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Wednesday 2 February 2022

‘Nowhere To Run’ by James Oswald

Published by Headline,
11 November 2021.
ISBN: 9787-1-47229046-5 (HB)

Detective Constable Constance Fairchild is on compassionate leave after her mother’s death. She has travelled from London to a village near Aberystwyth in Wales to get away from it all. However, one evening on the way home from the local, two men attack her but they are no match for her and her police training. They are all arrested for brawling, even Constance.

She shares a cell with Lila a young Ukrainian girl, who says she has run away from her boyfriend. It transpires that she has ben forced by him into prostitution and drug running. Con promises to help her and find sanctuary at a women’s refuge for her.

After her release Superintendent Diane Shepherd, Con’s immediate boss, calls on her with details of an on going investigation into sex trafficking and drug smuggling being carried out in the area.

Constance reluctantly agrees to see what she can uncover. Then her cottage is ransacked and Lila disappears.

So begins her dangerous involvement with ruthless people, two of whom are the would be rapists of the night she was attacked.

Things go from bad to worse and a nasty incident result in Con being badly injured and waking up in hospital fifteen days later.  The problem then is trying to recover her memory of all that happened, it could be the key to the solving of the present investigation. One thing she definitely remembers is her promise to help Lila, and Con is still determined to discover where she is and how far her involvement with the drug running etc. goes.

As her memory slowly returns, she remembers being taken into caves leading to underground caverns where numerous packing cases were stored. However, when she tells the police, on their inspection of the shore line, they can find no sign of caves. No one believes her. She fears she may be going mad. Will she be able to prove that it was not all her imagination? She is certainly up against desperate people determined to prevent her.

Constance Fairchild certainly has a knack for being in the wrong place at the wrong time and this turned into a really intriguing tale of “will she, won’t she?” I thoroughly recommend it.
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Reviewer: Tricia Chappell

James Oswald has pursued a varied career - from Wine Merchant to International Carriage Driving Course Builder via Call Centre Operative and professional Sheep Shit Sampler (true). He is the author of the Detective Inspector McLean series of crime novels. Currently there are ten books available. Recently he started a new series featuring Constance Fairchild, whose first adventure is told in No Time To Cry, published by Wildfire in 2018. The second book in series was published in 2019. He currently lives in Fife, with three dogs and two cats. He farms Highland cows and Romney sheep by day, writes disturbing fiction by night. 

 http://jamesoswald.co.uk/

Tricia Chappell. I have a great love of books and reading, especially crime and thrillers. I play the occasional game of golf (when I am not reading). My great love is cruising especially to far flung places, when there are long days at sea for plenty more reading! I am really enjoying reviewing books and have found lots of great new authors.

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