In this book, we’re following Aidan Waits, a cop who plays as much for the bad guys as the good in the dark, drug fueled side of Manchester. Waits is forced to follow an MP's daughter into the heart of the drug war for Manchester.

Despite the synopsis and promised dark, atmospheric plot, I never felt invested in any of the characters. All of the female characters felt too similar and none of them ever actually stood out enough to differentiate.

I liked the gritty, dark Manchester setting, but almost wanted more grit and more suspense. I didn’t connect to the characters enough for this to be a well rounded, character driven novel and at the same time, didn’t find it suspenseful enough to be plot driven.

I think this book could work really well into a series, but as a standalone, it didn't quite work for me.

I could not put this book down. While I thought it would be predictable there were some twists both Aiden (the protagonist) and myself did not expect. Aiden is a detective down on his luck, and constantly on the verge of a breakdown, he drinks, does drugs and has given up caring about himself. This makes him the perfect choice for an off the books assignment.....

Sirens is dark crime thriller set in the gritty nighttime streets of Manchester England. The main character is a disgraced detective named Aiden Waits who was caught stealing drugs. He is given another chance if he can rescue an influential MP's daughter Isabelle from a drug kingpin named Zain Carver.

Carver is the head of a drug ring called the Franchise. He owns clubs and bars all over the city where he sells drugs and launders money. He uses young girls to collect the money and entice new users.
Waits gets involved with one of the girls at the same time he's trying to rescue Isabelle. Police and political corruption are rampant, and Waits is never sure who he can trust.

This is a fascinating book. The writing is arresting and eloquent, and the plot is complex without being confusing. If you like your crime thrillers dark and dirty this book is for you.

Thanks to Crown Publishing and NetGalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Sirens is a gripping and terribly heartbreaking tale of the underbelly of English politics and wealth. Downtrodden and disgraced Detective Aidan Waits is a ball used in a perpetual volley between a corrupt parent, a pervasive drug dealer, and the police department who will stop at nothing to convict. His choices are constricted at every turn, and he is in constant conflict between the duty of a police officer and the duty of being human. Plagued by his own personal failures, he leaves a wake of destruction in his path, paved entirely in good intentions.

Knox has a great way with criminal drama, understanding both the interpersonal relationships between men and women, criminal and cop, and power and money. He doesn't spare the reader a fair amount of graphic violence, which is well placed to emphasize the dark side of London's most powerful and most vile. While I had to look back a couple of times to keep characters and motives straight, the book as a whole is a non-stop page turner, when, once come full circle, will have back at the beginning waiting to read it again.

I appreciated the opportunity to review an advance reader copy.

Detective Aidan Waits is a flawed man, succumbing to temptations that have marred his reputation in law enforcement. Stemming from this, Waits looks toward an uncertain future - forced to play a card that places his life on the line. Tasked with keeping an eye on the daughter of a prominent figure, he must navigate the high and low routes of the urban terrain of Manchester, exposing himself to a world full of danger and corruption. A world with the loaded potential to cause Waits to backslide as a professional and as a person. Joseph Knox writes with a seasoned hand, making this debut that much more impressive. Sirens is a dark, atmospheric thriller with a memorable gallery of characters. Recommended.

Powerful. Gripping. Heartbreaking. Dirty. Gritty. Messy. Fantastic police thriller that takes you places you never expected to go. Drugs, corruption, gang wars, missing teenage girls, undercover work. Every single page in this book is powerfully written. It is perfectly plotted and keeps drawing you further and further into the story.

The basic plot of a detective going undercover into a drug gang to find a missing girl at the behest of her rich powerful father has been lots of times before, but this story is so much more. It's a disgraced police detective popping drugs and spinning out of control. There's no one he can trust. He's out on the high wire without a net. And you can feel his emotions, his panic, his frustration in each sentence.

Absolutely terrific.

Riveting fast paced thriller! Dark characters that the author somehow made human and likeable. I couldn't put the book down. I can't wait for his next book!

. The twists, turns, and surprises make this an intriguing story about a down on his luck, Aidan Waits a police officer. Drugs, teens, gangs make this suspenseful and keeps you reading! Hoping Knox keeps writing!

For every hit, toke, tab, line, and shot taken, someone in the background of drug dealing has died. Someone else has been enslaved, another person is forced into the sex trade, or a cop has been corrupted. The only exceptions might be homegrown in your backyard. Scoring prescriptions-just means you will most likely die. This is my background. I know this.
So does Joseph Knox as he so ably demonstrates in his outstanding debut “Sirens”. “Siren’s” dark gritty world might be different from the real world, but not by much. Knox has nailed the ugliness of the drug trade, whether it’s in Manchester, England or Jackson, Ms.
Siren’s disgraced cop Aiden Waits is given a chance for redemption by going even deeper into the circle of a notorious drug dealer. His entry card is he goes in as himself, a cop caught stealing drugs. Waits is then given the additional task of watching and reporting on the seventeen year old daughter of a politician. This is in addition to his two main tasks, discovering corrupt cops and finding out what happened to a witness who disappeared ten years ago.
Women who are part of Carver’s “charmed “circle start dying or disappearing. Waits is pretty sure he is responsible for some of this through the law of unintended consequences and spirals even deeper into self-destruction.
The threads of Waits’ separate assignments are in turn masterfully woven together or split into divergent paths, always keeping the reader on edge, turning to the next page.
Abandoned by his superiors, sought by his enemies, he turns to his one friend The Bug, who actually qualifies as two friends.
Knox dares his readers to take a dark journey that will stay with them for a long time. He is an expert tour guide of this bleak world, whether it is in describing the moral emptiness of a character, the cold heartless city or the small spark of humanity that remains inside most of us, even the empty ones.
Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.