David Mark (4) (1977–)

This is the third of a series featuring DS Aector McAvoy of the Hull police department. The prologue wastes no time grabbing your attention as we're dropped into the story of a badly burned man running for his life from an ugly mob.
In the present, McAvoy is suffering through another mandatory chat with a police psychologist. So when he's paged by his boss Trish Pharaoh, he flees with relief though it's short lived once he gets an eyeful at a fresh murder scene. The victim is an older woman. show more She was a popular member of her community & has been horribly mutilated. She won't be the last.
Meanwhile, the cops are dealing with infighting among various criminal gangs. There's a new wave of drug lord, highly organized & more corporate in nature. Through blackmail, they've cultivated sources on every level of society including the police force. When a package of coke is accidentally left at her friend's store, Aector's wife Roisin makes an impulsive decision & the repercussions will be brutal.
These are the two main story lines but there are several subplots featuring returning characters that are interconnected. DC Helen Tromberg has to deal with the fallout from dating the "perfect" man, DC Colin Ray is taunted by one of the crime bosses & DI Shaz Archer continues to work full-time at being her usual bitchy ambitious self.
But the main focus is on Aector. As the body count rises, he & his team scramble to find a common thread concocting the victims, a seemingly disparate group. On the home front, he & Roisin are moving to a new house. Between getting up with the new baby & worrying about their finances, Aector is exhausted & slowly losing his grip. His colleagues see him as "Mr. Clean", a by the book type of guy but when his family is threatened his famous self control begins to crack, revealing a much darker more violent side. This is a man who never really relaxes & shows his true self to anyone, even his wife. They have a complicated history & he enables her childlike behaviour by shielding her from reality.
The plots are complex & following how Aector & Co. connect the victims makes for an engrossing read. A couple of the characters (Archer & Ray) are stereotypical but most are well rounded & believable. In particular, Helen stands out as a sympathetic & likeable young woman backed into an ethical corner. Trish comes across as a ballsy, slightly inappropriate career cop juggling the demands of her job with a stressful home life. Roisin's character is an odd mixture of street smarts & naiveté & it was frustrating to watch her make dumb decisions that not only added to Aector's problems but put her family at risk. As for Aector, he's a guy with the weigh of the world on his shoulders. As the pressures mount, it feels like just a matter of time 'til he cracks completely & it's not going to be pretty.
This is not a nice, tidy police procedural. The murders are graphic & as in real life, not everyone gets what they karmically deserve. The end leaves unanswered questions & Aector's future in particular is left in limbo. No doubt fans of this series will be waiting impatiently to snap up the next instalment to see how it all shakes out. All in all, a smart & satisfying read. show less

I have to admit...this book surprised me. I expected a flash-back style crimemurder mystery novel...but got something richer and much more interesting. This is a mystery novel with a touch of espionage, hidden war-time secrets, cover-ups, Nazis, POWs, traitors....and two old women still determined to learn The Truth. Great story!

It all starts when a storm damages a mausoleum in a cemetery in 1967 and Cordelia Hemlock sees a body that shouldn't be there -- the corpse of a man clad in a brown show more suit still clutching a satchel. The local Scottish police don't believe her story. They think she is just distraught over the recent death of her young son. Her new friend, Felicity Goose, believes her. And the two spend decades trying to find out the truth.

This is the first book by David Marks that I have read. The story caught my attention from the start and kept my attention clear to the end. Well-written and with a nice depth, The Mausoleum was a very enjoyable read. I will definitely be reading more by this author. The story progresses a bit slowly at first, but once the stage is set, the plot builds suspense and moves a bit more quickly. I wasn't quite sure what the women would find out in the end, but I just let the tale carry me along revealing facts in its own time.

The use of Nazis and World War II hidden secrets can be a bit tropey, but David Marks pulls it off with style. Enjoyable, well-written story!

**I voluntarily read an advanced readers copy of this book from Severn House. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.** show less

Warning: This review may contain spoilers.

****

This book introduces the character of Detective Sergeant Aector McAvoy, a member of the Serious and Organized Crimes Unit in the Hull police force. In the days leading up to Christmas, McAvoy witnesses a brutal killing in a church and becomes part of the squad investigating the case, only to discover other crimes that appear to be different but have a tenuous connection. McAvoy is a dogged DS and will stop at nothing to ensure that wrongs are show more righted and justice is done.

For a series debut, this is pretty good. The bleakness of winter in Hull and the Yorkshire moors is described well, and the characters are developed enough to make them seem real, without too much dumping of backstory. And it is a nice change to see a cop who is a family man as opposed to the tortured drunken depressive loner that so often pops up in police procedurals. But while I am glad he is a family man, I could have done without the steamy bits between him and his wife. I'm never really interested in those bits because that is private to the characters and I as a reader do not want to intrude on them. Fortunately, these moments are brief and few in number.

As for the case itself, it unrolled at a decent pace, albeit with some repetition as characters briefed each other on new information they had obtained. And I must have been rushing through the end of the book, because some aspects of the ending confused me: namely, why Sparky was arrested. Did he actually have anything to do with the crimes or was he more of an accessory?

Overall, I would probably continue with this series. show less

I really liked 'The Dark Winter', at least the first 90% or so of it. Well-written, an intricate plot, an interesting location, good character development, and the good guys win- literally, all the things I look for when experiencing a new author for the first time. David Mark is definitely a writer I want to see more from in the future.

The main characters, especially McAvoy (especially) and Pharoah were very well done. Good rapport between them, plus a smattering of sexual tension helped show more move the story forward whenever it felt like the investigation was slowing down. Without getting into the specifics of the plot, my favorite aspect of this book was McAvoy's making the logical leaps that often sound pretty straightforward on the page but in the real world are more difficult to make in real time.

My only problem with the story, and I have this same issue whenever it happens in a book or on the screen, is when a great procedural gets to a point where something 'magical' or just plain lucky happens that accelerates the arc of the story. Without spoiling the plot, there's a point toward the end where McAvoy literally stumbles into something that probably would have been resolved if the procedural had just continued. It may have reduced the number of pages required to reach a similar point, but seemed really unlikely to have actually occurred.

All-in-all, a really good read by a new author. show less