BOOK DESCRIPTION

Summer and for once the blistering sun is beaming down on Wigan, warming the bones of the locals and igniting the fury of a monster. A killer is on the loose, someone whose fury matches the heat of the sun.

Someone is on a crusade, looking for the guilty and determined to cleanse the streets no matter what the cost.

As the heat builds, and the bodies start to surface, Lasser finds himself trying to discover the identity of the killer who seems to attack randomly and with devastating force. The investigation will lead him into the downtrodden world of the homeless, a world where kids are living rough, huddled together, trying to stay below the radar of the authorities.

But now they have more pressing concerns as the killer stalks the baking streets, and Lasser is faced with the reality of the town he lives in. A reality where life is cheap, and those most vulnerable are mere pawns in a much bigger game of life and death.

HERE ARE MY THOUGHTS AND REVIEW

Well I know that I shouldn’t wish my time away but from finishing the last Lasser book until now I have been counting down the days until this was on the market and boy it was worth waiting for!

There are many sides to Wigan in these stories from the mansions and the council estates, from hit men to druggies but this story goes one further, to the kids living on the streets. Just the sad stories of them was enough to bring a lump to my throat but Robin Roughley knows how to twist my emotions further and take it all to a darker place. So welcome to Wigan’s finest, in the shape of Lasser and Co. to the most vulnerable and the ones that the system let slip through their fingers.

It is summer time in Wigan and the heat is making everyone a little more fractious than normal, ha right you say, ok Bannister is his normally grumpy self, with his wife Suzanne and the girls Kelly and Belle being the only people who can really wrap him round their little fingers. The girls particular play quite a major part in this story as Belle knows all too well the dangers on the streets for the homeless.

DS Lasser is firmly on the rung of the ladder that he wants to be on. He is a people person which shines in this story as there is an addition to the Lasser household. The old Lasser seemed like he was coming back bit by bit. Not that he would every want to forget what has happened in the past but Odette and him seem to be getting back some of their magic together.

The memory of Susan Coyle is never far away though in this book from the memorial service to the mental torment that still comes to bite Lasser in the butt at every opportunity. I could physically feel the hurt that he was going through, like a slap in the face or that splash of a puddle when a car drives past that you aren’t expecting it. It is always those times that get him the most.

This is a dark and disturbing look at our modern society, there is violence from different angles and for different reasons. It is horrific and moving in the same moment as Robin Roughley plays with your mind and manipulates your feelings.

There are some extraordinary characters in this book that have lost their way, a brilliant story, yet again, with a superb ending. All round a brilliant stand alone and awesome can’t be touched series!

HERE IS A LITTLE ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Rob Roughley lives in the North West of England (God’s coal bunker, the land of the wedding cake made by placing three meat pies on top of one another and whippets on lengths of string)
He is the author of eight 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 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.

OTHER BOOKS BY ROBIN ROUGHLEY

DS LASSER SERIES

HERE ARE USEFUL AUTHOR LINKS