My First book from this msytery series by Donald Levin. Not gonna lie, he is an amazing writer. I'm definitely hooked ny the story partly in the middle through the end. I still follow through all the characters so I can understand them well. It hit me up so good and looking for more mystery like this.

This was quite a dark tale, the title is a clue into the theme of the story. The Cold Dark Lies are the ones people tell each other and themselves. Our hero is a PI with a brain damaged son who he adores and tries to spend as much time as possible with; his boss has a secret and he has a major case to investigate which takes him into the seedier side of town.

I hadn't read any of the other books in this series, but this was a good read that worked as a standalone novel. Any crime fiction buff will enjoy it!

Martin Preuss is a former police officer who now makes his living as a private investigator. Predictable plot? Not even close. Although this is the sixth book in the series, it can be read as a stand alone novel, which is a good thing since this is the first one that I have read. Martin is not only dealing with multiple cases in this book, but he is also dealing with personal issues of his own. This book is thought provoking with a quick pace. It covers a myriad of topics from organized crime to drugs, complete with an overdose, and prostitution as well as the love of father for his child. I am looking forward to reading more of this series. Thank you to NetGalley, the author and publisher for the opportunity to review this book.

Review for 'Cold Dark Lies' by Donald Levin

Read and reviewed via NetGalley for BooksGoSocial and Poison Toe Press.

This is the first book that I have read by this author. I am likely to read more of his books.

This is the 6th book in the 'Martin Preuss Mystery' series. However, this book can be read as a standalone without any problems.

The plot is a typical private eye one where a woman hires a PI to find out what really happened to her brother in a seedy motel room. It was quite slow paced and didn't have much action. However, I still couldn't stop reading it which surprised me!

The book is very well written with plenty of descriptions and strong characters which I enjoyed reading about, especially Preuss (rhymes with juice).

THE book seems to be in two halves really with half concentrating on Preuss's cases and the other half which talks about his son and his life which I enjoyed as it made me feel 'closer' to his character.

I was not expecting the ending so well done there, nothing worse than when you guess the ending of a book and your not even half way through!!

I would recommend it to fans of crime, mystery and detective novels.

442 pages

Free on kindle unlimited or £2.40 to purchase. I think this is a good price for this book.

Rated 4/5 ( I enjoyed it ) on Goodreads, Instagram, Amazon UK and Amazon.Com and on over 30 Facebook pages plus my blog on Facebook.

Feel free to add me on Goodreads for more reviews

#ColdDarkLies #DonaldLevin #BooksGoSocial #PoisonToePress #NetGalley #BookReview
https://m.facebook.com/Bookworm1986/?ref=bookmarks

Ex-cop Martin Preuss (rhymes with juice) is a private detective in partnership with octogenarian detective Manny Greene. Preuss is a widower who is estranged from his oldest son and devoted to the care of his severely disabled younger son Toby.

In Cold Dark Lies Martin is handed a case involving a well-to-do middle-aged man who has been found comatose in a seedy motel room. Manny Greene was initially going to take the case but he has been mysteriously preoccupied of late so Preuss steps in.

This is the type of crime novel that has the detective doggedly chasing clues that don't seem to go anywhere until they finally add up to a bigger picture. There's not a lot of action - some but really not much. There are some unexpected plot twists but overall it comes off a little flat.

I just never really got all that invested in either the character or the story. The plot is a bit weak, the pace is slooow, and the author tends to be repetitive. Surely there must be a better way to express the love and devotion that Preuss feels for his severely disabled son other than repeatedly referencing the boy's "beautific smile". I realize that sounds harsh but it seemed to me like a shortcut for trying to create a full dimensional character that never quite came into focus.

This is book 6 in The Martin Preuss Mystery Series. I haven't read any of the other books in the series and, honestly, probably won't be reading them in the future. It's not a bad book, just a little too bland for my taste.

***Thanks to NetGalley, BooksGoSocial, and author Donald Levin for providing me with a free digital copy of this title in exchange for an honest review.

Martin Preuss isn’t exactly the cigar-chomping, fedora-wearing, gun-toting, wise-cracking private eye popularized so many decades ago. Like many classic private eye stories, he’s asked to investigate what happened in a seedy motel room filled with drugs, sex, violence, and blackmail. He ends up jousting with mobsters, with nightclub bouncers, and with henchmen that have their own ideas of how to carry out orders.

Yet, Preuss is a complex man with modern problems. He nearly ended it all after his wife, following an argument, stormed away in her car only to become mincemeat on the highway. It was his younger son Toby who pulled him back from the edge, his younger son, developmentally disabled, on a feeding tube, in a group home with round the clock care. What a juxtaposition between his family responsibilities to Toby and the seedy dirty world private investigators travel.

As far as the investigation goes, don’t make any predictions or assumptions about what happened or why. None of it gets resolved as you think it will. The writing is smooth. This one’s a powerful thrill ride from start to finish. It may be number six in the series, but there are no prerequisites to reading it.

Many thanks to the publisher for providing a copy for review.

Many Thanks to NetGalley for providing my ARC
Martin Preuss is an ex-cop, currently working as a private investigator. He is hired by Carrie Morrison to find the truth about her comatose brother(Greg), who was found beaten and OD'ed on heroin, in a cheap motel.
The case looks clear except that all of Greg's friends insist that he had always been a health freak, and would have never used drugs.
The story goes like a treasure hunt, where Preuss goes solving puzzle after another.
The plot, in general, was good, and in all, I did not expect the ending
But there is a lot of things that prevented me from giving it more than 3 stars, There is a lot of characters, and it got me confused many times and had to go back to the previous chapters. For instance Harshi and clerk, his cousin, her father (who became her uncle on the next page 🙄). It was too much.
I think the main character, was well developed with all the backstories, I didn't get connected with the other characters
But what about the villain? I think he didn't get much light in the book.
I'm half pinning this on my pickiness when it comes to thrillers, or maybe I should have read the previous books to get more connected to the characters.