I’ve just finished the last chapter of this high speed ride of a book and feel absolutely exhausted! I feel as if I was there in Bradford, chasing all the leads and the bad guys, hoping that the victims would pull through and the good guys will win the day. What a great cast of characters and a well researched plot. I’m already looking forward to reading the next one! A well deserved five stars (but such a shame the dates chosen for the action were during Covid 19 lockdown).

Broken Silence is the second novel in the DS Nikki Parekh series of books. Written by the lady who must have the best and appropriate name in crime fiction, Liz Mistry, it’s another gritty northern fiction book. The world Nikki inhabits is no picnic. More Taggert in style than Frost, this series is becoming to come to life.

The book starts in an explosive fashion with a rape coupled with a shooting and abduction of a police officer. DS Springer is not Nikki’s favourite person in the world. in fact she’d be near the bottom of the list. Yet her duty comes first, and she puts aside her feeling to find her. As ever she’s assisted by her sidekick Saj. Their partnership is one of the cornerstones of the series.

When you start a book with such ferocity, you have to follow it with action. This book has it in spades. Body after body is found. Tortured, then murdered Nikki and Saj soon realise something is happening in their beloved Bradford and it’s not nice. Broken Silence is not a novel for the faint-hearted.

I really enjoyed this book. The series comes alive with this story of human trafficking. Nikki isn’t the perfect person, in fact she can be downright terrible, yet there’s a spark that keeps you rooting for her. The way she puts aside her personal feelings to help Springer and her family is a case in point.

I was afraid that after the start this book would lose pace, yet it didn’t happen (thank god). All through the book you’re led around the gritty streets of Bradford, from one dead body to another. Each event making you turn those pages until you get to the end, and what an end it is. One that will have consequences for Nikki’s family.

I can’t recommend this book enough. As crime fiction goes, this is at the pinnacle. Liz Mistry has produced a book where that magical thing happens, the pages turn themselves. Can’t wait to see what the next will bring.

I love this story about illegal worker come to Bradford from Romania. There are some shocking scenes. Nikki's and Saj chemistry grew in confidence. The only downside was the ending was a little flat.

A strong 4 stars.

Broken Silence is the second in a series by accomplished crime writer Liz Mistry featuring DS Nikita Parekh (Nikki). Having read the first book, Last Request last year, I was thrilled to discover that this one was due to be published so I jumped at the opportunity to read it!

In this latest instalment, DS Felicity Springer has left a conference early and is driving home when she notices something strange. In the vehicle directly in front of her, a hand has been pushed through it's rear light and is waving, trying to attract her attention. Felicity calls the job in but whilst on the phone, she loses control of the car on the icy road, crashing straight into the van ahead. When Nikki and her work partner, DC Sajid Malik race to the scene to help their colleague, Felicity has vanished into thin air...

The author's descriptions of multicultural Bradford were fascinating and the pacing was spot on. There was always plenty going on and there was certainly never a dull moment. Liz Mistry, a seasoned crime writer, clearly knows how to write a story that is compelling, entertaining and all-consuming, with characters that are perfectly drawn. I have really taken a liking to Nikki who is feisty, bold, vulnerable and flawed, yet always real. Nikki's partner-in-crime, DC Sajid Malik, has also left an impression on me; he is caring, straight-talking and protective; a gay man who has a problematic life. I really appreciated the amicability between Nikki and Sajid. All of the characters had a great part to play, whether or not they were likeable. Although Nikki was the main protagonist, I loved that some of the chapters were written from the killer's perspective, as this allowed the reader a glimpse into ever darkening minds.

Liz Mistry delivered an unrestrained and exuberant story of drama in this clever police procedural - a toxic concoction of harboured secrets, menace, and evil. Taut and compelling, it was a cracking story and a book that I revelled in all the way through. It brought no disappointments and the clever plotting enabled me to fully grasp the situation and motivations of the protagonists. The masterful twists paved the way for an enthralling denouement. I can't wait to see what is store for DS Nikki Parekh next and I am delighted to recommend Broken Silence.

I received a complimentary copy of this novel from HQ Digital via NetGalley at my request and this review is my own unbiased opinion.

What a fantastic 5* read. This book had me hooked and I could not put it down until I had finished it! THis is the second installment of Nikki Parekh and I love how the characters are developing. We understand more about Nikki and her partner as the stories develop.

This book deals with exploitation and people trafficking so is not an easy read but it was fast paced and engaging with so much going on and lots of twists and turns. Cannot wait for the next in the series!

Oooh, I do love a thriller. Those books that grab you early on and keep you saying ‘just one more chapter’ over and over again. Broken Silence had me doing just that.

Felicity Springer is a DS and on her way home from a training conference. She’s a little worse for wear and reeling from an event the night before that saw her acting completely out of character but tentatively makes the journey home, but taking a longer but quieter route. As you’ve read in the synopsis this decision doesn’t end well for her and before long her fellow police officers are working the scene when her car is discovered abandoned and covered in blood.

DS Nikki Parekh is no friend of Felicity but she’s one of their own and so Nikki buries her feelings and sets out to find her. The clock is ticking though and the longer it takes the less likely they are in finding Felicity alive. As Nikki and her partner Sajid, work the case it soon becomes clear that secrets are being kept and things take a much darker and deadlier turn. With a villain who is invisible (and very knowledgable about police procedure) the case is difficult to crack and the body count is rising.

I haven’t read the first novel in this series and whilst I’m now keen to visit it, it certainly didn’t stop me from thoroughly enjoying book 2. Broken Silence is a thrilling page-turner full of twists and turns and featuring an engaging team of characters. I was really impressed with Liz’s writing style and her plotting is pretty darn good. She really keeps the tension up and running, carrying you along and making it difficult to stop reading. Absolutely loved this thrilling piece of escapism and am very much looking forward to reading more in this series.

Driving home after leaving a conference early, DS Felicity Springer, happens to notice something strange about the van in front of her. A hand has pushed through the van's rear light and is waving, obviously trying to get her attention.

She places a 999 call and crashes into the van when her phone drops to the floor.

DS Nikki Parekh and DC Sajid Malik race to find their friend colleague. They find her car ... empty. Her purse is there ... along with some blood.

Where did she go? Who took her? Why?

What Parekh and Malik learn when investigating is that Felicity was harboring a terrible secret. And no one is talking ....

This is a well written crime fiction spotlighting DI Parekh and her colleague, DC Malik. Having recently been apprised that she has temporarily been promoted to DI, she's not happy. In fact, she's surly, a bit resentful, and she's even a tad upset over having to investigate whatever has happened to DS Springer. They aren't friends .. and probably never will be. Malik is the one who tries to keep her focused, to try to keep her manageable.


There's lot of action with some surprising twists and turns along the way to an unexpected explosive conclusion. Although 2nd in the series, I do recommend reading them in order, although this one reads easily as a stand alone. I look forward to seeing more of this series.

Many thanks to the author / HQ Digital / Netgalley for the digital copy of BROKEN SILENCE. Read and reviewed voluntarily, opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.

*5 Stars*

ARC kindly received in exchange for an honest review.

This was a really good read and had interesting characters. I felt that some got what they deserved and some were unfortunate. Good ending for some. I enjoyed this and would recommend.

Today I'm enjoying a break away from psychological thrillers to police procedural- & even better once I saw that the author lived in Bradford, where I spent my school years, I was really looking forward to this novel, hoping for Northern grit and telling it how it is!

I was not disappointed, and raced through it- the locations are accurate, although sometimes the descriptions, particularly of my beloved Salts' Mill, were verging on being a bit of a guided tour- I guess the author just loves there as much as I do, and couldn't resist adding a bit of extra colour. In fact maybe the author knows me, as all the major ( gruesome) locations had personal connections!

The story hooked me from the start, though I was surprised by the changed point of view from starting the story with Felicity to Nikki, who is then the DS in charge of the case. Having said that, Nikki is a character that I liked a great deal, along with her sidekick Saj. They made a good team, and I think a lot of the humour would work well in a tv series. The language used was not too 'West Yorkshired' just the occasional 'summat' and 'owt' - for which I was grateful!

The novel moves at great pace, with build up and twists, the themes being covered are ones I feel very strongly about, but they were dealt with sympathetically. At times the cross over between Nikki & Stefan's stories is confusing, and the lack of chapters although keeping it at a breathless speed, meant I had to keep revisiting the previous page to check who I was now with- but that may also be due to formatting on the kindle.

The main reason I haven't given it 5 stars is because the end just seems to rush and try and rapidly tie up too many loose ends whilst making many final points- but overall this was a novel I did enjoy.

The morning after a multi-agency ‘Making Bradford Safe’ conference, Detective Sergeant Felicity Springer is feeling a bit delicate and when she gets in her car to drive home via the back roads in snowy conditions, the last thing she expects, or wants, to see in front of her is a white van with a hand and arm waving through the punched-out rear-light unit!

Intrigued, DS Springer phones 999 and calls it in and continues to follow the van along the icy roads. The driver realises he’s being followed, brakes hard and causes the police officer to crash. While struggling to extricate herself from the vehicle, DS Springer is shot and, after that, she vanishes, leaving her crashed car and blood at the scene.

While DS Nikita (Nikki) Parekh and DC Sajid Malik look into her disappearance, a woman’s body is found. The investigation expands as more bodies turn up and the police are frantically trying to work out what’s going on, especially as the evidence points to links between the cases. Their Scottish boss, Detective Chief Inspector Archie Hegley, is falling ill under the strain of the cases and he’s also refusing to reveal key information, much to Nikki’s annoyance.

DS Parekh knows Bradford and she tries to keep her finger on the pulse of what’s happening in her city with the help of various contacts and informants, as well as a source in the vice squad, but she’s disturbed to discover things are happening that she hasn’t got a clue about. There’s a major crime wave happening involving a key figure in society who is hiding in plain sight, as well as smaller local criminals who are involved at a lower level. The story unravels to reveal people trafficking and grooming, slave labour in a halal chicken-processing factory, violence, murder, torture, prostitution, drug and gun dealing, money laundering and corruption. Never a dull moment!

Broken Silence is the second book in the DS Nikki Parekh series and I’ve read the first one, Last Request, so it was great to hear more about this feisty and rather prickly character! She’s dedicated to her job, often to the detriment of her family, and has a good relationship and banter with DC Sajid Malik and her DCI, Archie, who’s also a funny one!

This crime thriller is well plotted and gripping and there are several threads of story line and it was intriguing to try and work out how everything fitted together and who the mysterious criminal, Xavier, was! It’s a compelling read and there were lots of twists and turns and red herrings; I was never really sure who to trust!

Overall, I really enjoyed this action-packed, gritty police procedural set in Bradford and I look forward to reading more books in the series. I’ll have to check out the other series about DI Gus McGuire written by the author too.

Taut thriller; the locals in Bradford have no clue what's going down!😳

🙈🙉🙊
👍👍This police procedural set in the north of England with a strong lead Detective Sergeant Nikki Parekh and a whole cordon of capable police team and civilians to assist really just kept getting tenser and more thrilling as it moved along. Kidnappings, sex and labor trafficking, drug dealing and arms running, sexual assault, beatings and outright torture and grisly murder -- this book had it all! And that's just the official police investigation side of the story!

I really found the glimpses into the private lives of Nikki and Sajiv, her nattily-dressed, anxiety-ridden gay work colleague were just the right touch, not too intrusive to the main plot but adding the human side to these characters. I have not read the opening book in the series but caught enough references to Nikki's previous ordeal that I am thinking I need to go back and read the full story.

I also liked the way author Liz Mistry used multiple points of view to give glimpses into the minds of various characters, especially trafficked Stefan and Xavier, the big villain of the piece. Yes, it revealed the identity of the evil mastermind to the reader early in the story but the glimpses into his cruelty and megalomania made Nikki's fight to beat him all the more exciting. And the identity of one of the other key villains was a real surprise when it came out in the adrenaline-filled climax. The low-key denouement was a perfect cap to the end of an excellent tale well told!.

Thanks to publisher HQ Digital and NetGalley for providing a complimentary advance copy of the book; this is my voluntary and honest review and the opinions expressed are my own.

This is my review of Broken Silence by Liz Mistry. It’s the second book in the DS Nikki Parekh series which is set in Bradford.

After a weekend conference DS Felicity Springer leaves the hotel not feeling that great. She felt wobbly on her feet and nauseous. On getting to her car, she sat there for a while sipping water then suddenly opened the door and threw up. She wanted to get home so thought it wiser to take the back roads.

When on the back road, she is overtook by a white van. DS Springer realises there is an arm waving at her from the rear of the van in front. She dials 999 and asks for assistance, explaining the situation and keeping her phone on loudspeaker, she follows the van.

As she is trying to retrieve her phone from the footwell, she crashes into the van which has stopped for some reason. Before she knows it, there is a masked man opening her car door and holding a gun at her. He pulls the trigger….

DS Nikki Parekh is having Sunday lunch with her family when she gets a call to alert her about the situation with DS Springer and that she was needed. When she arrived at the crime scene where the car was, she had to wait around till the CSI’s had finished their bit. There was blood in the driver’s seat and a blood trail in the snow that stopped in front of the car where she had been dragged. Even DCI Hegley was attending the scene so it must be serious. He was asking Nikki to do stuff on the quiet without telling her partner. She wasn’t happy about it. The helicopter was up but without a reg number they were stuck, there would be loads of white vans in the area to try and find. Was DS Springer alive or dead? Who did the arm in the van belong too?

This was a brilliant crime read. It was like being on a rollercoaster, fast paced and gritty. Really well written and researched, also very descriptive. It was like living the book, you could imagine it in your head as you were reading. Brilliant book with human trafficking, dead bodies and a missing police woman! Love this series.

This is book two in the series to feature DS Parekh but can be read as a stand alone. it's current, well written and has a fantastic plot coupled with great characters. Set in Bradford, the team are investigating the disappearance of another officer, murder and modern slavery. It's a really good read which I would recommend. Thanks to Net Galley for my ARC.

Book 2 in the Nikki Parekh series and it's a cracker!

The action starts from the first page and doesn't let up until the very last chapter.

I was totally hooked and found myself unable to put it down. I just had to know who "Xavier" and "Cyclops" were.

The plot is quite dark and it does make you think how some sick humans treat others.

A great read that I will highly recommend.

An excellent thriller, gripping and entertaining. I liked the characters, the setting and the well crafted plot.
I can't wait to read the next instalment.
Highly recommended
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

OMW, there are such despicable humans in this world, I know this is fiction, but this is so true to the world we live in today, and that is just one of the things I love about this excellent author.

I unfortunately have not read book one in this new series (never able to catch up) so I dived in with book two and will not miss book three.

DS Nikki Parekh is one tough cop who is determined to catch her man, she seems to be a bit impatient at times and will do things her way if she must. Love her partner Sajid, who is also having to deal with his own personal problems during this investigation.

At times I felt exhausted myself, just reading about how Nikki and her team work tirelessly to catch these ruthless criminals. What a busy case it is and so many crimes being committed at the same time.

Nail biting suspense throughout.

Great read and highly recommended

Liz Mistry is on fire! And so is Bradford in this breathtaking book! I loved the first book in this series, but this one is even better!

The story had me hooked from the beginning and involved Nikki Parekh's nemesis, Springer. The book deals with the difficult subject of people trafficking, and my heart went out to the poor victims. This may be fiction but people trafficking is a very real problem, as Liz describes in her notes at the end of the book. I have to admit that about 2/3 of the way through the book I did work out who Xavier was, though that didn't spoil the book at all - I just wanted to know I was right! The last quarter of the book is real edge of the street, nail-biting stuff. There's so much going on and there was no way I was going to stop reading until the end! The writing is so good and the descriptions of Bradford and it's diversity really make you feel like you're there.

I love Nikki. She's very human and makes mistakes and I can really empathise with her. In this second book her home life is much more stable which helps her concentrate on her job. Her partner, DC Sajid Malik, is another great character. Unfortunately in this book he is having a hard time because of his sexuality and I liked the way that this was dealt with by Ms Mistry. And Archie's grumpiness is so funny!

And now whenever I am unsure about something I'll ask myself 'What would Nikita Parekh do?' :-)

When DS Felicity Springer is reported missing after a police training conference, the countdown to find her begins. On her way home after an exhausting weekend, with colleagues she can’t wait to escape, Felicity notices something odd about the white van in front of her. A hand has punched through the car’s rear light and is frantically waving, trying to catch her attention.
Desperate to help, Felicity dials 999 and calls it in. But whilst on the phone, she loses control of the car on the icy road, crashing straight into the vehicle ahead. Pinned in the seat and unable to move, Felicity feels a sudden whoosh of cold air across her face. Someone has opened the passenger door… and they have a gun. DS Nikki Parekh and DC Sajid Malik race to find their friend and colleague even though Nikki dislikes Felicity. But Felicity was harbouring a terrible secret, and with her life now hanging in the balance, Nikki can only hope that someone will come forward and break the silence
This is the second book in the series, it could be read on its own but maybe I’m biased as I was born & bred in Bradford so the series is a must read for me. It drew me in from the start & held me gripped until the end. There are plenty of different strings as well as twists & turns but all are resolved in the end. A fast paced well written book that I recommend & I look forward to more in the series
My honest review is for a special copy I voluntarily read

A brilliant second book in this series, even better then the first in my opinion. A story that pulls you in so many directions you won't know what is coming next. Brilliant

Broken Silence by Liz Mistry is the second book in the series starring DS Nikki Parekh and DC Sajid Malik and like the first one it is another fast paced rollercoaster of a read.

It starts off with the shooting and disappearance of a colleague of Parekh and Malik’s but soon they are finding other bodies as the investigation takes many twists and turns.

My only reservation about this book was that there was probably too much going on at times but this is a very minor quibble and I would definitely recommend Broken Silence