Blog Tour ~ The Blameless Dead by Gary Haynes

Jaffareadstoo is delighted to open The Blameless Dead Blog Tour

Endeavour Quill
18 March 2019

My thanks to the publishers and Hannah for my copy of this book
and the invitation to be part of the blog tour.

In the dying days of World War Two, Pavel Romasko and his Red Army colleagues pick their way through the carnage and detritus of a dying Berlin. Stumbling upon the smoking remains of a Nazi bunker, they find something inside that eclipses the horror of even the worst excesses in the city above them.

As the war ends, retribution begins. But some revenge cannot be taken at once. Some revenge takes years.

And so it is, as post-war Europe tries desperately to drag itself back onto its feet, and soldiers attempt a return to normality, that retribution continues to ferment in the Gulags of the Soviet Union and beneath the surface of apparently ordinary lives.

Which is how, seventy years later, FBI agent Carla Romero and New York lawyer Gabriel Hall are enlisted to investigate a series of blood-chilling crimes that seem to have their roots in the distant past — even though the suffering they cause is all too present. And for one of them, the disappearance of young women is a particularly personal matter.

My thoughts..

Towards the end of WW2 Pavel Romasko and his Red Army colleagues make a dreadful discovery, and, even though they have witnessed many atrocities, the horror of what they discover in a Nazi bunker, in Berlin, shocks them.

In 2015 FBI agent Carla Romero and New York lawyer Gabriel Hall investigate a series of crimes which seem, on further investigation, to have their origins in events which happened over 70 years ago.

Cleverly combining the dark and deadly secrets of the past with something which is happening in the here and now and you have all the ingredients of a really complex thriller. There are instances where the story is quite graphic and the narrative doesn’t shy away from exposing some dreadful atrocities, however, what it also does is cleverly link the terror of the past with a complicated revenge driven modern day mystery.

The author writes well and keeps control of a complicated plot with skill, and a fine eye for detail. However, The Blameless Dead isn’t an easy read, and it took me a while to put all the people and the different places into context. There’s a dark and visceral quality to the narrative which combined with the complexity of the plot, particularly the two different time frames, makes for an interesting and complex thriller.

About the Author

Gary Haynes is a bestselling thriller writer, and member of the International Thriller Writers organisation. He studied law at university and passed his post-graduate legal qualifications before becoming a commercial litigator. He is a Freedom of Speech advocate and is interested in history, philosophy and foreign policy. Gary’s previous novels include the popular Tom Dupree series: State of Honour and State of Attack.

Website

Twitter @GaryHaynesNovel #TheBlamelessDead

@EndeavourQuill

Amazon UK

**Between 25th February and 1st March,there is a Goodreads giveaway running where readers have the opportunity to win one of ten signed copies of the novel before publication. Find the details here