Info
Written By: Heather Peck.
Published By: Milestones.
Thanks to the publisher for sending me a physical copy of the book for the purpose of this review, also thanks to Random Things Blog Tour for adding me to the tour.
Overview
Set in 2020, the narrative tackles the particular difficulties of policing major crime in a pandemic. As Greg says, 'the angry men won't stop being angry. The violent won't suddenly become meek and kind. It's just that instead of it happening on the streets, it'll happen in homes, where we can't see it and can't stop it.'
Set in the unique landscape of the Norfolk Broads, with warmth, humour and integrity, Greg Geldard and his team try to keep their community safe
Book 6 in the award-winning DCI Greg Geldard Norfolk Mystery series
The streets may be quiet, but violence lurks beyond closed doors.
Greg has his challenges. Trying to get Chris to take his marriage proposal seriously is one. Finding the mole who is leaking intelligence from Norfolk Police is another. Add in a pandemic, a knife-wielding nutter with delusions of grandeur and two missing children, and he is going to need all the help he can get.
Then his parents fall ill with Covid, Chris gets promoted and moves in, complete with her foul-mouthed parrot, Tally.
Life is definitely not dull.
Overview taken from the official book press release.
Review
I'm really into crime thrillers at the minute, there's something about the suspense and second guessing that really grabs me into the story and nine times out of ten the cover arts of these books are incredible. Beyond Closed Doors is a bit of a new style of crime thriller as it is based within the 2020 timeframe of the COVID lockdowns when we were all told to stay in doors (unless you were part of government that is but we won't go into that) Heather Peck brings back DCI Greg Gelard for another book in the series (this is book 6)
I'm jumping in blind here as I have missed the previous books but in all fairness the book does read well as a stand alone but you just miss the background story for Greg but fear not I definitely plan on going back over the books I have missed, but if there is anything that does relate to an event in a previous book Heather very kindly puts a little pointer so you can go and read up about that if you so wanted.
The story follows DCI Greg Gelard as he is tasked with finding the mole that is suspected of leaking confidential case information that has allowed the criminals to evade capture pairing that with a knife weilding nutter and you would normally have a case that would test even the most experienced Detective however factor in the COVID restrictions then you have a whole new level of headache.
Thanks to the shorter chapters I found it relatively light work to plough through the chapters making reading the book a more pleasurable experience as it didn't have that heavy going feeling that some books have where you feel that you've read so much but in fact getting nowhere fast. The story flowed really well and I enjoyed the parts where you learnt more about Greg the person not just DCI Gelard and as I am new to the series I found this helpful to build up my own profile of the detective and it really has made me want to go and check the other books out.
Summary
Time now then for me to put my thoughts into a summary, overall I really enjoyed the book and enjoyed the DCI Gelard character he came across as the perfect lead character and lead the story well, the story organically grew and went at a natural pace which allowed the reader (me in this case) to get more enjoyment out of the story. As an introduction I am very impressed with the writing style of Heather Peck and I will definitely look at the other books to catch up, also she is a fellow Springer parent which means I am definitely in good company. I really would recommend this book good down to earth writing a must read for crime thriller fans.
Verdict-Out of 5 ⭐
⭐⭐⭐⭐
GOOD
I give Beyond Closed Doors a good score of 4 ⭐, a good bit of down to earth crime writing, Heather is potentially one of my favourite crime writers of the moment from reading this book, would definitely recommend picking this one up.
Note on the author
Award-winning author Heather Peck has had a varied life. As featured in the 'Norfolk' magazine and the Eastern Daily Press, "Norfolk farm disaster expert turns to crime writing" she has been both farmer and agricultural policy adviser. She bred sheep and alpacas, reared calves, broke ploughs, represented the UK in international negotiations, specialised in emergency response from Chernobyl to bird flu, managed controls over
pesticides and GM crops, saw legislation through Parliament and got paid to eat Kit Kats while on secondment to Rowntree.
She has also chaired an NHS Trust, worked on animal welfare, sailed a boat on the Broads, volunteered in Citizens Advice and the Witness Service and vaccinated humans against Covid. Two golden threads have run through everything; her fascination with words and her Gran's wise advice: 'You can do anything if you try hard enough'.
This review was part of the Random Things Blog Tour please check out the other bloggers on the tour
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