Taken To The Hills by S J Richards

 Taken To The Hills

by S J Richards

Taken To The Hills by SJ Richards was published on 3rd October 2023. My thanks to the author for sending me a copy to review and to Love Book Tours for inviting me to take part on the tour.

Synopsis

Abductions and murder are not what ex-DCI Luke Sackville expected when he left the police after tragedy struck his family.

Luke’s return to the workplace was meant to be a soft landing but when a woman vanishes after being accused of taking bribes, he is assigned a disparate team and tasked with tracking her down.

Their search becomes more urgent when her disappearance is linked to the death of a second woman. When a third goes missing the hunt becomes a race against time. Luke’s return to work presents him with the most challenging case of his career as the murder victims mount.

Murder and intrigue are peppered with humour in this fast-paced crime thriller set in and around the beautiful city of Bath in the southwest of England.

Taken to the Hills is the first in the Luke Sackville crime series. If you like a team you can root for then you’ll love this page-turner. 

Perfect for fans of JD Kirk, LJ Ross, JM Dalgleish and David J Gatward.

My Review

I have to be honest this book took me a while to get into and initially I wasn't sure about the main character, Luke Sackville. However, as you get into the storyline, your perceptions change and he moves back into the role he is used to, albeit without the formality of being a DCI. 

As it is the first book in what promises to be a long series, it is the starting point to introduce characters that will be developed throughout the following books and though some of them I didn't warm to ,in fact I positively hated them, it will be interesting  to see how they are developed  moving forwards. I did absolutely the character of Josh though.

As with most detective books there is a lot happening and it certainly wasn't easy to work out who had done it until very near the end of the book, which certainly makes me look forward to the next book in the series as that is an ability not all crime/ mystery writers have.

I think Luke also proves the theory " once a policeman , always a policeman"

For a debut novel this is a strong start for the author as well as a very good book to start a new series with which will keep readers waiting for the next in the series, which by the way is in December !!!!!!!

About the Author

Let's get one thing straight: my name's Steve. I've never been called 'SJ' but Steve Richards is a political writer hence the pen name.

​I was born in Bath and have lived at various times on an irregular clockwise circle around England. After university in Manchester my wife and I settled in Macclesfield before moving to Bedfordshire then a few years ago back to Somerset. We now live in Croscombe, a lovely village just outside Wells, with our 2 sprightly cocker spaniels.

​I've always loved writing but have only really had the time to indulge myself since taking early retirement. My daughter is a brilliant author (I'm not biased of course) which is both an inspiration and - because she's so good - a challenge. After a few experiments, and a couple of completed but unsatisfactory and never published novels, I decided to write a crime fiction series as it's one of the genres I most enjoy.

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