Blood Runs Cold by Neil Lancaster

 

When a young girl goes missing Max Craigie has a personal connection. His wife was working with the girl, a victim of trafficking, to get her younger sister out of an orphanage in Albania and into the UK. As Craigie and the rest of the team he works in investigate they realise that the case is far bigger, it involves organised crime and possible police corruption.

I have loved all the books in the Max Craigie series,  Dead Man's Grave, The Blood Tide and The Night Watch, so was eagerly anticipating book 4, Blood Runs Cold. Author Neil Lancaster has produced a brilliant thriller, the best in the series to date.

Right from the opening pages we have a plot filled with tension and terror as we are introduced to organised crime and county lines, although initially I thought things were going to go a completely different route. 

After a time jump of three years we are lulled in to a false sense of security as everything appears to be fairly humdrum. Events escalate quickly and we are introduced to a much wider plot involving organised crime and some extremely unsettling villains, a couple of who I certainly wouldn't want to meet on a dark night (or even in broad daylight).

The involvement of Max Craigie and the rest of the "Policing Standards Reassurance" team is almost accidental but as they look into the disappearance of the missing schoolgirl they uncover the involvement of Albanian gangsters and possible police corruption.

The full team are present and the interactions between them are fantastic. I love the banter and the dark humour doesn't surprise me given the nature of their jobs. Given this is book 4 in the series we are still learning more about the individuals in the team, particularly Barney this time around.

Quite a few times I was filled with trepidation as I read, wondering if we were about to see the demise of one of the characters. Holding my breath as I read I was torn between racing through the pages and not wanting to discover what was going to happen.

Neil Lancaster has certainly used his experience of working for the Metropolitan Police to write a thriller that feels extremely timely and real. The strongest element of the whole story is how the victim is humanised, someone you really care for and worry about.

Blood Runs Cold by Neil Lancaster will be published on 13th April 2023 in hardback, ebook and audio format. My thanks to NetGalley and HQ for a review copy.