Review: As usual an absolute corker of a book by Mr Black
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 05 12, 2014
I have been eagerly awaiting the next book in the Lock/Ty series and I was fortunate enough to get a review copy. It took me a day to plough through the latest in the series and I am now back to counting the days until the next one. If you haven’t read any books in the series, fear not…there is enough here to read it as a stand alone novel. Although I must say I think this series is fantastic and deserves to be read from the beginning. Sean Black’s writing style over the past few years has proved his talent to create stories that pull you in and keep you well and truly engaged. This latest book is no different. However, with Ryan Lock being the star attraction closely followed by his partner and ex-Marine Ty it seems the roles have been reversed for this latest book.Malik Shaw is an old school friend of Ty’s and when he goes missing following a tragedy in his life Ty knows that he has to get to him and fast. We don’t see much of Ty or Lock in the first quarter of the book and I have to say it made absolutely no difference to the story at all. Learning about Malik and the opening few chapters have enough drama to keep you turning the pages. The story itself has only one thread, but there are more suspects than you can shake a stick at which kept the plot moving at a decent pace.Once Ty realises that the situation with Malik is turning sour he ups the ante and heads straight over to the college town in Minnesota. There are, as usual quite a lot of action packed moments, but certainly less tension that some of the previous books. This is by no means a negative, but this story is written slightly differently to previous ones in the series. I actually liked the fact that we see more or Ty in this book as previously he has always taken second place. It makes me feel I know him better, although this may only be because I have followed the series from book 1. Ryan Lock does make his appearance eventually and he is a great character to read about. He and Ty work so well together and this book cemented that with Lock working to help a friend of Ty’s.Without adding spoilers, it was also nice to see references to how Ryan Lock is getting on with his personal life without too much detail. In a previous book there is a life changing event for him and it’s certainly mentioned here which makes for great continuity. Although I really enjoyed this book it didn’t quite have the same impact on me as say Gridlock or The Devil’s Bounty, but still a solid read and I for one will be eagerly awaiting book 6 in the series (no pressure Sean).