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reviews
The Evil Thereof
I Love A Mystery, USA :- "This gritty police procedural is filled with seemingly realistic details of the investigatory process, and the lead characters … are well-fleshed out and thoroughly believable. Jacobson himself is a man whose job is his life, but romance has upset his tautly planned existence and he’s beginning to see other possible lifestyles. Watching him squirm his way through the decision process about his future is in sharp contrast to his decisiveness where crime-solving is concerned ... riveting ... HIGHLY RECOMMENDED."
Crime Fiction Lover, UK :- "Gripping ... elegantly-written ... a superior work of crime fiction."
Envy The Dead
Crimespree Magazine, USA :- "Dark and extraordinary. This book is a real gem, as are McDowall's earlier books. Find this book, read it and savor every word."
Mat Coward, the top crime fiction releases, Morning Star, UK :- "Iain McDowall has made the leap from very good to excellent with Envy The Dead. In the 1980s, a charismatic Trotskyist leader was killed at a peace camp in the Midlands. Now forensic evidence finally clears the activist who was wrongly convicted of her murder. But when he, in turn, is murdered, DCI Jacobson and DS Kerr must discover whether the motive is political or personal, past or present. Those who remember the ruthless war against dissent that was waged in the Thatcher era will recognise a sharply accurate and unsentimental picture of the times in this fascinating police procedural. Those who don't might find it eye-opening."
Shots Magazine, UK :- "Iain McDowall has retained his gift for prescience in understanding crime, its performance and meaning ... Iain Mcdowall is giving us the bigger picture."
I Love A Mystery, USA :- "McDowall's sixth installment is a police procedural par excellence ... intriguing and riveting ... this book is a page-turner 'til the end. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED."
The Truth About Books, UK :- "McDowall’s evocation of England under Maggie Thatcher necessarily focuses entirely on the elemental anarchy, forgoes any rose-tinted sentimentality and draws a complex web around its central character."
Cut Her Dead Birmingham Mail, UK :- "A series of young women are abducted and scared out of their wits before being released - and all in the name of Art, supposedly. Police are baffled as a quartet of kidnappers leads them a merry dance - with a bigger, long-term aim in mind … an original page-turner."
Shots Magazine, UK :- "Perhaps Iain McDowall is already under investigation: his first four Crowby novels seem to show an exceptional prescience and accuracy in criminal developments and now Cut Her Dead has shown itself just as aware of the changing zeitgeist in mortality … Why do the gang not stop when they realise what the consequences of their actions might be? Just wait and find out is my advice."
Meg Gardiner, author of The Memory Collector:- "Great villains, a real sense of gritty reality in the police investigation … twists that really took me by surprise."
Mat Coward, Morning Star, UK :- "Iain McDowall's series, set in the fictional midlands city of Crowby and featuring DCI Jacobson and DS Kerr, is openly political and brazenly left-wing, unlike much crime fiction which hides its conservative orientation behind a falsely apolitical face. Cut Her Dead is concerned with class hatred and the breakdown of civil solidarity, as Jacobson and his team pursue a group of self-styled "artists" who demonstrate their superiority to the "drones" by kidnapping young women, convincing them that they're about to die and filming their terror. This is bad enough, but what if the art gang is building up to something even worse? As always, McDowall concentrates on providing a first-rate detective thriller, while letting the politics speak for itself."
I Love A Mystery, USA :- "McDowall has given us a gem of a police procedural with enough twists and surprises in the plot to hold the interest of the most jaded fan. His characters, especially the young villains, are fascinating and repellant at the same time. Even the cops are flawed ... This one is a keeper — shocking, demanding careful attention from the reader and ultimately satisfying. RECOMMENDED."
The Truth About Books, UK :- "An intensely dark portrayal of modern crime and its perpetrators ... stands head and shoulders above the bog-standard police thriller ..."
Sarah Broadhurst, Lovereading, UK :- "Chilling ... great characters and fast-paced storytelling make this a great thriller to get engrossed in."
Killing For England
Manchester Evening News, UK :- "A cracking pace."
Cath Staincliffe, creator of Blue Murder :- "An intelligent police thriller ... deftly and satisfyingly plotted." Mat Coward, Morning Star, UK :- "Scores on all fronts - good writing, good characters, solid plotting, highly readable and politically astute."
January Magazine, USA :- "If John Harvey or Peter Robinson are to your taste, then McDowall should also be your man, and Killing for England is a good place to start ..." Deadly Pleasures, USA :- "First-rate storytelling."
Reviewing the evidence, USA :- "...a tightly-woven British police procedural ... McDowall puts his work at the cutting-edge of the genre."
"(McDowall) is not an ordinary storyteller; the reader is pulled into the story and the book is hard to put down ... this is the fourth book in the series, and now I have to get my hands on the other three."
A Study in Death/Making A Killing/Perfectly Dead The Washington Post, USA :- " ... a lean, impressive debut ... The grace of McDowall's writing lies in his lack of pyrotechnics, in the stolid, unhesitant steadiness of his gloomy detectives as they move from clue to clue, interview to interview, inching their way toward the final discoveries ... Kerr and Jacobson are a resolutely uncharming pair of policemen who are a pleasure to meet, and who offer hopes for more rich reading in future additions to the series."
Publishers Weekly, USA :- " ... compares favorably with the work of the popular author of tartan noir, Ian Rankin ... McDowall expertly manages a complicated plot and has created realistic, albeit troubled characters ... a compelling, fast-moving story that leaves the reader wondering where he will go from here."
Andrew Taylor, author of The American Boy :- " ... has a vivid sense of place. Crowby becomes more than a fictional town: it's almost a state of mind. Moreover its inhabitants, whether policemen, victims, suspects or bystanders, are wonderfully characterised."
The Northern Echo, UK :- "Smart cop, tough cop combinations seem to be all the rage just now ... McDowall has come up with a pair who could hold their own with Dalziel and Pascoe ... Kerr and Jacobson have made a cracking debut - it really would be criminal if you did not read them ."
Editor's Choice, The Boston Herald, USA :- "The pace is pounding enough ... but it's the author's observations that make this book a stand-out. McCulloch tried a smile as slight as his huddled frame, as slender as his future."
Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, USA :- "The detectives are easy to be around, and McDowall's take on what drives people to crime is solid and credible."
Booklist, American Library Association :- "... has the makings of a fine series."
The Scotsman, UK :- "Does McDowall end his story with a double bluff, a triple bluff or no bluff at all? Read and enjoy."
Rocky Mountain News, USA :- "Just in case somebody still associates British mysteries with tea cosies and white-haired ladies, Iain McDowell sets the record straight with a stiff dose of gritty realism. Making a Killing, the second in his series set in a fictional Midlands town called Crowby, gives us a serial rapist, two brutal murders featuring a cattle prod, and a set of coppers who don't much like one another and whose privates lives aren't exactly rosy, either .... McDowall never lets up the suspense ... and the pages turn swiftly."
Reviewing the evidence, USA :- "Robert Johnson becomes one of the creepiest villains in recent memory and this is achieved with a minimum of the gore and violence which usually accompanies such books ....The murder investigation also includes one of the best treatments of e-mail and internet that I've seen in crime fiction .... Making a Killing is a very good book, a fine addition to the rich world of British procedurals, and I hope it leads to a long series."
Midwest Book Review, USA :- "The story line is gritty due to the homicides and the Crawler but it is Frank (Jacobson) who turns the novel into a powerhouse ... the secondary cast rounds out the edges but the strong lead protagonist endears the reader from the moment he sneaks out the backdoor for a pint."
Shots magazine, UK :- "This is Crowby. Forget "wherever there's a cottage small, beside a field of grain." Think instead of a council block at the far end of a sink estate ... your flat has been torched and your lover's body lying in the ash will be found to have been tortured before he died. And you never even knew that he was a drug dealer on the side. Perfectly Dead is Iain McDowall's third Crowby novel, and it is his best so far."
I Love A Mystery, USA :- "The chill and gloom of the English Midlands setting echoes the tone of the events, and peeling back the layers of the lead characters' lives is as fascinating as the police procedural itself. The third in an absorbing series, riveting, surprising, and good to the last page."
New Books Magazine, UK :- "... Iain McDowall has a superb ear for dialogue ... very realistic."
Best of the Rest, Peterborough Evening Telegraph, UK :- "When you finish the new Rebus book, it's worth checking out McDowall's cracking crime novel."
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