I’ve read a few books from this series and they have all been very good. This book is no exception. It starts with the arrival of a boat on a deserted Dorset beach one dark night. The boat is filled, overloaded really, with asylum seekers. But as it struggles through the waves breaking on the shore the overloaded boat tips, spilling its human cargo into the water. Four out of the original 30 refugees drown. The boat skipper (people smuggler) jumps out at the first sign of trouble and disappears swiftly - the refugees are on their own!

Police swoop on the scene and try to organise some of the chaos. Meanwhile a couple of bodies have turned up dead in what police later discover are so-called safe houses. But who runs them, who were the residents hiding from? It’s all very hush hush as the spooks and the home office get involved. Detective Superintendent Sophie Allen and her team struggle to make any headway after after having doors figuratively slammed in their faces, but they persevere. What they uncover is a ruthless organisation mopping up its mistakes. There are many red herrings, dead ends and misdirection though. Can the police prevent more killings and can they catch the culprits?

I can’t say more about the plot without spoilers. What I can tell you is that is was a satisfying and meaty mystery that was a lot of fun to try and solve. It was quite intricately plotted and the characters were credible. I guess it also showed how easy it could be to exploit desperate refugees for profit without caring one iota for their welfare. Sadly this is all too common. This book would appeal to anyone who enjoys a good, plausible police procedural or putting a jigsaw together, because that’s what this puzzle was like. Many thanks to Netgalley, Joffe Books and Michael Hambling for my copy. My opinions are my own.

Another great read in the Sophie Allen series. A topical subject in this time of illegal people smuggling it is very thought provoking while still being a fast paced , cracking story. It could be a standalone novel but the reader would probably enjoy it more if familiar with the great characters. Thanks to Netgalley and Joffe for the opportunity to review.

Another good read from Michael Hambling. This one takes on politicians, refugees and people traffikers. A very good story - that makes you think about the values of the powers that be in this country.

Loved it - I even tried to stay up late reading it last night - until my husband told me to turn my phone off.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher I read a free advance review copy of the book. This review is voluntary, honest and my own opinion.

At different times, two people are found stabbed to death.Detective Sophie Allen and her team are called in to investigate. What they find is ... nothing. These two seemingly unrelated have no pasts that can be found. There are no clues, no DNA, but there were two people who may have witnessed the first killing ... but they also have disappeared.

When migrants arriving on the beach, there is an awful accident. The boat capsizes and several adults and children were killed. One little boy, a survivor, has his camera which he has used to document the trip from his home country. Sophie is surprised to see pictures of the witnesses .... how do they connect from the stabbings to the desperate migrants who were paid to deliver them safely?

As their investigation continues. Sophie and her team find that the government knows more than the top dogs are sharing with anyone. Sophie will need to walk very carefully through the maze that may ultimately cause her to lose her job ... or her life.

RUTHLESS CRIMES features a complex plot, full of twists and turns. There are also many characters to follow, some are easy to follow .. some are more complicated. Sophie and her team are like old friends if you've followed this series. If not, this one can easily be read as a stand alone, but starting at the beginning will give the reader more information as backstories. There's lots of action and it's hard to put down once started.

Many thanks to the author/ Joffe Books / Books 'n All Book Promotions / Netgalley for the digital copy of this crime fiction. Read and reviewed voluntarily, opinions expresses here are unbiased and entirely my own.

Two bodies in neighbouring counties. Two police forces having trouble discovering anything about the deceased.

A boat full of migrants overturns near the Dorset coast.

And a missing Government official

Another fantastic adventure for Sophie Allen and her team, which leads them into new situations which they really wish they could avoid....

This is number nine in the series of books featuring DCI Sophie Allen and her team working in the Dorset Police Violent Crime Unit. This time they are joined by detectives from Hampshire CID and the Metropolitan Police in a case that spans counties and even crosses the English Channel involving a large number of personnel. I was extremely grateful that a list of these characters features at the front of the book so I could keep track of who’s who. The story begins with the discovery of a man’s body on the early morning Weymouth to London train. Stabbed to death, it seems he came into the station on the previous evening and has been there all night. An elusive couple were spotted in the vicinity. Sophie’s close knit team of DI Barry Marsh, newly promoted DS Rae Gregson, recent addition DC Tommy Carter, Dorset uniforms Sergeant Rose Simons and Constable George Warrander and Weymouth CID’s DS Stu Blackman are all involved in the investigation into the murder, but even once the man has been named and an address found, very little else comes to light about him at all. When his rented house shows up on a list of Government owned properties they start to wonder whether he could have been living there for his own safety. They discover a number of these similar houses but no one in special branch seems to know exactly what they were being used for. The theory is that, all being on the coast, they may have something to do with the war against gangs smuggling migrants across from France. A second murder occurs in Hampshire where DCI Jack Dunning and Barry’s partner DS Gwen Davies attend the murder of a woman living in a supposedly safe women’s refuge. Again recently moved for her own safety by someone involved with the Home Office, she has been killed by a woman impersonating a nurse who clearly had inside knowledge. Connections are made between the two murders and the teams join forces. The situation soon becomes more complicated when a packed boat of illegal migrants overturns on a beach and many are killed or injured. A third murder victim with connections to the smugglers soon lands on Sophie’s books and the mysterious couple appear again. The story escalates to include government departments and ministers, refuge charities and intelligence services, with the problem that some can’t or won’t divulge exactly what has been happening and who all seem to have very differing agendas. Despite not knowing who can be trusted in all this, the detectives slowly piece together what little evidence they do have to track down the ruthless killers. All the main detectives featured were pretty straightforward and likeable, and it was nice to see the cases being solved as a joint effort amongst a number of officers and teams as would happen in real life. As the initial case opened up, the various strands of the story became quite involved and there is a lot of content to take in. The plot is complex and with lots of turns in the story it was hard to decide which of the many characters was guilty and who was innocent. Add in a government group shrouded in mystery and official secrets and it was no wonder the detectives were baffled when so much was being kept under the radar. I very much enjoyed this story. It highlights the current problem of people trafficking and illegal entry into the UK of migrants and asylum seekers, and very much sympathises with the people fleeing their own lands in fear of their lives, although it does raise the valid question of whether they should seek asylum in the first safe country they arrive at. I did however find the ending rather abrupt and would have liked a fuller and more rounded explanation for some parts of the story. 4.5*

I would like to thank Netgalley and Joffe Books for an advance copy of Ruthless Crimes, the ninth novel to feature DCI Sophie Allen of the Dorset Police.

When a man is found stabbed to death in a train carriage Sophie and her team start to investigate but find out little about the man except he was renting his house from the government. Then a second victim is found and the trail leads to the same circumstances. What links these deaths to a capsized boat of immigrants?

I thoroughly enjoyed Ruthless Crimes which is an engrossing plot with a topical theme, illegal immigration and the traffickers who profit from it. Add in a little high level government corruption and you get a very believable scenario. The novel is mostly told from the investigative point of view but there are contributions from the killer’s which give the reader a good idea of motive without identifying them and a young immigrant boy who expanded my understanding of his plight.

The plot is fairly complicated with different strands and several locations to keep up with. It’s not particularly confusing in its direction but the deliberate misdirection of naming some characters the same took a bit of mental sorting out. I like the way it is written with an initial puzzlement about what they’re dealing with and gradually drawing a clearer picture through smart investigation.

I like the warm atmosphere in the novel. The team are close friends as well as colleagues and they get on well with the neighbouring forces so there is little internal strife or territoriality. Their jokes and collegiality make them easy people to spend time with.

Ruthless Crimes is a good read that I have no hesitation in recommending.

Detective Sophie Allen is called to investigate a murder on a commuter train. The victim appears to have no past, his home no personal touch and his murder no motive. Further investigation reveals links to a Government security unit. Then there is another murder.

This is a very complex story involving trafficking of immigrants, tragedy and secrets. Can Sophie and her team work their way through the cover ups and lies to uncover the truth?

A very gripping story which not only gets the adrenaline running but also plays with the emotions. I couldn't put this down it is a very realistic story one that could be playing out as we are reading and that makes it all the more gripping.

Sophie and her team have developed over the course of the series but apparently they have a lot more to give and I felt I got to know them a lot more during this book.

An excellent read and well worth the 5 stars.

Thank you to the author and Joffe Books for the advance digital copy. All thoughts and opinions are my own and not biased in any way.

Early Saturday morning on the first train out of Weymouth, a dead body is found by a passenger. It’s a man in his early 40’s and it looks as if he was stabbed in the chest somewhere else and run onto the train to hide from his attacker(s). Strange thing is that the man doesn’t have a past or background. His flat looks as if it’s a safe house but no-one knows which agency is in charge; border forces, MI6, counter-terrorism or someone else?
Not much later, a woman posing as a nurse talks her way into a woman’s hostel and stabs a client in her heart. These 2 cases seem to be related, but no-one connected to or in charge of the victims wants to inform the police who’s trying to solve a murder while Special Branch is more worried about a huge security leak within the Home Office’s secret unit. Meanwhile, the politicians have their own agenda. It’s a huge investigation with several police forces involved and Sophie Allen will have to tread lightly.

This book is the 9th I a series and that’s clearly noticeable by a large number of overlaps and family/love relations between various members of the police force. Luckily there’s a handy list of names and occupations in the front of the book but only of the police people. I had to check it a couple of times because there’s a very large cast of characters. I guess that when you’re familiar with the series, you’re acquainted with most of them and their interactions. This is something that I appreciate in a series; that characters that are picked up in 1 story don’t disappear into the void but that they remain around. The story stands completely on its own, so it doesn’t matter if you haven’t read any of the previous books.
The main character is DSI Sophie Allen who’s been promoted recently to her grade and I think she might have featured more prominently in previous stories, but here’s a lot of attention for the work of her team and that of other forces. This is a nice change from most police mysteries where often it appears that 1 detective solves the whole case on his/her own.
This is as much an espionage thriller as it is a political thriller and a police procedural. The story is told very well and remained suspenseful even though I sussed out the main culprit a bit over halfway.
This story embarks on a controversial theme; political refugees on silly overcrowded tiny plastic boats trying to cross the Mediterranean or the Channel. I do feel sorry for those people who feel that this is their best bet but they must know the risks they take. They all have smartphones and the latest information about to whom and where to go to or avoid. They are not innocently naive as we’re made to believe. As well as paying ridiculous amounts of money to get where they want to be, those people deliberately endanger not only themselves but also their children. If you leave your child alone for 10 minutes while you pop out for bread, you’ll be accused of neglect. So how doesn’t stuffing your child in a ramshackle leaky boat make you a hero? No off course, I do not want those people to drown. I want their relatives and friends who’ve survived the ordeal, to tell the truth about the horrible journey, the criminals, violence, rapes, and the shitty conditions they eventually end up in. But no, those keep a brave face and proudly tell the people back home what paradise full of golden mountains, they’ve found. But they want to keep their head up high and don’t want to admit to the home front that they’re sometimes worse off than before. The worst thing here is that the genuine political and war refugees are invisible amidst the mass of economical runaways. For sure those are the people in dire need of a safe place but they’re given a bad name by those that don’t qualify and seek a life of illegality. This problem doesn’t exist in Britain alone but all over Western and Northern Europe, but here in Belgium, we see a lot of transmigrants (mainly young African men) that put all of their hope in reaching the UK and flat out refuse to apply for asylum here. The main culprits here are off course the smugglers preying on those people and making big bucks out of them. Those people should be sought out and severely punished, but as for now, they seem to catch nothing but the hired help. I can’t understand how their victims still keep falling for it. By now, they should know better for sure?
I thank NetGalley and Joffe Books for the free ARC they provided and this is my honest unbiased review of it.

My first encounter with Michael Hambling and main character Sophie Allen. An intriguing murder mystery based around the south coast of England. A very now storyline, involving the plight of refugee asylum seekers and the ruthless criminals who prey on them for financial gain.an interesting read with an underlying sadness.

I enjoyed this story. It kept me interested throughout with no dead spots but I felt it ended rather abruptly.

DCI Sophie Allen #9

A man has been stabbed to death on a train. A woman has been murdered in similar circumstances in a woman's shelter. DCI Sophie Allen and her team have been tasked with solving the cases. Theres also a capsized boat full of immigrants. Some of them have already died.

This is a really good police procedural series. The pace flows along smoothly. Sophie have yo track down whoever's is behind the two murders. This is a twist filled, well written book. Theres lots going on but it's not confusing.

I would like to thank #NetGalley, #JoffeBooks and the author #MichaelHambling for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I’d like to thank Joffe Books and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read ‘Ruthless Crimes’ by Michael Hambling in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

The body of a man has been found stabbed in a train and despite the hard work put in by Detective Superintendent Sophie Allen’s Violent Crime Unit his background is a mystery. When a woman is stabbed while living in a safe house there are too many similarities in the cases and the police teams from Dorset and Hampshire work together in an attempt to identity those responsible for the murders and find out why these people have been targeted.

I’m new to Michael Hambling’s Detective Sophie Allen series and despite the story being based in areas that I’m very familiar with in Dorset, I’m afraid I found nothing in the plot that grabbed my attention. Perhaps if I’d started reading the series from book one I might have become more involved in the story but I couldn’t relate to any of the characters and lost interest well before the end.

Really enjoyed this book it’s such a great series. The story hooked me from the first chapter it was complex and twisty and kept me guessing. This was a hard one to put down I actually read it in one sitting! Really good book definitely worthy of 5 stars.

Sophie Allen is back in her ninth book as a police detective trying to solve two strange murders. A man is stabbed to death and found on a train and later a murder almost the same is done on a woman staying in a women's shelter. Sophie and her team have a lot of difficulty trying to find out who owned the house the man was staying in (it seems to be a government safe house) and why was the woman staying at the shelter and who killed her?
Government secrecy and conspiracies abound as her team tries to solve the murders before anyone else is killed.

This is the 9th book in the DCI Sophie Allen series by author Michael Hambling. I really enjoy police procedural books and although I already have so many series that I already read, I just couldn't resist one more. Starting at book 9 in the series is probably not the best idea but I was able to read it as a stand alone. Although I only gave it a 3 star rating there was enough to make me want to know more about these characters and I have already purchased the other 8 books in the series.

The novels are set in Dorset with the lead character Detective Chief Inspector Sophie Allen. 42 year old Sophie is in charge of Serious and Violent Crime Unit and lives with her husband and daughter in Wareham. There are other members on the team but I will have to read more to discover the history to these characters. Like most series the characters get better with familiarity and hopefully I will find this on reading the other books.

When a man is found on the Southampton morning commuter train little can be found out regarding his history other than he staying in a house owned by a government security unit. This murder is shortly followed by another stabbing in a refuge for abused women. Again little can be discovered about the victim.


A good police procedural story and hopefully the start of another good series for me personally. I am planning to read book 1 shortly.

I would like to thank both Netgalley and Joffe books for supplying a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

I couldn’t finish this book. It promised so much, but I just could not relate to the characters. I’m sure if I had more patience I may have enjoyed it, but I like a book to grip me from the first few pages, and unfortunately this book did not do that.

A brilliant if complex return for Sophie and her team, I read this book in one sitting.
With several police teams and additional characters the list at the start of the book was particularly useful.
This is a very timely read with the recent death of a young guy attempting to cross the channel, the increasing hostile environment, lack of humanity and overt racism being currently shown throughout society.
I particularly liked Rose's interaction with the kids.

Thank you NetGalley and Joffe Books for the eARC.
Detective Sophie Allen is back and embroiled in a case so convoluted she doesn't know if she and her team will ever solve the 2 murders they're investigating. They're on the hunt for a ruthless, experienced killer female with a possible male accomplice. When an overloaded boat full of fleeing refugees arrives and several drownings occur, they figure out The British Home Office is involved and it's all about people trafficking. It's a nasty, deadly business, but very lucrative...
A twisty thriller that's another good addition to the series, I definitely recommend this book.

256 pages

4 stars

Robert Bunting was stabbed and after he made his way onto a train collapsed and died there. The only clue the detectives have is that there were two people with small suitcases at the train station that no one can locate now. They proceed to Robert's home. There is nothing of Robert there: no passport, hardly any personal items, just a few clothes.

Some astute detective work shows that Robert's house was owned by the Home Office. It is a safe house. The boss needs to talk to Special Branch about Robert.

Another stabbing, this time one Louise Bennett at a hostel, a women's refuge called Beechwood. This time there is a witness. A woman masquerading as a nurse visited the house. The same information is available about Louise as was Robert – exactly nothing.

More murders and kidnapping occur. The investigation grows in size. More detectives from different districts join the search for the killer(s).

This is a well written and plotted police procedural. I liked DS Rae Gregson. She was competent and dedicated. She ferreted out the truth no matter where it led.

I want to thank NetGalley and Joffe Books for forwarding to me a copy of this very good book for me to read, enjoy and review.