The Flats

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Pub Date 17 Oct 2017 | Archive Date 24 Nov 2017

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Description

Detective Liz Boyle knows there is no crime more heinous than the murder of a child. When she and her partner, Tom Goran, are called to a new scene in an area of Cleveland known as The Flats, they find that a killer has taken that to new levels.

As the investigation takes them deeper into the city’s seedy underbelly, the case hits frighteningly close to home when someone Liz loves is added to the list of possible suspects. While fighting her personal demons, she must also pick her way around the department bureaucracy to avoid being pulled from the case.

Liz and Tom will need to solve the most mind-bending mystery of their careers, one in which their personal and professional allegiances—and maybe their sanity—will be tested. But Liz vows to bring the killer to justice at any cost.


Detective Liz Boyle knows there is no crime more heinous than the murder of a child. When she and her partner, Tom Goran, are called to a new scene in an area of Cleveland known as The Flats...


Advance Praise

"[The ending is] bizarre and twisted. . . . [Detective Liz Boyle, a] troubled and complex character, is a welcome new addition to local fiction." --The Akron Beacon-Journal


"Detective Liz Boyle and her partner Goran are the kind of crime-fighting team I'd want on my side. . . . Birdsall's tight writing style and classic cop narrative easily usher readers into Boyle's world of crime." --Girl Meets Fiction

"[The ending is] bizarre and twisted. . . . [Detective Liz Boyle, a] troubled and complex character, is a welcome new addition to local fiction." --The Akron Beacon-Journal


"Detective Liz Boyle...


Available Editions

EDITION Ebook
ISBN 9781940215983
PRICE $5.99 (USD)

Average rating from 18 members


Featured Reviews

3.5 Stars

Detective Liz Boyle and her partner Detective Tom Goran are called to investigate the murder of a child. There is nothing so hard to see when a young life is snuffed out needlessly. And no parent can bear that kind of news.

The detectives work endlessly to solve this case. But it's only when someone close to Boyle is deemed a suspect. And then someone targets Boyle. What is her connection to this case? And why would someone take a life to get her attention? Then, another body is found.

This is the debut book of this author and the first of what I hope will be a continuing series. Boyle has issues ... and is seeing a therapist as a condition to keep working and not be tied to a desk. Tom is a great partner. He and his wife look at Boyle as a member of their family. He is always there for her .. and sometimes steps in front of her to keep her from crossing a line.

There are lots of suspects in this murder ... the grandparents, the parents, assorted people on the edges of their lives. Not until close to the ending did I pick up on some of the clues. The ending was quite a surprise.

I found it a little slow in places, a little repetitive, but overall a satisfying read. I look forward to see what this author does next.

Many thanks to the author / Red Adept Publishing / Netgalley for the advance digital copy of this crime thriller. Opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.

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Detective Liz Boyle, and her partner Tom Goran, are called out at the discovery of a body of a five year old boy. While trying to cope with her own issues there are more problems with people close to her to deal with.
An interesting read and a good start to the series though I am hoping that Boyle's personal problems don't get in the way of future mysteries and that the stories can deal just with the investigation.

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Thank you to Netgalley for the advanced copy.

I really love this book and it was so good!! I couldn't put the book down😊...

Looking forward for another series of this book soon.

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I would like to thank Netgalley and Red Adept Publishing for a review copy of The Flats, the first novel to feature Detective Liz Boyle of the Cleveland Police Department.

Liz is called out early in the morning to the body of a child found in The Flats, a rundown area of Cleveland. 5 year old Kevin Whittle has been hit with a shovel and his hand cut off. With few clues and no obvious motive Liz and her partner, Tom Goran, have their work cut out for them.

I thoroughly enjoyed The Flats and think it is a good start to a possible possible series with its twisty plot and damaged protagonist. I was glued to the pages from start to finish as it is just the kind of novel I like, a procedural with a slow unraveling of facts, secrets and lies.

The novel is told in the first person from Liz's point of view which is both good and bad. I like the fact that her reactions are visceral so the reader gets quite up close and personal with some of the scenes like finding the body and telling the parents. I think the descriptions of these scenes are very emotional and some of the best on that level that I have read. On the other hand Liz is on the edge with all the mental baggage she carries around and is much given to introspection and self analysis. It gets a bit wearing after a while and the novel would have been improved without most of it.

The plot is fairly convoluted with various suspects coming under investigation, yielding more information and being cleared. I didn't find the solution particularly convincing although it is pacy and action packed. I'm also convinced that I have read the scene that leads up to the dénouement in another novel or seen it on a true crime documentary as it is extremely familiar and I knew what was going to happen. I also like the emphasis on procedure to be able to bring a prosecutable case. It also gives Liz something to kick against when she decides that she knows best. Her self justification again can get a little tedious.

My jury is out on Liz as a protagonist as the novel has too much about her at the expense of the other characters and, sometimes, the investigation. I am, however, very interested in reading more about her and Goran as I would like to see them in a novel which concentrates more on the investigation. The plotting is interesting, the dialogue realistic, the pacing good and the procedure believable so there is much promise in this novel.

The Flats is a good read which I have no hesitation in recommending.

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As a debut novel I couldn't put this book down and can't wait to read more by author Kate Birdsall’s.
The Flats is a well paced and crafted suspense story that blends humor, murder and intrigue so perfectly readers will not be able to put the book down until the very last word is read.
Thank you to Netgelley and the publisher for a copy

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This is a very good story about the murder of a young boy and the investigation. There were lots of layers and I think I suspected every character at one time or another. I liked the main character, Liz, and I really hope that this book is the beginning of a series. The other characters had interesting stories as well. The author touched the surface of the characters and I could see them being developed further. It was slow at times and thus the four stars. I do recommend this book and I look forward to reading more from Ms. Birdsall!

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4 and 1 / 2 stars

Detective Liz Boyle and her partner Detective Tom Goran respond to the call of a body found in downtown Cleveland. Sadly, it is the body of a young boy, perhaps five or six years old. He’s been bashed in the head mad mutilated. Finally the police get identification. The boy’s name is Kevin Whittle. He was five-years old.

Boyle and Goran go to the Whittle house to inform the parents. They are not suspects. Then they have a possible suspect. He was a witness who disappeared from the scene without giving his address or phone number. They locate four men with the name of Brian Little in the vicinity and decide to interview the first one – of the others: two are too short, one in the wrong color. They learn from a neighbor that the Brian Little they have come to see died some months ago. When they discover that they cannot contact their primary witness Sean Miller, Boyle and Goran are frustrated. Back to square one.

Boyle and Goran keep digging; keep investigating. The more the police look into the Whittle family, cracks begin to appear. There are secrets.

This is a very well written and plotted novel. The suspense begins immediately and continues throughout the story. I liked Detectives Boyle and Goran, and I appreciated the way they got along together. Liz Boyle is sassy and impulsive, while Tom Goran is more easy-going and slower to act. They complement one-another well. This is a step-by-step police procedural, with the police investigating and following every possible clue. Kate Birdsall is a new author to watch! I am anxiously looking forward to her next book.

I want to thank NetGalley and Red Adept Publishing for forwarding to me a copy of this great book to read and enjoy.

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I found this book a bit of getting into in the first couple of chapters but I am so glad I stuck with it as it turned out to be a really good book. A great mix of twists and turns and a good storyline with a bit of humour thrown in. You also find there is a lot more to the main character Boyle than you first think and it was good getting to know the background of her and her partner Goran. I would definitely recommend this book and look forward to read more by this author

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A good start to this series although my interest wavered a bit halfway through. Liz Boyle and her partner, Detective Tom Goran, are called out to investigate the murder of a child. Liz has her own problems to deal with and I felt they just intruded too much for me in this read. Both characters are opposites but they complement each other. A good police procedural with a convoluted plot and a great start to a new series. My thanks to Net Galley for my copy. I reviewed on Amazon and Goodreads.

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This is the first book in I guess a series that has Detective Liz Boyle as the main character

Taking Liz Boyle first, I loved her, her good points, her flaws, her past problems, her current ones, her humanity, her anger and frustration, her thought processes, her love for her cat, her steely determination, her honesty and all rolled into one very intriguing personality

You were very quickly drawn into her mindset and her narration of the story was excellent

The story itself was fast paced, brutal, ( dealing with a child’s murder) and had plenty of twisty turny unexpected moments that ended surprisingly, I didn’t guess the killer until they were revealed

All the books other characters were easy to get to know, some likeable and some not so!!! I loved her boss, even though she was fearsome!!!

Some books that deal with Police etc procedures can be at times boring and long winded but this book kept these parts interesting and ‘simple’ enough for the reader to understand and be ‘involved with’

A really good read that I enjoyed and would definitely recommend and look forward to future books with Detective Liz Boyle
5 stars

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Detective Liz Boyle and her (professional) partner Tom Goran are investigating a tragic case – the murder of a 5-year old boy, Kevin Whittle. The harrowing subject matter adds to the tension in this read, and as a detective novel, this one takes a literal, linear approach to its narrative. Like a fly on the wall, we see the clues reveal themselves as Liz does. This is actually the first detective/crime book I’ve read in a while that only has one narrator, which sometimes means the pace is a little slow, but Birdsall throws enough regular twists into the plot to keep things interesting.

When a book is part of a character led series, the said character needs to be good and I have to say, I did warm to Liz. She ticks a lot of the classic detective boxes, she explains: ‘Shue (Liz’s therapist) made me identify my tragic flaw: I’m both impulsive and an overthinker. Those things don’t match up very well.’

Actually, while reading this, my mind kept flitting back to another detective book I’d read earlier this year, The Snowman by Jo Nesbo. Liz Boyle had shades of Nesbo’s detective, Harry Hole: a troubled past, an inability to maintain relationships and an aversion to playing by the rules. There are also a lot of music references in this book (due to Liz having an interest and playing the guitar) but this is a something that also cropped up in The Snowman. And after all, Hole is a popular, enduring character so the similarities can only bode well for Boyle. Although a point of difference is that Liz is a lesbian, and it’s refreshing to have a gay lead character in a detective novel.

As Liz works the case, she constantly has to report into Fishner, her senior officer on the force. Fishner does a good job of reigning Liz in: ‘You’re turning into some kind of raging, rogue detective. You know that shit doesn’t fly with me, Liz.’ I also like how she provides (along with Liz) a strong female character in the traditionally male dominated police-world, to give a feminist reading to this book.

Kate Birdsall also seems to have been inspired by Scandinavian detective books in another way – the EXCESSIVE coffee references. The only other book I’ve read that could compete with the amount of them was Stieg Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, which is why I assumed it was a Scandinavian thing. There was just an insane amount of references to characters drinking, getting or thinking about coffee. By half way through the book, it felt like coffee was mentioned on every other page, to the point where it became a little distracting. Although, Fishner does eventually call Liz out on all the coffee drinking: ‘I (Liz) spot a Starbucks. ‘Do you want coffee?’ I ask. ‘You and Goran both drink too much coffee.’ If they’d dedicated as much time to tracking down new leads as they did to drinking coffee, then this case could have been solved in a fraction of the time…

Anyway, back to the story. The action really ramped up in the second half, Liz is personally drawn into the case and there is an attempt at a bit of psychological play from the killer when Liz starts receiving intriguing Plato-inspired messages. However, I feel this plotline could have been developed more, or introduced earlier, as the way it was presented felt flimsy and rushed and didn’t add a great amount to the story.

Overall, the plot developments are very literally explained, often recapped and perhaps tied up a little too neatly and easily at the end; Liz didn’t have to work as hard as I would have expected to prove her top-rate detective reputation. Basically, she’s no Poirot when it comes to deduction skills, BUT she is a likeable character and this was an entertaining read. Now, I’m off to make a coffee.

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