Michael Wood (13)

"For Reasons Unknown" and absolutely unknowable, this collection of words but mostly without proper punctuation, was actually published.

Another family murdered in their locked house, another "damaged", "dark", DCI called Matilda Darke (can you hear me cry?) who tragically lost her husband to cancer, mostly sees through to the bottom of bottles, not cases, is being brought back to investigate a cold case.

»She popped two Venlafaxine from the blister pack, washed them down with the wine, and show more left the house, taking the newspaper with her.«

(Note the admirable use of commas! The author doesn't ususally grace his wooden sentences with them. Here's proof: »‘No you don’t do you?’«)

As with the latest lot of novels I've been reading, this one just plain sucks: Shallow characters, unbelievable villains, cops who act to the best of their minimal abilities, a completely unhinged antagonist - this one has no redeeming qualities whatsoever. It does feature lots of melodramatic bollocks...

»The rage and tension building up inside her was agony.«

(Having recently finished this, I do sympathise with the general sentiment, though.)

Also, "your" and "you're" is hard for such gifted authors as this one...

»‘Yesterday, a body was found in the city centre, on Holly Lane. I went to the scene and you’re Acting DCI Hales was there.'«

"Michael Wood", once more I hope this person has no children to embarass or was at least smart enough to choose a pen name, also suffers from (and makes us suffer for) his distinct incompentence in the use of idioms:

»for argument’s say, let’s say it was your fault.«

For 's sake! I should be paid for reading such drivel!

Go forth and read any old directory because it surely is better written, edited, and more interesting than this turd of a novel.

0.25 stars out of five because it's composed of words and has a (story-unrelated) cover. show less

Matilda has always been haunted throughout this series by the cases that the one she hunted got away...or the more accurately, "the one she didn't get back." The book will play havoc with your emotions...the family is filled with so much emotional baggage it seems to almost ooze from their pores. Truly the mothers torment by this girls disappearance is almost painful to read. I began to distrust almost everything the family said and did and so did the police. Few authors can produce the show more effect on me that Michael Wood can. He always portrays such brilliantly vivid, true to life characters in his stories that the reader just has to read one more page...until one more page turns into no more pages and your realize that you have had the adventure of another great case with an ending so full of promise that has left you hungry for more. show less

This novella is a prequel to the excellent Matilda Darke Series, and takes place shortly after the MIT Team has been formed and shortly after Matilda’s promotion to the DCI. It also takes place before Matilda’s husband’s death, which occurs before the first book, and it is interesting to see that relationship prior to his death.

A coach driver, and former soap star, is found dead at his flat, following a break in, however Matilda and her team aren’t sure about the break in as nothing show more has been taken. Matilda is convinced the murder relates to his past so the team set off to investigate.

I enjoyed this book much more than I usually do with novellas, but that is because I already knew the key characters so was invested in the series from the beginning. I feel this is aided by Michael Wood’s excellent writing and slow build up of the case as we get to know more about the victim; it’s rather like the layer’s of an onion slowly being peeled off.

Overall this was a very enjoyable read and it’s good to see the key characters in their early days. As with the rest of the series this is very well-plotted and there are the usual surprises and twists throw in, as well as some lead in to themes that will appear in the main series. I throughly recommend this novella, especially if you have read any of the Matilda Darke Series. I feel you will get more out of it if you have already read some of the series. If you haven’t read the series I very strongly recommend it as it is one of my favourite crime series but be read for a real rollercoaster ride as Michael isn’t always kind to his characters. show less

I feel like I am being spoilt for choice with great thrillers lately and, although I have a huge pile of books to read, I bought this one from Amazon after seeing lots of bloggers getting excited about the imminent release of the next book in the series. I’ve always been intrigued by cold cases, probably because I never give up on things and don’t like to be beaten, so I thought it was a gripping and completely original storyline.

DCI Matilda Darke is an extraordinary character – at show more first she appears vulnerable after returning to work following a leave of absence. It isn’t long before we glimpse the real Matilda Darke though, and realise just how good she is at her job and wonder what happened to make her take time off work. It almost felt like there had been a book before this one as the author teases us about previous events, but we are gradually allowed glimpses into Matilda’s past so we can gather little pieces of the puzzle as we go along.

To ease Matilda back into work, and because DCI Hales is covering her post and isn’t going to give it up without a fight, she is given a cold case to work on. A husband and wife were murdered 20 years ago with their 11 year old son in the house. The house is about to get demolished so the case, which was never solved, is back in the news. Matilda meets up with Jonathan Harkness, who was the 11 year old boy who may or may not have seen his parents’ murder all those years ago. Jonathan was so traumatized that he lost the ability to speak for a time after the murders and he has never been able to help the police to piece together events from that fateful night. What does Jonathan know and what happened to his brother who wasn’t in the house at the time of the murders?

Jonathan is a bit of an odd bod. He is a bit of a loner and seems to only have one friend – an old lady, Maun, who lives in his apartment block. As the story unfolds, it would appear that Jonathan and Maun have more in common than they thought, as Maun’s husband died in mysterious circumstances.

When an unidentified body turns up that DCI Hales is in charge of investigating, he is put in direct competition with Matilda as the identity of the victim links to the Harkness cold case. The competition was so fierce that I thought they might come to blows and Matilda really shows what she is made of as Hales starts to fall apart.

I loved all the dangling threads of this story. There was so much going on with current events and shady pasts that it really gave my brain a workout. Even though I had my suspicions as to what had happened, there were still plenty of shocks and surprises in store.

For Reasons Unknown is an action packed page-turner that had me on the edge of my seat throughout. I have no doubt that this is going to be a stunning series and a firm favourite of both crime and thriller lovers. Darke by name and dark by nature – read it or regret it. show less