A Barrow Boy's Cadenza

What a great story. I haven’t read a Peter Adams book previously, so I was quite thrilled to find a new Author that has so thoroughly captured my attention, and entertained me for so many enjoyable hours. The stand-out for me is the detail and background the Author has put into his characters. Even though this is book 3 in the series, you could read it as a stand-alone and still very much enjoy it. DCI Jack Austin isn’t perfect, and he’s a little bit floored, but that’s the reason he’s so easy to like. However, when it comes to his job, he is unrelenting in his investigation. When dead dogs start turning up on a regular basis, something has to be done to find out why. When his team find an illegal dog fighting ring in a warehouse, things to nasty pretty quickly. With the murders of the head of the Armed Forces and a City Banker, Jack needs to work out if there is military involvement, and if so how high does it go. However, when he starts to get a bit close in his investigation his life comes into jeopardy. I’ll certainly be adding Peter Adams to my list of Authors to look out for, and this is well worth the 5 stars.

There are some books that you know you have to read for various reasons. I am still not sure what drew me to this book the most.
The publisher - I have read quite a few good books by this publisher.
The author - apparently according to his biography, local to me.
The setting - where I live!
But I think the clincher was probably the blurb - as I was scanning it, the words "this is bonkers" kept popping into my head. And, as anyone who knows me will testify, I do like a good bonkers book. In fact I am still on my one-woman mission to get bonkers accepted as a genre in its own right. Or even as a sub genre, I am happy to compromise!
This is book three in the series and I have to admit to not having read the previous books before this one. Although I can't say that my reading experience suffered due to this (you can't compare what you don't know) I can say that it worked very well as a stand alone. That said, when I get chance I'd like to go back and read the first two, just to see if I am missing anything!
One thing I do like about my books is great characters. We definitely get them here - or should I really call them caricatures as they are somewhat larger than life! I say that as a compliment I hasten to add. They are definitely the most colourful bunch of cops I've ever had the pleasure of reading about and I real a lot of Police Procedural books. One of the best things I did like was the constant nicknaming of people. It made me feel better about myself as I though that me and my brother were the only ones who obsessively nicknamed everything - people, sports teams, places - you name it, we re-named it!
So, we have some characters, we also need a plot and this has to be one of the craziest plots I have ever read in a single book. Crazy but in the same way, scarily possible (in a maybe more subdued way anyway) and plotted to within an inch of its life which is no mean feat given its convoluted intricacies! It's funny, it's scary, it's irreverent, it's a bit political too, although you can gloss over the bits that don't gel quite easily, and it's completely bonkers!
If you want a rollicking good book which will make you both laugh and think, and also keep you on your toes then this could well be a pretty good choice. I would advise sampling first though as the author's style does take a bit of getting used to and I can see it not being to everyone's taste. Me, I loved it!

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

If you want some joy in your life, you will get it in spades if you read this quirky and comic crime thriller! It also has a surprising amount of depth to it. It is the first one I have read from the series, and it works well as a standalone. Portsmouth's DCI Jack Austin, known as Jane, is vividly realised as he encounters dead dogs. He goes deep undercover to investigate the murders of the Head of the Armed Forces and a City banker. The investigation leads right to the top encountering a range of threats, many of them bonkers! There is a fast paced narrative, great characterisation and a brilliant, if insanely, plotted story. Pete Adams is a writer to treasure. A must read, highly recommended book. Many thanks to Urbane for an ARC via netgalley.

Although there is much to commend this book, I struggled to enjoy it. The book is well-written with an interesting story and characters but, as this is the first of the series I have read, I feel that I may be missing something. There is much quirky humour in the story, which I didn't always appreciate, and the fact that all the cops have nicknames I found slightly irksome. However, I would stress that it is me rather than the book, which I think would appeal to other readers.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Urbane Publications for a review copy of A Barrow Boy's Cadenza, an everyday tale of mayhem in Portsmouth and beyond starring DI Jack "Jane" Austen, his extended family and assorted colleagues. We initially meet Jack suffering from a hangover after a night of serious crime fighting in his pink tutu, including chasing terrorists and quelling a gang fight. He suspects there us more to this unrest than meets the eye and is soon fighting to save the nation.

A Barrow Boy's Cadenza is an extremely amusing novel from the plot to Jack's antics and patter but it also has a serious side with its social commentary, so is essentially a very British novel. Jack is a great character with his earthy humour and frequent malapropisms, larger than life he tears through the novel like a tornado destroying everything in his path.

I understand that this is the third book in a series but I didn't miss not having read the first two as it comes fully formed and easily stands alone. Mr Adams has written a clever novel and on the whole I think it is a good read although I found the humour a little repetitive by the end and got a little lost in identifying some of the characters. If you are looking for a well written escapist read to make you laugh out loud A Barrow Boy's Cadenza will suit nicely.