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thechemicaldetective's review against another edition
5.0
Whip smart dialogue, thrilling jeopardy, nicely self reflective, all the twists and turns you could ever wish for ... and then some! A well crafted story brought to life with great narration from Warren Brown.
e_freckles's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gun violence, Violence, Death, and Murder
Moderate: Blood, Excrement, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Dementia, Child death, Alcohol, and Drug abuse
khrys's review against another edition
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
kpetras's review against another edition
5.0
I finished this book during during a very, very long car ride and thought it might have been my frustration at the drive that was making me shout expletives at my phone with white knuckles fingers on the steering wheel.
But no. No. Rob Parker is just a phenomenal writer excellent at writing characters that make me want to tear my hair out.
A few thoughts - SPOILERS-
(Also, because I listened as an audio book if character names are spelled incorrectly my apologies)
1. Brendan is the most irritating character I have read for quite some time and if Ross got to bust Colpepper's kneecaps Madison surely gets to bust Brendan's in book 3. Right. RIGHT?!
2. Parker does an amazing job of writing female characters. The contrast of Broome, Madison, Mim, and Charlotte is so, so good and I'm so excited for the inevitable face off between Charotte and Madison. Or Madison can join Charlotte's empire and take down Ross. Can't imagine she would, she actually had a backbone unlike Brendan, but either scenario is fine with me.
3. Seabreeze you okay?!? That whole scene was so grotesquely perfect.
4. Listen I understand that a part of this story is about breaking cycles of violence and family lineage doesn't have to be destiny blah blah blah I'm still rooting for a revenge arc/vengeance rampage from Emma and baby boy Christopher. Even though I saw that death/betrayal coming I was still swearing like a sailor at my speakers and wanted Monroe to rot in prison after suffering public humiliation.
TL;DR I love Parker for this story keeping me alert and awake during that drive through indignation that the wrong people were getting hit with a bat but also a little resentful that now I have to wait for book 3.
Highly recommend. 5/5
But no. No. Rob Parker is just a phenomenal writer excellent at writing characters that make me want to tear my hair out.
A few thoughts - SPOILERS-
(Also, because I listened as an audio book if character names are spelled incorrectly my apologies)
1. Brendan is the most irritating character I have read for quite some time and if Ross got to bust Colpepper's kneecaps Madison surely gets to bust Brendan's in book 3. Right. RIGHT?!
2. Parker does an amazing job of writing female characters. The contrast of Broome, Madison, Mim, and Charlotte is so, so good and I'm so excited for the inevitable face off between Charotte and Madison. Or Madison can join Charlotte's empire and take down Ross. Can't imagine she would, she actually had a backbone unlike Brendan, but either scenario is fine with me.
3. Seabreeze you okay?!? That whole scene was so grotesquely perfect.
4. Listen I understand that a part of this story is about breaking cycles of violence and family lineage doesn't have to be destiny blah blah blah I'm still rooting for a revenge arc/vengeance rampage from Emma and baby boy Christopher. Even though I saw that death/betrayal coming I was still swearing like a sailor at my speakers and wanted Monroe to rot in prison after suffering public humiliation.
TL;DR I love Parker for this story keeping me alert and awake during that drive through indignation that the wrong people were getting hit with a bat but also a little resentful that now I have to wait for book 3.
Highly recommend. 5/5
hrkershaw's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
judefire33's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
It’s been probably a year since I read Far From The Tree, Rob Parker’s first book in the Thirty Miles Trilogy, so I have really been looking forward to Book 2.
The opening chapter ( prologue ) reels you in with a gripping opening, and is quite shocking! Well, those shocks reverberate thought And Your Enemies Closer, as a follow us book, this is fabulous, totally gripping!
The characters are well written, with Brendan Foley the now ex-cop estranged from his brother Ross, and desperately trying to get revenge for deeds that shocked me in Book 1, is such a great character. The battle he has in trying to justify staying within the Law, even though he is no longer a Detective, and breaking the Law for revenge against Culpepper, the crime Lord, is fantastically written. Both the Foley brothers are great characters.
My other favourite character in And Your Enemies Closer is DI Iona Madison, she is a totally kick-arse, no-nonsense Detective who loves boxing and is good at it, she’s a total ball breaker and I love her!
The descriptions of the settings for the storyline are well observed and it makes you feel like you are in the gritty underbelly of Liverpool. And the criminal gangs and their leaders are remarkable. The plot is fabulous and I was gripped, there are some twists that I didn’t see coming and had me gasping out loud! And I must mention the utterly unique way of committing murder, Mr Parker has really done his research for this and it’s absolutely grim and brilliant!
Just a quick mention of the Audible quality, as always with Audible it’s fantastically produced and Warren Brown is a great narrator for this book, really suits it.
So my rating…. Well, you’ve guessed it 5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The opening chapter ( prologue ) reels you in with a gripping opening, and is quite shocking! Well, those shocks reverberate thought And Your Enemies Closer, as a follow us book, this is fabulous, totally gripping!
The characters are well written, with Brendan Foley the now ex-cop estranged from his brother Ross, and desperately trying to get revenge for deeds that shocked me in Book 1, is such a great character. The battle he has in trying to justify staying within the Law, even though he is no longer a Detective, and breaking the Law for revenge against Culpepper, the crime Lord, is fantastically written. Both the Foley brothers are great characters.
My other favourite character in And Your Enemies Closer is DI Iona Madison, she is a totally kick-arse, no-nonsense Detective who loves boxing and is good at it, she’s a total ball breaker and I love her!
The descriptions of the settings for the storyline are well observed and it makes you feel like you are in the gritty underbelly of Liverpool. And the criminal gangs and their leaders are remarkable. The plot is fabulous and I was gripped, there are some twists that I didn’t see coming and had me gasping out loud! And I must mention the utterly unique way of committing murder, Mr Parker has really done his research for this and it’s absolutely grim and brilliant!
Just a quick mention of the Audible quality, as always with Audible it’s fantastically produced and Warren Brown is a great narrator for this book, really suits it.
So my rating…. Well, you’ve guessed it 5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
theirresponsiblereader's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.
What’s And Your Enemies Closer About?
I keep accidentally spoiling something when writing this section, so I’m just going to borrow Audible’s summary:
In the North West criminal underworld, a deal goes tragically wrong, resulting in war between the two main organised crime factions in the region. Shockwaves rock the 30-mile gap between Liverpool and Manchester – with retired detective Brendan Foley right in the middle of it all.
For Brendan, six months after his resignation, life is all different. His marriage is a mess, he’s working as a nightclub bouncer, his brother is still missing and he just can’t stop searching for the crime family that destroyed his life. And at last, he’s found them – and he’s got them bang to rights.
Iona Madison, his one-time partner and now successor as a DI in Warrington Police, is tasked with a body pulled from the River Mersey – a teen-age boy that went missing the previous year, which might bring her own conduct into question. Not only that, Brendan is feeding her information whether she likes it or not – and his unsanctioned activities are causing her headaches.
And now, there’s a price on his head. A million pounds, dead or alive.And Your Enemies Closer is a serpentine race against time as Brendan and Iona must stay one step ahead of criminals at every corner, while trying to bring justice – in whatever form it takes, and whatever loyalties it might burn.
Things Change
When I posted about Far from the Tree, I’d said:
Foley comes across as the kind of cop you want to read about, the kind that you like to think you can find in police forces all over the world—sure, he needs some marriage counseling and needs to do some serious work when it comes to his kids. But who doesn’t have problems?
In the six months since he retired, all that has changed. Very understandably, Foley isn’t that guy anymore. He’s the kind of guy you fear you can find in police officers all over the world. Sure, that makes you wonder if he ever really was that guy—but I think he was, through sheer act of will maybe, but he was that guy. But that’s over—his marriage is on the ropes (to speak optimistically), he’s not the father he used to be. All he has room for is a mission—take down that crime family that had taken so much from him.
D.I. Madison’s changed, too. She’s still trying to prove to her superiors that she deserved the promotion. I really thought I got to know her as a character in the previous book, and I didn’t feel that way this time. Yes, she’s in it just as much—but it’s almost all work, no reflection. The time-frame for this book is much shorter than the last one, so we don’t have time to see her off-the-clock or in a quiet moment to think.
Another reason I think I might have had that reaction is the number of Point of View Characters is larger than the last time out, and those who aren’t Foley and Madison get more time. I could be very wrong about that—I’ve listened to a lot of books in the 16+ months between these two—but that’s the impression that I had. It makes for a richer and more developed story, but it came at the cost of at least Madison’s character.
Warren Brown
I don’t know much about Brown’s acting—he hasn’t done much widely available in the U.S. (at least legally), but I’ve really liked him when I have seen him. But, his work on this series is enough to make me start petitions for streaming services to start showing his stuff.
He brings these situations and people to life in a way that you can practically see them, it’s like you’re in the room with them. Getting the right narrator is always important when it comes to audiobooks—doubly so with things like Audible Originals that have no text version. Whoever got Brown to do this series did us all a favor.
So, what did I think about And Your Enemies Closer?
I didn’t enjoy this quite as much as the predecessor—but I’m pretty sure that has everything to do with this being the second installment in a trilogy. It’s just the way I am with trilogies.* I do wonder if some of it is also the way D.I. Madison was used here. On both counts, I fully expect that the close of this trilogy is going to leave me impressed and maybe even liking this a bit more than I do right now.
* With the possible exception of The Empire Strikes Back
Parker’s a great storyteller, and that’s on full display here. One example of that, I’ll try to keep it vague. Still, spoilerphobes might want to skip to the next paragraph. There’s someone early one that you realize is going to die before this book ends. Really, they might as well have been named Corpsey McCadaver. In just about every scene with them, I liked them more and more and grew more and more certain they’d die soon. But when it happened—I was totally caught off-guard, bolted upright in my char, and apparently made a sound audible in the next room. That’s storytelling.
I thought that the image of the mass grave from the beginning of Far from the Tree was the apex for disturbing images for the series. A big shock to get the ball rolling, and it’d be all down here from there. I don’t remember being that naïve and foolish, but man…Parker outdoes himself in creating one location in the book. I’m just glad the Smell-O-Vision technology hasn’t made its way to smartphones. Also, there’s a method of murder used here that I’ve never run across before, I’m dying to know if it’s real, but I don’t even know how to search for it online without going on the FBI’s radar. Seriously, the book is worth your time just to hear about it. I’m not sure the book is also worth the poor sleep you’ll get if you think too much about the method, however.
As I said before, there are many point-of-view characters running around in this novel, and I wouldn’t have complained about having more time with any of them. Other than Madison, we got enough time with them all, but I enjoyed each perspective enough that I could have taken at least one more scene with them all. I typically think less is more on the multiple-perspective novels, but this isn’t one of them. Both Parker and Brown handle all the voices really well.
Outside of Corpsey McCadaver, I couldn’t predict anything about this story. Parker keeps you on your toes and on the edge of your seat—he zigs when you expect him to zag. Or, he zags when you expect, but in a way that turns your expectations upside down.
Once again, Parker and Brown have delivered something brutal, unrelentingly gripping, and full of the unexpected. I can’t wait to see what they’ve got in store for #3.
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