Two of a Kind is a dark, intricately woven crime thriller that moves with the quiet confidence of a story that knows exactly where it’s going—even as it keeps the reader deliciously off balance. From the moment an unidentified John Doe is pulled from an Amber Valley drainage ditch, the novel begins threading together five lives that seem, at first, to have nothing in common. But as each perspective unfurls, the connections tighten, and the mystery deepens into something far more layered than a simple case of a nameless body.

DCI Quinn anchors the investigation with a steady, probing presence. His fixation on the victim’s identity feels less like professional duty and more like a personal reckoning, especially once the pathologist’s findings hint at a past far more complicated than anyone expects. Opposite him stands Ray Mann—enigmatic, slippery, and carrying the kind of knowledge that can either illuminate the truth or bury it deeper. His determination to honour an old promise, even if it means staying hidden in plain sight, adds a compelling moral ambiguity to the narrative.

Then there’s Sean Murphy, the Derbyshire don whose criminal empire is fraying at the edges. Under house arrest and desperate to eliminate the witness who could end him, he brings a simmering menace to every chapter he touches. Bess, meanwhile, is a wonderfully unexpected presence—her bucket‑list bravado masking a far more dangerous edge. And finally, Ryan: the child shaped by innocence, then shattered by betrayal, whose journey across continents becomes the emotional spine of the novel. His story is the one that lingers, threaded with guilt, survival, and the ache of a life lived in borrowed shoes.

The pleasure of this book lies in how deftly it balances its shifting viewpoints. Each character brings a different shade of truth, a different piece of the puzzle, until the picture sharpens into something both tragic and inevitable. The pacing is taut without ever feeling rushed, and the emotional stakes rise quietly but steadily as the threads begin to converge.

What emerges is a story about identity—how it’s built, how it’s stolen, how it haunts the people who try to outrun it. The mystery of John Doe becomes the hinge on which all five lives turn, and when the final connections snap into place, the reveal feels both surprising and deeply earned.
Atmospheric, morally tangled, and rich with character, Two of a Kind is a gripping sequel that rewards close reading and leaves you thinking long after the last page.

My thanks to John F Miller, the publisher and netgalley for the ARC

Thanks to Troubador and Netgalley for this eARC.

I requested Two of a Kind because it was under mysteries and the description mentioned a body that a detective Quinn was attempting to identify.

However, I was 100 pages into this story about an abused orphan, who becomes a farrier, then gets tricked into joining the army and then cruelly turns his back on the only family he has ever known... NO mystery, just a sad story of a youth who becomes (understandably) disillusioned. Sort of a Charles Dickens vibe...

Sadly, this became a DNF (did not finish) for me, as it had far to much build up (again, I never reached the part where it was ANYTHING like the description that accompanied it).

If you have a high sadness / child abuse threshold and you are willing to read a LONG way for description pay-off, this might be your cuppa.

This book is diabolical in an amazing way. Obviously all psychological thrillers are dark but this one was even more disturbing than most. Without revealing spoilers, I will just say that there were numerous parts of this book which left me feeling uncomfortable. That's how psychological thrillers should be! If a book doesnt grab my attention right away, I have a hard time focusing through out the rest of the book. I love the fact that this story had me in its grip the whole way through. Great work.