Dead Embers

I do have a tiny confession; I am completely new to this series! With so many cracking series out there, it’s impossible to be up to date on them all. That being said it had no negative impact on my enjoyment of this brilliant new release. My bestie is a detective with the Met & she also works on the murder team. So I love London as a location & always find it has an added edge to a crime series. In both historical or modern crime fiction.
The novel begins with a creepy chapter one and straight away I knew it was going to be a gripping read! A suspected arson fire draws DCI Michael Lambert to the scene of a crime. Two corpses are quickly discovered and the sole survivor, a traumatised little girl of only 3 years old. It becomes clear the bodies were murdered prior to the fire and the fire was due to a series of explosions!
The investigation continues and we learn The mother of the surviving child is a serving police officer and that in her past she had an abusive relationship with her ex-husband. We learn some of DCI Lamberts past & then the plot really starts to thicken! With the victims not who they originally thought they were, an arsonist playing homage to John Orr and a reporter meddling in the case. DCI Lambert really has his work cut out for him.
I found this novel to be a fast paced and straight to the point. It flows as though it is a commuter in London City itself. I found myself comfortably going with the flow & writing some notes in my journal such as Who is thefiremen1973? What does make arsonists tick? Will the press mess things up for DCI Lambert? What is the story in Lamberts past?
When Matt Brolly obviously had other ideas and out of nowhere comes a huge twist and the plot just got a whole lot darker! What started off as one case suddenly becomes a deep web of secrecy & corruption right up to the top!
It is difficult to complete an in-depth review for fear of slipping spoilers in by accident. I will just say that this is one of them novels that is so much bigger than its synopsis! I would say it is police procedural but that the characters all have depth.
An explosive crime thriller and then some! 5*

Matt Brolly, you keep digging away towards my circle of go-to authors, and I have to admit you have crossed the finish line. From book one of the DCI Michael Lambert series (Dead Eyed) to book two (Dead Lucky), now to book three (Dead Embers), Matt Brolly’s stories get better and better. I have now officially hit the star ceiling with 5 big ones for this installment and fear how I am going to adequately reward the next book.

Michael Lambert is a troubled guy since falling asleep behind the wheel and crashing his car, killing his 4-year-old daughter in the process (not a spoiler). His marriage couldn’t survive the carnage and now he is lost. He does however have a tenuous relationship with DCI Sarah May that is again visited in this book, and he has his work, which is keeping him afloat. I really love this guy and always root hard for him. Other characters that grabbed me included the charismatic DS Matilda Kennedy and the enigmatic Chief Superintendent Glenn Tillman, both making reappearances from previous books. I would like for Mr. Brolly to continue to delve more into these two characters in future novels.

Lambert has a history of going off the grid in terms of how he goes about solving cases. This time around he and his team become involved in a complex series of events involving the death of a fellow cop, a suicide pact, and a series of near death experiences involving explosives. All of this turns out to be just the tippy tip top of a huge web of deceit, corruption and evil. From the first two sentences of the book I was ensnared, and watching this all play out made for compelling and fascinating reading. Even at 95%, there are pieces of the puzzle still to be worked out. The last sentence gave me goosies all over. This was definitely one that was enormously hard to put down.

I have to admit that there are a few deductions Lambert makes that made me wonder if he is a mind reader or just incredibly intuitive. Personally, I was so carried away by the story, I was happy to suspend my believability suspicions and go with it. I had a big smile of satisfaction on my face at the end, and can’t wait for Mr. Brolly to churn out another Lambert book.

Do you like Angela Marsons, Robert Bryndza or Michael Wood? If so, you will definitely enjoy Matt Brolly’s Michael Lambert series. Though the central plots of the three novels are all self-contained, you will get a much better feel for the characters if you start with book one, Dead Eyed. Happy reading!

Many thanks to Matt Brolly, Canelo Publishing, and Net Galley for inviting me to read an ARC of Dead Embers. All opinions are my own and are not biased in any way.

I really enjoyed this book. Very clever writing and a great storyline. Loads of action to keep you on the edge of your seat.

Wow what a great read! Really enjoyed this, I loved everything about it, the characters, the story line and the twists and turns. I had a hard job putting this one down, a well deserved 5 stars.