STATIONS OF THE CROSS (DS Lasser 14)by ROBIN ROUGHLEY #New Release #Crime Thriller #DS Lasser @RobinRoughley

Well this is my 100th read and review book for the Goodreads Challenge for 2017 so I wanted a really special book to sort of celebrate. I could not have chosen a better one. Not only is this the best series that I have read but each book becomes my top read of the year, so this is now in Poll Position. My number 1 book of the year so far. Perfect!

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BOOK DESCRIPTION

The middle of a freezing winter, a time of washed out colours and long dark nights and Lasser finds himself locked in a world of turmoil. The doctors had said they would wake Odette from the medical induced coma and yet she still lies there in the hospital bed, eyes closed, skin like alabaster as if she is waiting to die. And now her parents are here he feels locked out of the loop and cut adrift in a sea of confusion.
He can’t think straight, can’t function and yet the world still turns and people are dying.
Within the space of an hour two men are murdered, one burns to death in a blazing car and the second is slaughtered on a rain swept street.
But what links the two men and why is someone hell bent on targeting the local Vance family?
As Lasser battles his inner demons and his world slowly falls apart he finds himself playing catch up trying to solve the crimes while yet more bodies pile up.
Yet the suffering he feels now is nothing compared to what awaits him. Soon he will be lost in a dark twisting void, a world of black despair that threatens his sanity and leaves him in a world of savage pain and regret as he realises that nothing will ever be the same again.

HERE ARE MY THOUGHTS AND REVIEW

I don’t think that I have ever been in such emotional turmoil with a book, Crave, book 9 made me cry but Stations of the Cross took me, as a reader, to a completely new level. I am talking floods of tears, snot and at times hysterical laughter just with pure relief, and if an author has the ability to do that then I think I can say that he has written a pretty spectacular series.

Well to say that there is bit of a dramatic opening would be like saying Dickens used to write books, it just doesn’t do it justice. There is a lone man in the dark woods trying to get back into some sort of healthy running routine, to shift the extra xmas pounds and clear his head of fuzzy thoughts. I am already edgy because either he won’t make it home or he will not return home the same man as he left. Before he gets back to the car park he can see the fire, but the fire isn’t all he sees. I will just say bed wetting would be understandable to go along with the nightmares. What an opening ………… I’m home!

Oh wow! Someone really means business and they aren’t afraid of making it obvious, but this is just the beginning, the body count will get much worse and much more personal. For some it will be wrong place wrong time and for others it is a past they can’t escape and a future they will never know. There are so many surprising faces from previous books, some good guys and some real slime balls. Some make my skin crawl but there is one I particularly enjoy simply because he brings the best of the worst out in Lasser, which I really love. The darker side of Lasser is always bubbling below the surface but it doesn’t always over spill in every book.

Bannister, Suzanne and the girls play quite a role in this book too. It really tickles me that Bannister becomes a cuddly bear where his wife is concerned, it really makes me smile. The contrast of Bannister with Lasser then is just so funny, as they bounce off each other with one liner dry humour perfection. There are major upsets in this book which will change the whole team and how it will all play out I just can not guess. I read the whole book with that ‘something under the bed’ feeling. That adrenaline rush that was ready to tip me over the edge and boy did I go! I still keep welling up and laughing.

Unlike the rest of the series this is one book that cannot really be read as a stand alone novel as it literally continues from the cliff hanger in the last book and what a nail biting wait it was. To finish this review though I just have to say thank you to a male author that highlights a woman’s health issue while delivering a brilliant all action story. It really all works superb because that is what life is like. It doesn’t stop while we face a crisis. So thank you Robin Roughley.

HERE IS A LITTLE ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Robin Roughley

Robin Roughley lives in Wigan in the North West of England (God’s coal bunker) though he hopes to one day be released for good behaviour.
He is the author of eleven crime/thriller novels featuring DS Lasser. The novels are set between the run down streets of a northern town and the beautiful yet desolate west Pennine moors.
If you love your crime fiction crammed with square jawed heroes driving flash cars and glorious women who shimmer with inner light, then the DS Lasser novels are probably not for you.
However, if you prefer your characters to be flawed, with a sprinkling of dandruff and old acne scars, the plots to be laced with dark humour, then give them a try.

DS LASSER SERIES