Member Reviews

Well now I'm going to have to go and get the first book!!!

Set in Australia - not enough crime books are - and written with a pace that kept me up at night.

I HAD to find out if Ted was going to be OK...

I'll leave that there!

I will be back from more of Candice Fox work as it was great!

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Ted ConKaffey was a successful, well respected police officer until he was accused of abducting and raping a young girl, Claire Bingley. After spending a short time in prison - the case was suddenly dropped and he was released to try to rebuild his life in a place where everybody knew who he was and what he had supposedly done. Years later he runs a private investigator business with another convicted killer, Amanda Pharrell. They are hired by Michael Bell to assist the police to find out who shot and killed his son and a friend.
Ted is distracted from the police investigation, when Claire's dad, Dale turns up trying to find the truth about what happened to his daughter.

The story itself is really good BUT the book jumps from one character to another with any obvious break in between - even in the same paragraph which gets very confusing at times and makes it hard to follow.
There are sections from a diary written by the person responsible for Claire's attack which are disjointed and end mid sentence. This is a shame as it does spoil the book

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This review is going to appear very contradictory.
First the good bit.
I thoroughly enjoyed the story and characters.
Now the bad bit.
The story was let down by being confusing, and the poor editing with characters changing sentence to sentence.

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I loved this book I did not realise it was the second instalment so now I need to read the first. It did not feel like a second one I did not feel like I had missed something it was only looking online for other books by this author that I found out. This book is about a very tricky subject but I think the writer got it spot on with how Ted felt about his life being ruined and about the person that did it Kevin. I did get a bit lost and had to re read over some parts as there where no chapters and no real warning that it was going to change to another person. I liked the fact that everyone seemed to have a secret of some sort I think that’s the only thing that bugged me was what had Amanda done in her past apart from kill some one. I loved the bit at the end it was so fast paced and kept flicking back and forth between Amanda and Ted I felt like I was running down a hill and couldn’t stop myself. All in all a very enjoyable book and I look forward to reading other books by this author ( hopefully with chapters )

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I read this book as a stand alone although quickly realised it was a sequel. Really enjoyed both the characters and the plot. Immediately after finishing this, I purchased Book 1 and enjoyed getting into more detail of the back story to the main characters. I hope there will be more to come from these characters, could be a great series.

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Thanks Netgalley and the Publisher. This is a sequel to Crimson Lake which I had not read and wished I had as I think I would have given this a higher review. Whilst I really enjoyed the book and would recommend I think I could have enjoyed it better.

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This book was heart wrenching, felt so bad for Ted throughout the book. Especially when he adopted the birds.
I had not read the first in the series however did not feel that I had to have read it in order to follow this one. It was a great storyline but uncomfortable to read how he was treated by his neighbours.

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Took a while to get into. Great characters once I got into it. I hadn’t read the first book but this is good as a stNd alone. The character Tes and Amanda I loved and I I would recommend as a good Who did it

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It took me a while to get into this book but once I did, I really enjoyed it. It's a gritty crime read that tackles some dark issues, namely padeophilia, and is a difficult read at times. The main downside was the frequent flicking between characters from one paragraph to another, which often made it hard to realise at first that it had quickly moved onto a completely different scene and this did get a bit confusing. I gather this is technically the second in a series but I feel it works fine as a standalone read.

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Abso-bloody-lutely fantastic read! A haunted and tortured father, the flawed guilty (or is he) detective, and the underlying story seeping through the pages, pulling you in until you cannot bear to leave the story until the very end!

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Excellent crime story that has you feeling a lot for various characters. Draws you in well and keeps you absorbed throughout.

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I enjoyed this book. I’d not read the first in the series but this worked fine as a standalone. Good plot and great ending. The editing made it at times an irritating read but I guess that’s just because it was the pre publication edition. I’d love to see more from Ted & Amanda oh and the geese too

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Book 2 in a series, set in Crimson Lake. We follow shamed ex-police detective Ted Conkaffey and convicted murderer Amanda Pharrell - as they join forces as a private detective duo and solve a local crime.

Ted and Amanda are called in to investigate the murder of two young bar workers, by one of the deceased's father. They are there right from the start of the police investigation, as the father doesn't trust law enforcement and called the PI's as soon as he was told of his son's death. Whilst working the case, Ted has to deal with his own problems, stemming from his arrest and brief incarceration for the kidnap and sexual assault of a young girl.

I've not read anything by Candice Fox before so this was a new author to me. The book has been compared to The Dry by Jane Harper, due to it being a crime story set in Australia with the landscape being a character in it's own right. I think the comparison ends there. Although Candice Fox does an amazing job of describing the surroundings, I didn't quite feel it had the same affect as it did with The Dry. But I'm not here to compare the two, I'm here to review Redemption. 😊

I liked the characters- both Ted and Amanda, being the main protagonists, and also the secondary character of Pip Sweeney - the police detective assigned to work the case. All were well fleshed out and had good stories behind them. I could feel Ted's pain at being accused of something he didn't do, but worse than that, losing his family over it. He and his wife had just welcomed their first child to the world when he was arrested, and wifey didn't stick around after that. Amanda comes across as slightly crazy, but I think we learn to love her ways by the end of the book. It's endearing, rather than off putting. I also liked reading the bits with Khaled, Linda and Sharon. Yes Linda and Sharon are middle eastern bodyguards. Yes they are both men. I found that hilarious. (Yes... I am sheltered).

The story rumbles along nicely, we find clues to the deaths of the guy and gal killed at the bar. And we meet Dale, the rather of the teenage girl Ted was accused of attacking. Oddly enough Ted ends up helping Dale to find out who really attacked his daughter.

It's a good read, you could get through it quite quickly if you wanted to. I was happy to read it over a week or so, no rush.

Overall I would recommend it, it had suspense, thrills, crime, murder, blood, geese... what more do you need? The geese are in fact the true hero's of the story.

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REDEMPTION POINT is a stunning sequel to the fabulous Crimson Lake. I was thrilled to once again read about disgraced ex-police Ted Conkaffey and his private detective partner/ convicted murderer Amanda Pharrell. Yes, they are truly an odd duo. And, I've not even told you all about the cats and geese...

I found the first book to be addictive and couldn't wait to read the sequel. And, this book is even better than the first book. For one thing, we finally start to see a light in the tunnel for poor Ted. Being accused of abducting a young girl and then released because of lack of evidence isn't really making him innocent in the public's eyes. Vice versa, he can hardly leave the house.

REDEMPTION POINT may be the book that finally grants Ted his redemption. If he and Amanda survive the cases they work on of course. It's thrilling straight through and also heartwarming. The only parts I had a problem with was the diary entries where a pedophile wrote about his urges. Those parts were hard to get through. Also, Candice Fox decided to break my heart towards the end of the book when we finally learn the truth about the death of the young bartenders.

I recommend this series with all my heart and I'm longing for the next book in the series

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This may be an interim review as I have only read 20% of the book, but I am not sure if I will finish it. I really liked the idea of the story taking place in Australia though I do not feel the setting so far has created enough atmosphere and it could actually be anywhere. The story seems quite cop procedural like many cop films or tv shows. From my point of view, I have read and seen a lot of stories like this; this was not different enough for me. If it is your thing,you may really enjoy it.

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A.K.A. "Redemption Point" is the follow up of "Crimson Lake" and is an absolute joy to read. Set in Queensland, Australia (it's a refreshing new setting) and you'll get a good feeling about these surroundings since Fox expertly describes them.
Both main characters are not perfect but they seem to interconnect together. The whole read is pleasant, there's no slow areas in the book neither are there boring passages. On the other hand there's nothing which jumps out either; it's a pleasant, rainy weekend read and that's it.

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This was an absolutely compelling read. I was drawn in, in the first few pages. The characters were well developed and thoroughly engaging. There are lots of twists and turns in the plot. This book kept me gripped to the end.

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Thanks to NetGalley for the advance copy of this, what can best be described as an acquired taste.
Ted Conkaffey was wrongly accused of the attack and rape of a young girl. The ex-police officer was imprisoned but is, eventually, released and tries to rebuild his life. Sadly, the effects of his arrest follow him wherever he goes.
From the start we know Ted is innocent, but the time spent establishing him as a sympathetic character begins to feel onerous. He has become a private investigator, working with a convicted murderer. The two are involved in a new case, the shooting of two young people in what seems to be an attempted robbery. We soon get caught up in the quest to discover what happened, but also the attempts made by Ted to work out who committed the attack he was imprisoned for.
I found the characters a little brusque, and some of the scenarios were not credible. That aside, it was an interesting read that quickly drew you in.

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The second book following Ted Conkaffey and Amanda Pharrell is just as gripping and humorous as the first. This time, we get to see Ted investigating the crime he was originally prosecuted for committing - since reading Crimson Lake I've been waiting for this story to be told, and it did not disappoint. There's huge amounts of angst, tension and insight - all told with amazing emotional deftness that I have come to associate with Candice Fox; she takes the taboo and turns it upside down, offering a new perspective into worlds and headspaces I never would have thought to delve into.

Amanda is her usual eccentric self - we get to see a lot more of her perspective and thought processes, so she becomes a fuller, developed character to whom there's a lot more than the dissociated, Sherlock-Holmes-esque person she initially comes across as.

With two crimes being solved in this book - Ted's and a violent double murder in Crimson Lake - there's not as much interaction between Ted and Amanda, which I missed. However, we are introduced to a new character - Pip Sweeney, taking over as Detective Inspector in the disgraced Crimson Lake police department.

I really love the Crimson Lake series - Candice Fox manages to blend dark, gritty crime with quirky humour and emotional depth. She creates characters and storylines which are unique, distinct and enthralling.

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This was quite a harrowing book to read. The injustice of vigilante revenge seekers filled me with outrage. The plot is gripping and the characters well drawn, with depth and complex contradictions. It was certainly a story that made me want to keep reading, partly with dread, as I desperately wanted justice to prevail. Definitely worth reading.

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