Blog Tour: Shadows by Conrad Jones

I’m thrilled to be able to share with your my stop of the blog tour for Shadows by Conrad Jones and published by Bloodhound Books

Synopsis

Suicide. Drugs. Murder.

DI Braddick is put on the case when a hijacked drug deal has resulted in murder and an eye witness goes missing. When victims are discovered strung up from the rafters of an abandoned fish factory on the Anglesey coastline, the police are baffled as to what went on. A deserted trawler found at the scene helps Braddick put the pieces together.

Could this be the work of a notorious Russian crime family?

When an undercover officer goes missing, everything points to an informer for the family and it is clear they will stop at nothing to silence the leak and have their revenge.

As the body count rises, Braddick will come to realise that no one is safe.

Review

Let’s cut to the chase and start with the fact that I loved this book. It’s action packed from the first page and had me hooked immediately.

I’m not going into to too much detail on the plot I don’t want to spoil the shock factor in the book. However, I will say that there is definitely more to the apparent suicide at the beginning, but you already knew that didn’t you?

Shadows is gripping read with a well thought out plot which takes you deep into the dark and gritty (and sometimes graphic) underworld of drugs, gangs, murder, corruption and a whole host of extremely evil Russians who have to issue in using whatever means necessary to get what they want. No-one is safe!

The narrative in the book is multi-person. On one hand you have the good guys – the undercover police and the detectives working to clean up the streets, the innocent bystanders caught in the middle etc. On the other hand there are the bad guys – the Russian crime lords, the small time criminals and the bent coppers. However the lines are not always clear cut as to who is on which side and that makes for a very interesting story.

Due to the large number of players, I initially expected to struggle to keep up with everyone. Fortunately, the characters are easily distinguished and well developed so I found the story easy to keep pace with.

 

 

I highly recommend this book and will personally be searching out more by Conrad Jones, since this was my first novel him.

Many thanks to Conrad, Sarah and Bloodhound Books for my advanced reader copy and inviting me on the tour!

Shadows was published on June 13th

Amazon US – Amazon UK – Goodreads

About the Author

I am Conrad Jones a 50-year-old Author, originally from a sleepy green-belt called Tarbock Green, which is situated on the outskirts of Liverpool. I spent a number of years living in Holyhead, Anglesey, which I class as my home, before starting a career as a trainee manger with McDonalds Restaurants in 1989. I worked in management at McDonalds Restaurants Ltd from 1989-2002, working my way up to Business Consultant (area manager) working in the corporate and franchised departments.

In March 1993 I was managing the Restaurant in Warrington’s Bridge St when two Irish Republican Army bombs exploded directly outside the store, resulting in the death of two young boys and many casualties. Along with hundreds of other people there that day I was deeply affected by the attack, which led to a long-term interest in the motivation and mind set of criminal gangs. I began to read anything crime related that I could get my hands on.

I link this experience with the desire to write books on the subject, which came much later on due to an unusual set of circumstances. Because of that experience my early novels follow the adventures of an elite counter terrorist unit, The Terrorist Task Force, and their leader, John Tankersley, or `Tank`and they are the Soft Target Series, which have been described by a reviewer as ‘Reacher on steroids’.

I had no intentions of writing until 2007, when I set off on an 11-week tour of the USA. The Day before I boarded the plane, Madeleine McCann disappeared and all through the holiday I followed the American news reports which had little or no information about her. I didn’t realise it at the time, but the terrible kidnap would inspire my book, The Child Taker years later. During that trip, I received news that my house had been burgled and my work van and equipment were stolen. That summer was the year when York and Tewksbury were flooded by a deluge and insurance companies were swamped with claims. They informed me that they couldn’t do anything for weeks and that returning home would be a wasted journey. Rendered unemployed on a beach in Clearwater, Florida, I decided to begin my first book, Soft Target. I have never stopped writing since. I have recently completed my 17th novel, SHADOWS, something that never would have happened but for that burglary and my experiences in Warrington.

As far as my favourite series ever, it has to be James Herbert’s, The Rats trilogy. The first book did for me what school books couldn’t. It fascinated me, triggered my imagination and gave me the hunger to want to read more. I waited years for the second book, The Lair, and Domain, the third book to come out and they were amazing. Domain is one of the best books I have ever read. In later years, Lee Child, especially the early books, has kept me hypnotised on my sunbed on holiday as has Michael Connelly and his Harry Bosch Series.

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