Blog Tour ~ City of Ghosts by Ben Creed

 

Delighted to host today's Blog Tour stop on Publication Day

Welbeck Publishing Group
15 October 2020

My thanks to edpr for my copy of this book
and the invitation to the blog tour

Some crimes will haunt you forever… Leningrad, 1951. 

Amid the endless darkness of a Russian winter, echoes of the devastating wartime siege and the menace of Stalin’s terrifying rule loom over the city. Revol Rossel – once a gifted young violinist destined for a brilliant career – is now a state militia cop. One night, five frozen corpses are found neatly arranged on railway lines cutting through the bright snow. The gruesome scene soon transports Rossel back to his former musical life – and to the brutal heart of the Soviet establishment – to the time when his dreams were shattered. Assailed by ghosts from his past and with the MGB breathing down his neck, Rossel must solve the mystery of the bodies on the tracks before he himself falls victim. But in Leningrad, some crimes will haunt you forever… 

What did I think about it..

City of Ghosts gets off to a dramatic start with the discovery of five frozen corpses on a remote railway line, and for state militia cop, Revol Rossel, the search is on to discover a killer, or killers, whose modus operandi is decidedly gruesome. Setting this rather bleak story amidst the brutal Soviet regime of the 1950s lends a shadowy and dangerous air of menace to what is a tightly packed crime thriller. 

Rossel is an interesting protagonist, his chequered past haunts him and whilst this lends an air of mystery, it also creates within him a sense of vulnerability making his character all the more susceptible to hurt. There's a lot of tense action in the novel and from the offset it's apparent that there is more to the discovery of the five corpses than at first appears and it would seem that Rossel is thwarted at every part of the investigation. Uncovering the truth isn't going to be easy for him especially when he gets drawn into vivid reminders of parts of his past which cause him great distress.The tension mounts as the story progresses and as Rossel starts to uncover a dreadful truth so the race is on to find the perpetrator.

City of Ghosts is a tightly written crime thriller which has all the necessary elements to keep you guessing. The post-war soviet uncertainty is captured well and the air of mistrust which affected daily life comes across with a genuine air of authenticity. I particularly enjoyed the musical references, the reasons for which become apparent as the story progresses.

Whenever I know the story has been written by a duo of writers I try to pinpoint individual writing styles and I am pleased to say that in City of Ghosts the writing is seamless and I didn't notice any alterations in style, or pace, throughout the whole of the story. City of Ghosts in the first book in a proposed trilogy.

About the Author

Ben Creed is the pseudonym for Chris Rickaby and Barney Thompson. City of Ghosts is the first book in a gripping trilogy and has sold in multiple international deals. 

Chris Rickaby spent twenty years working in advertising and copywriting. He started his own marketing agency, Everything Different, which he left a few years ago to focus on writing. He has written and produced various TV programmes for ITV and FIVE and created an award-winning crossplatform novel called Shuffle. Chris is from and still lives in Newcastle upon Tyne. 

Barney Thompson Before diverting to a career in journalism, Barney harboured ambitions of becoming a conductor and studied under the legendary conducting professor Ilya Musin at the St Petersburg Conservatory. He has worked at The Times and the Financial Times, and is now an editor and writer at the UN Refugee Agency. 

City of Ghosts by Ben Creed is out now, 

published by Welbeck, priced £8.99 as paperback original.

Twitter #BenCreed #CityofGhosts 

@WelbeckPublish

@ed_pr

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