Published by Williams and Whiting,
17 August 2017.
ISBN: 9781911266648
17 August 2017.
ISBN: 9781911266648
Bristol based Private Investigator Jack Shepherd is an ex-policeman who usually has a good working relationship with the local police, mainly because he steers clear of treading on official toes by intruding into current cases. However, the case of the murder of Alfie Barnes is different. Alfie is the younger brother of Jack’s friend and lover, Linda. Jack is very close to the Barnes family and Linda had supported Jack and his daughter, Chrissie, when Jack’s wife, Emily, was dying of cancer. Alfie had high-functioning autism, he had been clever and funny and vulnerable, and Jack suspects that somebody had exploited his skill with computers and unravelling puzzles to do something illegal and dangerous. He feels guilty that he is not doing all he can to discover who murdered Alfie, as if he is failing his friends.
Jack receives a visit from Danny
Malone, a crooked ex-cop and thug whom Jack was instrumental in getting
dismissed from the police. Danny’s manner is, as always, threatening, but he
actually wants to make a deal with Jack. Malone claims that he knows who Alfie
was associating with and will tell Jack if Jack locates Malone’s missing
daughter, although Malone and his wife divorced many years ago and he is not
part of his daughter’s life. To Jack’s surprise, Malone’s daughter is Amy
Turner, a popular young Soap star.
Before Jack makes a decision regarding
Malone’s offer, Malone is badly beaten and left in a coma. Unable to get the
information about Alfie’s new contacts from Malone, Jack starts to search for
the missing actress, and soon encounters people with more reputable motives to
employ him to locate Amy. Jack also follows leads of his own regarding Malone’s
underworld associates. If Malone has been attacked as a punishment for offering
to talk to Jack about Alfie, Jack believes he may be able to backtrack and
discover those responsible for Alfie’s murder. Jack’s search leads him to some
dark places as encounters the Far Right and witnesses the brutish violence of
the Neo-Nazis and the evil of the smooth-talking, corrupt businessmen that are
seeking political power and will kill and maim anyone who stands in their way.
Cloning the Hate is
the third in the series featuring Jack Shepherd. As a series it started off as
very good and gets better, more passionate and powerful all the time. Jack is
an excellent central protagonist, at times tough and ruthless is also generous,
with an intrinsic sense of fair play and determination to protect the weak and
vulnerable. The author has mastered the trick of engaging his readers so that
they really care about the core characters, with Jack’s entire family circle
cleverly portrayed as caring, decent, believable people, while the villains are
truly mindless, violent and scary. The plot is fast-paced, and the terror
attacks and crowd scenes skilfully portrayed. This is a superb political
thriller but, more than that, it is a book with insight into things that really
matter. Highly recommended.
------
Reviewer: Carol Westron
Jeff Dowson
began
his career working in the theatre as an actor and a director. From there he moved into television as an independent writer/producer/director. Screen
credits include arts series, entertainment features, drama documentaries, drama
series and TV films. Turning crime novelist in 2014, he introduced
Bristol private eye Jack Shepherd in Closing
the Distance. The second thriller, Changing the Odds, was published the
following year. Cloning the Hate is the latest in the series. He is a member of
BAFTA and the Crime Writers Association.
Carol Westron is a successful short story writer and a Creative Writing teacher. She is the moderator for the cosy/historical
crime panel, The Deadly Dames. Her crime
novels are set both in contemporary and Victorian times. The Terminal Velocity of Cats, the
first in her Scene of Crimes novels, was published July 2013. Her latest book Strangers and Angels
published 28 November 2017 is set in Victorian England. Also published in 2017 is her fourth novel in her scene of Crimes Series Karma
and the Singing Frogs.
To read a review of Karma and the Singing Frogs, click
on the title
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