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the_coycaterpillar_reads's review against another edition
5.0
A Dark Redemption
5 stars
This was the first novel I have read from the author and found it a really gripping story with strong lead and supporting characters. It had an unpredictable ending and I was genuinely shocked. The story was crime drama with strong political standpoints in Uganda.
An excellent read.
5 stars
This was the first novel I have read from the author and found it a really gripping story with strong lead and supporting characters. It had an unpredictable ending and I was genuinely shocked. The story was crime drama with strong political standpoints in Uganda.
An excellent read.
rennie43's review against another edition
5.0
A dark redemption by Stav Sherez
A dark redemption was my first book by Stav Sherez it follows DI Jack Carrigan and DS Geneva Miller trying to investigate a Murdered Ugandan student they both discover she was a student in London. I enjoyed this book
A dark redemption was my first book by Stav Sherez it follows DI Jack Carrigan and DS Geneva Miller trying to investigate a Murdered Ugandan student they both discover she was a student in London. I enjoyed this book
stinajohanns's review against another edition
5.0
I really really liked this book. I was a bit slow getting into it but that's not surprising as it always takes me awhile to get into books. But then I got really excited and the last third of the book was really thrilling - and twisty which I always love. I was listening to the book from audible and I kept finding ways to listen such as by shovelling snow, cleaning the house and anything else that allowed me to keep listening. That is always a good sign. I've already bought the next book in the series.
andrew61's review against another edition
4.0
I'd not heard of this writer until I heard him mentioned on a podcast but I'm really chuffed to have now discovered him particularly as its book 1 in a crime procedural series.
I engaged with the lead detectives as they hunt for the perpetrator of a horrible murder. A really interesting thread explores recent Ugandan history and added to a well plotted crime novel. As with good crime writing the character flaws of the two police officers had me hooked and the pace rattles along.
A writer I'm glad to have found and looking forward to enjoying in the future.
I engaged with the lead detectives as they hunt for the perpetrator of a horrible murder. A really interesting thread explores recent Ugandan history and added to a well plotted crime novel. As with good crime writing the character flaws of the two police officers had me hooked and the pace rattles along.
A writer I'm glad to have found and looking forward to enjoying in the future.
fictionfan's review against another edition
4.0
Strong start to the series...
Three young men take off to Uganda for one last adventure holiday before they put their student days behind them and venture into the world of work. But Uganda is in the grip of civil unrest, with gangs of rebel soldiers, many of them children, making the country a dangerous place for Ugandans and visitors alike. Jack, Ben and David are horrified by some of the things they see and, when they get lost and are stopped at a rebel roadblock, they realise they're in serious trouble.
Years later in the present, Jack Carrigan is a detective in the Met, tasked to investigate a horrific murder of a Ugandan student living in London. Still haunted by his own experiences in Uganda, Carrigan is reluctant to consider a possible political motive and tries to convince himself this is a straightforward sex crime. But his new partner, Geneva Miller, isn't so sure – the girl had been researching one of the worst of the rebel groups and there are features of the murder that make Miller think there's a connection.
I freely admit am excessively tired of current trends and clichés in modern crime novels, so let's speed quickly by them. Carrigan is typically angst-ridden – in fact, so is Miller, to a lesser degree. Miller drinks too much. Each detective has a quirk – Carrigan, a coffee addiction with every cup described; and Miller, a rash brought on by stress, and this is kind of a stressful case, so she scratches. Constantly. (However, I've actually previously read Eleven Days, the second in the series, in which Carrigan seems to have got his coffee addiction under control and someone must have told Miller about antihistamines, so it's good to know that these annoying traits disappear.) The book is unnecessarily gory – the murder methods are brutal and sickening in the extreme and told in far too much detail, enhanced by some added gruesomeness in the autopsy room. And vomiting. (No-one ever vomited in crime fiction prior to about 1990 – now they all do it. Or urinate/defecate with fear. What has happened to the human race? Can I really be the only person who doesn't want to read about people losing control of their bodily functions? Harrow my soul, dear authors, not my stomach...)
Now for the positives. Sherez writes very well – way above average standard in contemporary crime writing. He has clearly done his research on the situation in Uganda thoroughly and that whole element of the book is completely convincing, adding a considerable amount of depth to what would otherwise be a fairly standard police procedural. The prologue, with the three students in Uganda, is very well done, building a great atmosphere of tension in a few pages and making the reader immediately care about the outcome. Although we are only taken back to Uganda occasionally throughout the book, this strand is the one that held my interest most and felt most authentic.
Both Carrigan and Miller are well-drawn characters, likeable despite their angst and quirkiness, and with plenty of room for future development. Carrigan is still mourning the death of his wife, and Miller's marriage has just broken up, but neither of these elements is allowed to dominate the story. This is the first time Carrigan and Miller have worked together, and we see them developing a respect for each other that looks like it may in time blossom into friendship, or perhaps more. There's a lot of office politics going on – too much for my taste – but it's well done, even if there are parts of it which don't quite come over as believable.
The main plot and investigation elements are interesting and convincingly written. The detectives play within the rules for the most part except, of course, for the obligatory police-officer-beats-up-suspect scenario. The writing slips a little when it goes into dialogue, with people expressing themselves with an eloquence that doesn't ring true to their characters. Unfortunately the ending does the usual thing of throwing credibility away in order to achieve a dramatic dénouement.
I know I've been critical of several things in the book, but partly, that's down to my personal taste, and partly, the preponderance of well-worn clichés is the kind of thing that often happens in the first of a series – sadly, may even be necessary for a first book to find a publisher in these days when what they seem to want is for every book to be identical to the last best-seller. Overall, I like Sherez's writing style very much, though I do wish he would tone down the gore. The characterisation is very good, especially of the two central characters. And, as in Eleven Days, the quality of research shines through, with the secondary story providing a strong backdrop for the main action. Recommended, and I'll be looking forward to seeing how the series develops in future.
www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com
Three young men take off to Uganda for one last adventure holiday before they put their student days behind them and venture into the world of work. But Uganda is in the grip of civil unrest, with gangs of rebel soldiers, many of them children, making the country a dangerous place for Ugandans and visitors alike. Jack, Ben and David are horrified by some of the things they see and, when they get lost and are stopped at a rebel roadblock, they realise they're in serious trouble.
Years later in the present, Jack Carrigan is a detective in the Met, tasked to investigate a horrific murder of a Ugandan student living in London. Still haunted by his own experiences in Uganda, Carrigan is reluctant to consider a possible political motive and tries to convince himself this is a straightforward sex crime. But his new partner, Geneva Miller, isn't so sure – the girl had been researching one of the worst of the rebel groups and there are features of the murder that make Miller think there's a connection.
I freely admit am excessively tired of current trends and clichés in modern crime novels, so let's speed quickly by them. Carrigan is typically angst-ridden – in fact, so is Miller, to a lesser degree. Miller drinks too much. Each detective has a quirk – Carrigan, a coffee addiction with every cup described; and Miller, a rash brought on by stress, and this is kind of a stressful case, so she scratches. Constantly. (However, I've actually previously read Eleven Days, the second in the series, in which Carrigan seems to have got his coffee addiction under control and someone must have told Miller about antihistamines, so it's good to know that these annoying traits disappear.) The book is unnecessarily gory – the murder methods are brutal and sickening in the extreme and told in far too much detail, enhanced by some added gruesomeness in the autopsy room. And vomiting. (No-one ever vomited in crime fiction prior to about 1990 – now they all do it. Or urinate/defecate with fear. What has happened to the human race? Can I really be the only person who doesn't want to read about people losing control of their bodily functions? Harrow my soul, dear authors, not my stomach...)
Now for the positives. Sherez writes very well – way above average standard in contemporary crime writing. He has clearly done his research on the situation in Uganda thoroughly and that whole element of the book is completely convincing, adding a considerable amount of depth to what would otherwise be a fairly standard police procedural. The prologue, with the three students in Uganda, is very well done, building a great atmosphere of tension in a few pages and making the reader immediately care about the outcome. Although we are only taken back to Uganda occasionally throughout the book, this strand is the one that held my interest most and felt most authentic.
Both Carrigan and Miller are well-drawn characters, likeable despite their angst and quirkiness, and with plenty of room for future development. Carrigan is still mourning the death of his wife, and Miller's marriage has just broken up, but neither of these elements is allowed to dominate the story. This is the first time Carrigan and Miller have worked together, and we see them developing a respect for each other that looks like it may in time blossom into friendship, or perhaps more. There's a lot of office politics going on – too much for my taste – but it's well done, even if there are parts of it which don't quite come over as believable.
The main plot and investigation elements are interesting and convincingly written. The detectives play within the rules for the most part except, of course, for the obligatory police-officer-beats-up-suspect scenario. The writing slips a little when it goes into dialogue, with people expressing themselves with an eloquence that doesn't ring true to their characters. Unfortunately the ending does the usual thing of throwing credibility away in order to achieve a dramatic dénouement.
I know I've been critical of several things in the book, but partly, that's down to my personal taste, and partly, the preponderance of well-worn clichés is the kind of thing that often happens in the first of a series – sadly, may even be necessary for a first book to find a publisher in these days when what they seem to want is for every book to be identical to the last best-seller. Overall, I like Sherez's writing style very much, though I do wish he would tone down the gore. The characterisation is very good, especially of the two central characters. And, as in Eleven Days, the quality of research shines through, with the secondary story providing a strong backdrop for the main action. Recommended, and I'll be looking forward to seeing how the series develops in future.
www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com
bgg616's review
5.0
This is the first in what hopefully will be a series featuring DI Jack Carrigan who works for the London Met. Carrigan is investigating the brutal murder of a young Ugandan woman, a PhD student. He soon notices he is being followed and observed, and wonders who doesn't want this murder solved? Carrigan himself has a connection to Uganda. Twenty years earlier after he graduated from university, he and 2 friends decided to travel there. It is a cautionary tale as these hapless and clueless young men, armed with nothing but an inaccurate guidebook drive into dangerous territory. What happens haunts Carrigan up to the current day. His partner, DS Geneva Miller, notices Carrigan flinches each time Uganda is mentioned. Carrigan and his superiors begin investigating the murder as a sex crime. Miller, however, believes it is related to the victim's research on East African warlords. The Ugandan Embassy and higher ups in the police appear to want to quash this investigation which spurs Miller on even more.
This is a taut thriller that is hard to put down. Carrigan is another detective whose refusal to bend to superiors' orders puts him in constant threat of being suspended or fired. We have clues to the reasons behind his behavior. Not all are fully explained in this novel, such as how he lost his wife, but readers sense he is a deeply intelligent and passionate detective. His partner Miller is equally complex, being the daughter of a Czech dissonant poet who fled for her life to London during the time of the upheavals in the 1960's. My favorite line is the book is a quote from her mother who said "the only poems that count are the ones that can get you killed".
A book for lovers of noir, as well as anyone who likes a good story. I cannot wait to read the next in this series.
This is a taut thriller that is hard to put down. Carrigan is another detective whose refusal to bend to superiors' orders puts him in constant threat of being suspended or fired. We have clues to the reasons behind his behavior. Not all are fully explained in this novel, such as how he lost his wife, but readers sense he is a deeply intelligent and passionate detective. His partner Miller is equally complex, being the daughter of a Czech dissonant poet who fled for her life to London during the time of the upheavals in the 1960's. My favorite line is the book is a quote from her mother who said "the only poems that count are the ones that can get you killed".
A book for lovers of noir, as well as anyone who likes a good story. I cannot wait to read the next in this series.
lisagray68's review
5.0
I loved this book but I'm confused -- maybe someone can help me? If Ben's whole deal was that he was trying to protect his family and he and Bayanga were working together, then why was Bayanga breaking into his house to kill Ursula?? That's the only part that has me so confused!! Otherwise great mystery!
stacialithub's review
4.0
I don't usually read a lot of crime fiction. This was quite good: a nice mix of gritty crime/thriller, a good detective duo, & some nice twists involving international politics/rebel groups in Africa. Really well done & I'd definitely recommend it if you like crime fiction. This is the first in a series & I'd definitely read another. I don't say that lightly as I'm not usually a fan of series books. This is promising, though. (Looks like [b:Eleven Days|20893621|Eleven Days|Stav Sherez|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1397435676s/20893621.jpg|24943440] is the next one.)
bethnellvaccaro's review
5.0
Exactly want I want in a police procedural. I listened to this as an audio book and enjoyed the reading. I rarely give a book five stars, especially a mystery, but I just enjoyed myself so much. I actually kept cleaning my house just so I could keep listening.