#BlogTour: Dead North by Joel Hames @joel_hames #DeadNorth

Dead North is available now as an e book. My thanks to the author for the review copy and to Anne Cater of Random Things Tours for inviting me on to the blog tour.

Two dead cops and a suspect who won’t talk.

Once the brightest star in the legal firmament, Sam Williams has hit rock bottom, with barely a client to his name and a short-term cash problem that's looking longer by the minute. So when he's summoned to Manchester to help a friend crack a case involving the murder of two unarmed police officers and a suspect who won't say a word, he jumps at the chance to resurrect his career.

In Manchester he'll struggle against resentful locals, an enigmatic defence lawyer who thinks he's stepping on her toes, beatings, corrupt cops and people who'll do anything to protect their secrets. On its streets, he’ll see people die. But it's in the hills and valleys further north that Sam will face the biggest challenge of all: learning who he really is and facing the ghosts of his past.

He’s working someone else’s case, and he’s in way over his head. But sometimes you need the wrong man in the right place.

My Thoughts:

This is my first experience of reading anything by this author and it certainly won't be my last. I really loved this thriller that captured my imagination right from the outset and kept me entertained throughout. 

Sam Williams was a character that I enjoyed reading about very much. He has appeared previously but this book reads perfectly as a standalone. In Dead North finds himself short of work and cash and when an opportunity arises to help a friend he jumps at the chance. As well as the main plot lines I also enjoyed reading about the personal journey of Sam. There was a certain amount of humour here too. 

This is a thriller with grit and packed with intelligence. There are plenty of twists and turns to keep the reader hooked right up to the end. I found the last section of the book to be particularly exciting. I didn't guess the outcomes and the author was always one step at every turn.

Joel Hames is yet another accomplished crime thriller writer that will now be on my list of go to authors within this genre. 

Highly recommended. 

About the Author:

Joel Hames lives in rural Lancashire, England, with his wife and two daughters, where he works hard at looking serious and pretending to be a proper novelist. 
After a varied career in London which involved City law firms, a picture frame warehouse, an investment bank and a number of market stalls (he has been known to cry out "Belgian chocolates going cheap over 'ere" in his sleep), Joel relocated from the Big Smoke to be his own boss. As a result, he now writes what he wants, when he wants to (which by coincidence is when the rest of the family choose to let him).
Joel's first novel, Bankers Town, was published in 2014, and The Art of Staying Dead followed in 2015. The novellas Brexecution (written and published in the space of ten days following the UK's Brexit referendum, with half of the profits going to charity) and Victims were published in 2016 and 2017 respectively.

Joel's website can be found at http://www.joelhamesauthor.com/, where you can find out more about the writer and the books, and sign up to his email newsletter. If you want to know what Joel has planned for the future, what he thinks right now, or just stalk him a little, you can find him on Facebook at facebook.com/joelhamesauthor or Twitter at @joel_hames. Joel has never seen the word "Joel" appear as frequently as it does right here, and wholeheartedly approves.

Please have a look at some of the other stops on the blog tour.