End of the Line by Robert Scragg
(Porter & Styles book 4)
Published by Allison & Busby
Publication Date: 21st January 2021
Police Procedural
Book Description:
Detective Jake Porter s life was shattered when his wife was killed by a hit-and-run driver nearly four years ago. Since then, he has been building a new life piece by piece, but this is rocked when evidence comes to light that might finally lead him to her killer.
At the same time, he and his partner DS Nick Styles have a volatile case to juggle. Ross Henderson was a vlogger rallying against the growing tide of the far-right. As his audience tuned in to his latest live broadcast, they watched in horror as he was brutally murdered.
While struggling to prevent full-blown riots in the wake of the atrocity, following the trail to his wife s killer will take its toll. Porter will have to act like a criminal in order to take down the personal responsible, but there's no guarantee he will come out the other side alive.
My Thoughts:
The first thing to say is a huge thank you to Christina Storey at Allison & Busby publishers for the invitation to be part of the blog tour for this book. The opinions expressed here are my own and are unbiased - I have followed this series right from the start and could not have been more excited to discover Porter & Styles were back for another instalment.
I was quite surprised to find the opening of the book goes pretty much straight to the action with information filtering through to Porter that there has been a breakthrough in the years-old hit and run case in which his wife was killed. Despite being directly told to keep away from the case, Jake can't overcome his instinct to find his wife's killer and vows to himself he will do his own investigative work - whilst promising his bosses he will stay away.
While the detectives are dealing with that bombshell, a new case comes in: the graphic 'live on social media' slaying of a prominent political influencer Ross Henderson which soon means that Porter & Styles have their hands full and are well and truly distracted. With the possibility of terrorist activity in their case the Chief brings in the Counter Terror Unit to support their team, in the form of DI Taylor Bell. She may be small but she makes a big impression on the detectives; Jake can't help but take a liking to her, however Styles isn't so sure. All this high profile activity doesn't stop Porter doing a bit of moonlighting on his own investigation though and he's soon burning the candle both ends with the effects very quickly becoming obvious to his partner Evie as well as his workmate Styles. Well, you can't really hide a trip to your local A&E can you?
This is a book which pulls you strongly into both storyline threads at the same time with some great characters from the criminal fraternity being created by the author as well as the detectives' boss continuing in his arrogant, self-indulgent manner which we have seen demonstrated in earlier books. It is very much a book of its time with the terror angle, the far right attitudes so accurately recreated in some of the nasty members of the cast and the reflection of today's on-line promotion of attitudes and ideas which so quickly inflame sections of society to jump on band wagons which promote hate and violence so easily. I'm sad to say I found this to be a very believable story.
Amongst all the violence and criminal activity there are also some very witty lines and I love the banter which flows between the characters - especially bringing in a feisty new female detective with her own brand of wit. I hope we see more of her in future instalments of this series. The book flows well and kept me well and truly hooked in - even at three quarters of the way through I could not see where we were heading for the conclusion. Would we find out who was responsible for killing Holly or would that be the one that gets away until the next book? Is the killer of Ross Henderson the one we initially assume it to be? I am definitely not giving anything away on either count but have to say it's been a while since a book had me as bamboozled as this one.
Definitely a 5 star read for me and if you haven't read this series I suggest you do as it is a cracker. You could read this as a standalone but I feel you will get a lot more from starting at the beginning and growing with the characters along the way.
Thanks again to the publisher - I only have one question: when is book 5 due out please?
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