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Huge thanks to author Andrew Barrett and to ZooLoos Book Tours for inviting me to take part in The Pain of Strangers Blog Tour.

Blurb

When damaged people reach positions of power, there is no hope for the innocent.   

In 1987, Norton Bailey became known as the Madman of Mabgate. A damaged person in a position of power, he built a machine to take care of his problems. Money would lure those problems in.  

CSI Eddie Collins felt alone and adrift. Even work was unreliable and tense, and brought conflict with bad people. One damaged person in particular sought to choose how Eddie, and the victims he tried to protect, was going to die.  

Forensic evidence had always lit the way, but now the light shone dimly. Was there still no hope for the innocent?

My Thoughts

This is the newly written first book in Andrew Barrett’s highly acclaimed CSI Eddie Collins series. It replaces the initial book 1 (The Third Rule).

I’ve only read one other Eddie Collins book, This Side of Death, which is book 6 in the series and I really loved it, so I was chuffed to be able to go back and start at Book 1 and now I’ll work my way through the series.

The Pain of Strangers is a brilliant introduction to the beautifully drawn, complicated character that is CSI Eddie Collins. Raw, complex, angry, irascible, honest, hardworking, sarcastic, numerous … the list of adjectives to describe Eddie could go on forever. He is a gem of a character and one that will live with me for a long time.

Barrett’s writing style is full of sarcastic humour and pulls no punches. It is as honest and real as his character, Eddie Collins is.

I love the fact that we progress through a criminal investigation not at the hands of the police, but through the work of a talented CSI. It makes this novel so much more than a police procedural. Not constrained by police protocol, CSI Eddie Collins offers the reader a more human interpretation of the crimes and more importantly the characters in the novel.

Barrett has a wonderful knack of drawing you into the world of each and every character through his main character’s perceptive, intuitive and empathetic observations. He shows us the world of his characters as it is, with no apology for the rawness of his portrayals and I love that about this book.

The Pain of Strangers is brutal and thought-provoking and, although it takes you to the very edge of humanity, there is an underlying redemption in the form of Eddie’s uncompromising, individual nature.

I don’t hesitate to give this 5 fulsome stars and I highly recommend this book.

About the Author

Do you like your crime thrillers to have a forensic element that adds to the realism? Do you like your lead character to be someone intense and unafraid to take on authority?

Andrew writes precisely that kind of crime thriller, and has done since 1996, about the same time he became a CSI in Yorkshire.

Here’s your chance to walk alongside SOCO Roger Conniston and CSI Eddie Collins as they do battle with the criminals that you lock your doors to keep out, fighting those whose crimes make you shudder.

This is as real as it gets without getting your hands bloody.

Find out more about him at www.andrewbarrett.co.uk where you can sign up for his newsletter and claim your free starter library

Comments(3)

    • Zoé

    • 2 years ago

    Thank you so much for taking part in the tour today with this fabulous review to close the tour x

      • lizmistry

      • 2 years ago

      You are so welcome Zoe. Brillinat book xx

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