I found this to be a stellar crime fiction read! A book which has the reader questioning just who are the good guys, and who are the bad guys. That there are many shades of grey in a world where nothing is every purely white or black.

The characters were well described and empathically drawn. The settings were easy to visualize and the plot contained several red-herrings. Besides the search for justice, this story delves into the horse racing world with all of its attendant avarice and corruption.

This crime thriller is not really a police procedural, as Eve’s career is very much on the back-burner during the course of the story. As of today’s date, there is no sequel available, though it is listed on several sites as being the first in the Eve West series. If a second title in the series becomes available I will definitely be adding it to my TBR.

I found the ending to be unusual in that I as the reader was given enough hints via the plot that I knew an elemental fact about Eve’s history that the author chose to NOT spell out, and NOT make her protagonist aware of. Very clever.

All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed “A Bad, Bad, Thing” and would highly recommend it to other crime fiction fans.

Eve West mystery series
Eve is a police officer whose lover and colleague is killed as a result of a tip off in what appears to be a set up. Under investigation for her role in the tragic incident she agrees to investigate a possible miscarriage of justice pending her disciplinary hearing.
Eve should feel something but keeps her emotions in check. She is a woman with secrets who has never resolved issues from past trauma eg sticky tapes bottom of door to show if someone has attempted to enter in her absence. Dan is recommended as a good person to speak to. He campaigns for justice for less fortunate members of society and has an ongoing problem with alcohol. Someone doesn’t want them to dig too deep and they risk their lives to uncover the truth.
Eve is a woman with a past and is used to being in control. I found myself wanting to know more about her and why she was like she was, a complex but very interesting character.
Also I was puzzled why a criminal would make the bargain he did with Eve. It really felt like he had an ulterior motive. Full marks to the author who did a sterling job of luring me into the story.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for a free digital copy of the book in return for an honest review.

A Bad Bad Thing by Elena Forbes takes the middle-aged policewoman trope and does it quite well. I was intrigued the entire way through and enjoyed the general story and plot twists involved. This was not the novel I was expecting in that I thought that she would be hellbent on discovering how and why her boyfriend was killed. I was pleasantly surprised when her rogue errand was distanced from this situation, while still being able to relate back to it and having it all tie together.

Eve is a genuinely likeable character. Once I got past her approach to affairs with married men, I found her an interesting and kind detective, with an easy-going exterior and a hardy core personality. Forbes has done a great job creating a female character that all other women will not instantly hate, as I find many men are privy to do. Her basic instincts are not always correct, she is not always right and not all men are obsessed with the idea of sleeping with her. This makes her a much easier character to digest than many in similar books.

However, I was not a huge fan of any of the male characters. While I understood what Forbes was trying to do, I have to admit that I nearly stopped reading in the first few pages, until Eve’s boyfriend was killed because of his thoughts about her. The majority of the men’s thoughts about women in the book are rather lewd or sexist, and while many men do think this way, I rarely hear these kinds of conversations nowadays so feel that this could have been done more topically.

Overall, A Bad Bad Thing is a good crime novel. I would recommend it to people who enjoy general crime fiction, want a new crime series to start, or love strong female detectives. The rogue mission in this book is the real highlight which most lovers of crime fiction will devour. Thank you NetGalley and Severn House for my e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Corruption in the racing world.

DCI Eve West and her partner DS Jason Scott have been told that the person they have been searching for, Liam Betts is currently hanging out at a property in North London. Unfortunately, this information is incorrect, and they walk into a trap. Jason Scott is shot and Eve West is accused of disrupting a major crime operation, plus by interrupting this operation, causing the untimely death of her partner.

Shortly after being suspended, she’s approached by a killer she had successfully put away some years previously, John Duran says he can give her evidence to prove that she and her partner had been set up, with the hope that she would be killed, not her partner. He has a proviso, he wants her to work with 4Justice, a charity who take on cases of people falsely convicted. The person who he claims is innocent is Sean Farrell. He’d been accused of murdering Jane McNeil, who was employed by Westerby Racing at the time of her murder.

Eve decides that she has nothing to lose by helping Sean Farrell prove his innocence and starts working with Dan Cooper, a journalist who runs 4Justice. Because the murder happened ten-years-old previously, she finds she’s working with witnesses who claim they can’t remember anything. However, when people start being killed off, both Eve and Dan realise that someone is desperately trying to stop them from finding out the truth.

Elena Forbes has created a fascinating protagonist in Eve West. Secretive, highly competent, but with a very dark past. Dan Cooper is a complicated character to like, but his one saving grace is 4Justice, a charity that works to ensure that innocent people are freed from incarceration.

I found the setting of the storyline in the horse racing world fascinating and Elena Forbes ensured that as a reader I was kept engrossed until the final sentence in the book.

Imbali

Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of the book to review.

Thank you to NetGalley, Severn House Publishers, and Elena Forbes for an ARC ebook copy to review. Sorry about the late book review. I was out of power due to a winter storm for 3 days, so I’m a bit behind on book reviews. As always, an honest review from me.

I ended up DNFing this book. It’s not bad but only okay. I found myself not really getting into the read. Despite all of the action, drama and suspense my interest wasn’t held enough to warrant me continuing to read the book.

I think one of the main reasons I didn’t connect with the book was that I didn’t connect with the main character. That’s one of the most vital elements for me loving a book.

The plot does have promise though. There’s intense drama and lots of police investigations. Also a criminal reaching out to a cop makes for an interesting read.

So if you connect with the story at the beginning, then A Bad, Bad Thing is probably for you. Unfortunately the book wasn’t a good match for me as a reader.

This was an excellent surprise. Eve is a police officer awaiting a hearing which may well end her career when someone she sent to prison asks her to look into the murder of Jane, a young woman, by one of his fellow inmates. Little does she know that this is going to send her down a path of twists and turns that will tie everything together in the end. Her first love, Gavin, is married into the family which owns the farm where Jane worked. Who are the good guys and who are the bad guys? You'll get a little insight into British horse racing. Eve works with Dan, who runs 4Justice, an organization devoted to clearing prisoners wrongly convicted. Both have tough issues in their background but both are nothing if not dogged investigators. There are some nice touches here, such as Hassan. This is nicely written and definitely kept me engaged and guessing. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. A very good read.

A Bad, Bad Thing, the first novel featuring DCI Eve West of the Metropolitan Police, is a tale of two halves. It is complex in terms of the number of different threads to the plot but is straightforward in terms of the linear timeline and being told primarily from Eve's point-of-view. I enjoyed the mix of complex and straightforward right from the get-go. However, our main protagonist, Eve, is not a particularly likeable individual. She is rather cold, distant and detached but that may be due to her past experiences, and she may become warmer over the upcoming additions to the series. I feel many will find the plot quite exhausting as there was a little too much going on, and it definitely has the potential to become confusing. I look forward to discovering how this new series and characters will evolve.

Many thanks to Severn House Publishing for an ARC.

Eve Forbes is a police officer with a hidden past. She is drawn into a dark and complex case when she is asked to investigate a miscarriage of justice. Eve was suspended from duty after a police operation goes horribly wrong. While suspended she is contacted by a criminal that she had previously convicted and sent to jail. John Duran now wants her help clearing a fellow inmate, Sean, of his convicted crimes. He offers her information that will exonerate her if she joins investigative journalist, Dan Cooper of 4justice, to try and free Sean Farrell, who was wrongly convicted of murdering a stable employee ten years ago.

There were issues I could not quite fathom out regarding the storyline: like why could a criminal be interested in proving a fellow inmate was innocent (maybe I'm just overthinking it) and how did he have the information about her suspension? I also felt the investigation of Jane McNeil's death was not quite believable. The book took a few chapters before I got into it. There is a lot going on in the storyline, so much so that I found it quite confusing. I was not keen on Eve, there seemed to be too much going on about her character. The ending leads you to believe that there will be further books bit I don't think that I will read anymore of this series.

I would like to thank NetGalley, Severn House and the author Elena Forbes for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Eve West is not a character I could get behind. I just didn't like her. Really, that's all there is to it. I d.n.f. this book. I tried, but my lip kept doing a Billy Idol thing. D.N.F. at 34%. I loved the cover, and the writing wasn't awful. But, I need more likable characters.

Eve West is a police officer on suspension following a police operation gone wrong. While suspended, she is contacted by a criminal she once put away, who now wants her help in clearing fellow inmate Sean of his convicted crimes. Eve is skeptical, but decides to look into it because she is promised information that proves she was set up on her police assignment.

This story follows Eve, a suspended police officer, and Dan Cooper, an investigative journalist. Dan works with 4Justice and has been looking into the case of Sean Farrell, a man convicted of a crime who claims his innocence. Sean was convicted of murder, but the case had flaws and Dan believes it was mishandled. Eve joins Dan in looking into the past murder, and trying to find new information that could exonerate Sean. Both Eve and Dan follow leads and piece together the past crime. Eve has a personal stake in the case, since she is wanting to prove her own innocence, and believes she will get the proof she needs if she helps Sean.

An interesting story that had a lot going on. This book does not hold back on graphic and disturbing crimes. While Eve and Dan investigate the old crime, new crimes are committed, including rape, torture, murder, and arson.

This is the first book in a new series about Eve West. I look forward to reading more about Eve. A good read for fans of British crime fiction. Clever, compelling, and complex.

I received a free eARC of this book from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Eve West, a police officer, with her married lover investigate a tipoff. But all goes wrong and while on suspension she gets involved in trying to prove a jailed man innocent of his murder charge.
Although a somewhat enjoyable and interesting read I didn't especially take to the main character which is a big problem for me in any book.

I am really undecided about this one. It was slow, perhaps a little too slow, On the contrary, the finale was rushed and perhaps contrived. I'm undecided as the main protagonist is unsympathetic, perhaps even unlikeable, which makes me doubt whether I would leap to read another story featuring her character. Reasonable story but slow, hence just 3*.

A Bad, Bad, Thing is a superb thriller with Elena Forbes showing her writing chops throughout. Looking forward to more in the series.

This is the first in a new series introducing Eve West a police officer who has been suspended after an operation went catastrophically wrong. Things get complicated when she is asked to visit John Duran whom she helped to convict. He reveals that he is terminally ill but wants her to investigate the conviction of Sean Farrell for the murder of stable girl Jane McNeil ten years earlier. To facilitate this he asks her to work with journalist, Dan Cooper of 4Justice.

Eve is a rather lonely, private person – and she has secrets which passes for detachment. Slowly it becomes clear that her job means everything to her and she is determined to clear her name.

All in all, well-written with a multi-strand plot which works well. I would not rave about this but it is a satisfying read and I must add, I am somewhat intrigued about Eve – and what will happen next.

Thank you to the author, publishers and NetGalley for providing an ARC via my Kindle in return for an honest review.

While police officer Eve West is awaiting her probationary hearing she stumbles upon a cold case surrounded by the horse racing community. She needs to uncover who really is behind the murder of a young woman for the sake of the man who has been sitting in a prison cell for 10 years. Although I wanted to discovers who really was behind the crime, I found this story to be rather boring and the writing somewhat sophomoric.

A BAD, BAD THING by Elena Forbes is a great suspense novel. I had never read any of Forbes's novels before but I will be on the hunt to read more from this great author.

Thank you NetGalley and Severn House Publishing for the eARC.
Wow, what a great read, I loved it.
This was the first book in the Eve West series and hopefully there are many more in the future.
Suspended from her job after being involved in a shooting, Eve is talked into trying to free a convicted murderer, whose been languishing in jail for 10 years, after supposedly killing his ex-girlfriend.
Eve is a woman with a mysterious past that still haunts her, causing insomnia with intense nightmares. She's tenacious and a good thief taker and these chapter traits were the decisive factor in her being hired by the dangerous gangster she helped put away. Why he is determined to help his fellow prisoner is a mystery, kindness not being a trait of his. But he promised he will help Eve keep her job, prove she was set up. How can she refuse?
What follows is intense: torture, murder, tape and a vivid description of the horse racing world: enticing, addictive and dangerous. And the ending was terrific - can't wait for the next book, hope it doesn't take long.
An intelligent, well written mystery with absorbing characters, I tried to read it slowly so I could savour it. I loved the character of Eve, she's a fascinating mix of strength and vulnerability. Highly recommended!

Detective Eve West is suspended from duties after it appears her recklessness has caused her colleague's death. Soon afterward, a killer who she put in prison years ago contacts her with information about her suspension. He claims Eve was set up and he has proof. But before he gives her the information, he wants her to investigate a fellow inmate who claims he is innocent of murdering a stable-girl.

But why is a criminal interested in proving that a fellow inmate is innocent? And why has he chosen Eve to look into the case?

Though both join forces rather reluctantly at first, Eve begins working with a journalist, Dan Cooper of 4Justice, to begin searching for new details regarding the case.

My Thoughts

What Concerned Me:
After a few chapters, the story captured my interest, but it wasn't a book that caught my interest from the start.

I also felt the death and investigation of Jane McNeil didn't feel quite believable. Plus the "secret" that accompanied Eve was a bit unnecessary since it didn't really add to an already complex story.

Though I could sense how it might end (and even hoped for that ending), I wish there would have been a bit more development regarding Eve and the other character. (I don't want to give the story away.)

What I Liked Most:
The main character, Eve, felt believable and strong. The story was well thought out and will appeal to many, plus I like the fact that this is going to develop into a very interesting series. I will be anxious to read the next Eve West novel.

This first book in a series by Elena Forbes introduces the main character, Eve West. She is a strong female character with more than a troubled past. The story traces Eve's move from the police department to a private investigator status. The plot is always moving and full of surprises. I really hope that Forbes will not delay in writing the next book that continues the adventures of Eve West.

A very good mystery, Ms. Forbes gives a detailed account of all the work that goes into solving this story. Eve is a strong character and l hope to read more books involving her. Dan not so much, he seems to weak a partner for her. A page turning book with a strong and smart main character.