Whilst detective John Blizzard looks into a series of drug-related deaths, an old nemesis appears who threatens to cloud his judgement. Frustrated with the slow progress of his colleagues’ investigation into the deaths of several youngsters on his patch, DCI John Blizzard takes over, determined to catch the drug pushers. In so doing, he stumbles across information that might help solve a murder … might help solve a murder that occurred when he first joined CID.
Many years ago, Des Fairley was shot dead after mouthing off about feared local villain Morrie Raynor. Now with Raynor’s old righthand man on death’s door, delirious, and in hospital, the detective is convinced he will reveal secrets about the unsolved crime.
Suspecting that Raynor, whom he once put behind bars but is now free and at large, is linked to both cases, he rubs fellow officers up the wrong way when he insists on an unusual line of inquiry.
Against the wishes of his superintendent and increasingly at odds with his staff, desperate to catch Raynor, the detective puts the general hospital at the centre of his investigation. But will his instincts prove to be right, or is old age finally getting the better of the veteran crime solver?
If you enjoy murder mysteries full of red herrings and twists, THE SECRETS MAN is for you.
THE SECRETS MAN is the fourth in a series of murder mysteries set in the fictional northern city of Hafton, England.
The full list of books is as follows:
1. THE LONG DEAD
2. STRANGE LITTLE GIRL
3. THE RAILWAY MAN
4. THE SECRETS MAN
5. A BREACH OF TRUST
6. DEATH LIST
7. A FLICKER IN THE NIGHT
All of which are available free with Kindle unlimited, and in paperback.
If you enjoy novels by Peter James, Val McDermid and Ian Rankin, or classic detective fiction by Agatha Christie and GK Chesterton, you’ll love these books.
more
I wish to make it very clear that methadone is a registered and most effective instrument to wean heroin addicts of the drug. They DO NOT GET STONED from it (= why not everyone joins a program) and will very rarely overdose on it as they receive their necessary dose daily and consume this immediately on the premises. Most often it is the COMBINATION of methadone and the ABUSE of other prescription drugs that causes a haze and can lead to a possible death, certainly when mixed with strong liquor. For people who’ve not been prescribed methadone or who are not heroin-addicts, the use IS dangerous and possibly lethal though.
Also, I strongly disagree with the stepping stone theory upheld in this book that all heroin (or other hard drugs) addicts started with using cannabis, does not take into account the millions that experimented with smoking joints but never moved on to other substances. As well don’t forget the multitude who used it once and decided it wasn’t their thing. This is like saying that every alcoholic started by drinking milk. I don to want to promote drug abuse but hell, get realistic!
In little over 6 months, three teenagers from affluent families overdose on a mixture of several drugs, combined with vodka and soda. A chemist must be behind this business but none of the known dealers and snitches has a clue as to whom supplies the kids with these drugs.
When DCI John Blizzard visits his friend and mentor George Moore* in hospital, he sees that in the next bed lays an old-time criminal who’s known as “the secrets man”. He’s delusional at the moment and it might be the perfect occasion to wield some long guarded secrets out of the man and solve a cold case murder.
“‘Suffice to say that I’ve got Harry Josephs in a ward at the General, being visited by the likes of Morrie Raynor and Geoff Bates. Geoff Bates a few hours before someone put a bullet in him.’
George reckons that Harry Josephs is ready to spill the beans on a whole host of crimes and I simply cannot ignore that – and neither can you, Max. Think of the clear-ups.’”
Blizzard harbours a long-term hatred for crime boss Morrie Raynor. He managed to put him away for several years but now he’s a free man again. Everyone assumes that he’s an old man now, enjoying his pension but Blizzard is absolutely not convinced
This is the fourth book in the series and can be read as a standalone. Nevertheless, it’s always better if you can read them in the right order for the continuum of the background stories. I read the first two stories quite a while ago but missed out on the previous one. So, sometimes when they spoke about the past, I wasn’t sure if the events were discussed in that book or ‘off-camera’. It’s a bit nit-picking as it doesn’t influence the story or my understanding of it.
In the first chapters, there’s a bit of timeline shuffling going on as the book jumps back and forth between 1987, 2004 and now (2018 when this volume was published). You recognise some of the names appearing in different periods, but it takes a long time before I realised how all the events are linked together and how some situations are the consequences of things that happened in the past.
DI Blizzard is acerbic and not only in his humour, but there are also moments when his behaviour can be described as boorish. If you’re a suspect, it doesn’t matter if he likes you or not. He’ll dig on till the bottom. His character has grown and become more human throughout the series. At first, he was a real grumpy, rather unpleasant man. The encounter with DC Fee Ellis and their consecutive relationship has had a great influence on his behaviour and moods.
Or is it the writer who’s gotten better? If you compare this book with the first in the series, I think that this one is twice as well written, both in suspense as in contents. John Dean has also written another series about DCI Jack Harris that play out in the Pennines with often spectacular nature scenes (well the description there off).
This is a police procedural series than effortless can stand next to Peter Robinson’s “DCI Banks” series
*Strange as it is, every time old-timer George Moore talks, I see and hear the voice of Lennard Pearce (from only fools and horses) in my head. I somehow have the feeling this role would have been perfect for him.
.