Linda Coles

HEY YOU, PRETTY FACE is the opening book in a new series based around detective Jack Rutherford. Previously appearing in a supporting role in DARK SERVICE, NZ based author Linda Coles longer running DS Amanda Lacey series, this book sees Rutherford leading the search for a series of abducted girls and handling an abandoned infant, with a skeleton staff over Christmas.

As with the Lacey series, Coles is an author who knows how to put together a good plot outline, this time a trio of missing show more girls, and a found infant, and clues pointing towards the inevitable exploitation of that sort of scenario, this is not a comfortable undertaking. Balanced against that plot and the day to day work of a policeman working those sorts of cases, is the relationship between Rutherford and his wife, which is loving, very home based, and designed, obviously, to provide some relief from the day to day awfulness.

Reading this novel, before delving into the 4th and 5th books in the Amanda Lacey series (DARK SERVICE and ONE LAST HIT), I will confess I struggled a little. Not reading blurbs, or pre-publicity of any sort means that the book, characters, plot and timeframes have to be firmly telegraphed by the narrative, and the dialogue. I will confess to some considerable surprise then when Rutherford picked up his mobile phone. I'd immediately got it in my head that this was an historical novel, so the surprise was genuine. There was something about the dialogue, and a tendency to tell, rather than show, that felt older and more stylised than current police procedurals. After that, I succumbed and read the blurb and got things straight in my own mind, thereby giving myself a mild case of first third of the book disbelief, as DNA has been in use since around 1986 by the time this book is set (1999), which meant I was more than a bit startled to find Rutherford's wife seemed to know more about the subject than an investigating officer in the UK Met.

As with the Lacey series though, this author's strength is in the targeting of clever, current-day plots. Given this is the first outing in a new series, a slightly abrupt ending probably telegraphs more about what's expected in upcoming books, and as with the Amanda Lacey series, there's heaps of potential to block off some of the byways, get the dialogue more free-flowing, and allow the characters to establish their places in the investigative world.

https://www.austcrimefiction.org/review/hey-you-pretty-face-linda-coles show less

A combined review of DARK SERVICE, and ONE LAST HIT, the 4th and 5th books in the Detective Amanda Lacey series from NZ based author Linda Coles, set in the United Kingdom where Lacey and her investigative partner Jack Rutherford are confronted by a very odd scenario the first outing DARK SERVICE; and Lacey and another investigative partner, Duncan Riley, deal with a threat that comes much closer to home in the second ONE LAST HIT.

DARK SERVICE first then. This was my first encounter with show more Detective Amanda Lacey and DCI Jack Rutherford (who has his own series starting out with HEY YOU, PRETTY FACE). It's based around an unusual crime, a perpetrator who stalks women, captures them, and then steals their hair. The threat is very real, and the outcome is very very odd. In order to pursue this weirdest of crimes Lacey and Rutherfod find themselves deep in the fetish-fueled areas of the dark web.

Now I will admit I've spent a bit of time peaking around the edges of the dark web and it's definitely a place for a lot of odd goings on. Luckily I seemed to miss the fetish area completely, but it doesn't take a lot of imagination to think that followers of all sorts of weird goings on will be lurking about there. In this novel, on the one hand you could say, well it's only hair, but on the other, one perversion can lead to another, and Lacey and Rutherford find themselves with a sting operation that goes wrong in a big way and gets very dangerous indeed.

Given that this is the fourth book in the series there's a chance there's a lot of backstory missing here, or perhaps it was what rapidly became a cast of 1,000's that came and went in a blink, but you'll need to have your concentration switched onto max for this novel. There were a few points at which I got hopelessly confused by some byways and sub-character plots that sort of went nowhere. Perhaps that's my biggest concern with the entire book - a bit of judicious editing of some of the side stories would have contributed to some focus for the central plot, and a heap of improvement in pace and maintenance of tension. Because of that lack of tension there were points where things felt a little uncomfortably voyeuristic, which is always a tricky balance when you're heading into what's mucky sexual territory for a lot of people.

When it comes to the second book ONE LAST HIT we are in, for want of a better description, less squeamish territory with prescription drug epidemics being a very up to the moment plot element. This time it's also bought very close to home with DS Riley's own wife being involved. Again you may find, as I did, that the by-ways and ancillary threads got in the road of the central plot points, creating a meandering narrative that kept dragging me away from the central elements, which was a pity as that idea - the collision of crime and a cop's home life - was particularly intriguing when it had the focus.

All in all, points to this author for exploring some really interesting plot elements in both these books, telegraphing potential for a really good police series if a tighter focus on those ideas could be achieved and the dialogue allowed to flow a little more naturally, giving good central characters some room to really hit their investigative and personal straps.

https://www.austcrimefiction.org/review/reviews-dark-service-one-lasts-hit-linda... show less

Unrealistic, illogical, frustrating, and sometimes infuriating when all three of these adjectives apply to parts of this book. The main character’s relationship with her husband is unbelievably gushing and perfect, even when he learns she cavorts about the globe taking vacations alone in houses she secretly owns. The “mystery” is the only saving grace (the author proved she can write decently, why didn’t she apply that talent to the rest of the book?), hence the 1-1/2 stars, but the show more twist at the end defies logic. What a huge waste of time. show less

A combined review of DARK SERVICE, and ONE LAST HIT, the 4th and 5th books in the Detective Amanda Lacey series from NZ based author Linda Coles, set in the United Kingdom where Lacey and her investigative partner Jack Rutherford are confronted by a very odd scenario the first outing DARK SERVICE; and Lacey and another investigative partner, Duncan Riley, deal with a threat that comes much closer to home in the second ONE LAST HIT.

DARK SERVICE first then. This was my first encounter with show more Detective Amanda Lacey and DCI Jack Rutherford (who has his own series starting out with HEY YOU, PRETTY FACE). It's based around an unusual crime, a perpetrator who stalks women, captures them, and then steals their hair. The threat is very real, and the outcome is very very odd. In order to pursue this weirdest of crimes Lacey and Rutherfod find themselves deep in the fetish-fueled areas of the dark web.

Now I will admit I've spent a bit of time peaking around the edges of the dark web and it's definitely a place for a lot of odd goings on. Luckily I seemed to miss the fetish area completely, but it doesn't take a lot of imagination to think that followers of all sorts of weird goings on will be lurking about there. In this novel, on the one hand you could say, well it's only hair, but on the other, one perversion can lead to another, and Lacey and Rutherford find themselves with a sting operation that goes wrong in a big way and gets very dangerous indeed.

Given that this is the fourth book in the series there's a chance there's a lot of backstory missing here, or perhaps it was what rapidly became a cast of 1,000's that came and went in a blink, but you'll need to have your concentration switched onto max for this novel. There were a few points at which I got hopelessly confused by some byways and sub-character plots that sort of went nowhere. Perhaps that's my biggest concern with the entire book - a bit of judicious editing of some of the side stories would have contributed to some focus for the central plot, and a heap of improvement in pace and maintenance of tension. Because of that lack of tension there were points where things felt a little uncomfortably voyeuristic, which is always a tricky balance when you're heading into what's mucky sexual territory for a lot of people.

When it comes to the second book ONE LAST HIT we are in, for want of a better description, less squeamish territory with prescription drug epidemics being a very up to the moment plot element. This time it's also bought very close to home with DS Riley's own wife being involved. Again you may find, as I did, that the by-ways and ancillary threads got in the road of the central plot points, creating a meandering narrative that kept dragging me away from the central elements, which was a pity as that idea - the collision of crime and a cop's home life - was particularly intriguing when it had the focus.

All in all, points to this author for exploring some really interesting plot elements in both these books, telegraphing potential for a really good police series if a tighter focus on those ideas could be achieved and the dialogue allowed to flow a little more naturally, giving good central characters some room to really hit their investigative and personal straps.

https://www.austcrimefiction.org/review/reviews-dark-service-one-lasts-hit-linda... show less