This was a brilliant read. As soon as I started reading this book I just knew I was going to love it. Highly recommended

Another old case plays an important role in the eight book of the Calladine & Bayliss series, which is something that has been used a couple of times now in the series. I hope this will not be in every book now, or you would start wondering whether the detectives might not have been doing such a good job in the first place.

Expect everything you have come to expect of the series. For me, I really got annoyed by Calladine – he is supposed to be the hero of the series, but I find him a jerk and he is getting worse with every book. Condescending to his colleagues also.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with a free electronic copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

A brilliant read, well written as always by Helen H Durrant. I love the way that she draws you into the story until you are actually completely lost until the end!

The partnership between Detective Ruth Bayliss and DI Tom Calladine is a likeable and believable one. A body is found in a disused church that echoes an old case where the murderer has been convicted .

Tom Calladine is kidnapped and then suspended after being accused of corruption. His partner Ruth is left to investigate the murder, an influx of drugs into the community and clear her partner.

Theres a twist at the end and the plot keeps you interested all the way through.

This is a good, solid, Saturday afternoon on the sofa kind of read.
I do love a good police procedural novel and I quickly found some affinity with the main characters.
The writing was a little simplistic for me at times but the pace was excellent and I wasn't disappointed.
Many thanks for the opportunity to review.

What a fabulous book with a great twist at the end that I didn’t see coming. This was a real thrilling page turner that kept me engaged and hanging on to every word, I loved it, this is an excellent series and Dead Bad didn’t disappoint I thoroughly enjoyed it. A very well deserved five stars!

Police thriller with good,interesting characters. Always good to catch up with the characters stories.
Main story was topical and fast paced with a few surprises.

Excellent story line which was gripping from start to finish. Great characters. I would highly recommend this book.

I throughly enjoyed this book. It is book 8 in this series but I haven’t read all the others and it is ok to read as a stand-alone if you’ve not read them. It has lots of twists and turns mystery and suspense. I will certainly be catching up with the rest of this series.

How have I missed this author before? A gripping, well written story with a sound plot and characters you care about. I suspect if I had read the rest of the series it would be even more rounded but works well as a stand-alone too. Enough back-story for the characters is supplied to bring them to life without holding up the action.
Very many thanks to Netgalley/Helen Durrant/Joffe Books for the opportunity to read and review this digital download. All opinions are my own.

Another good read in the series from Helen Durrant. This is book 8 and I would advise reading them in order.There are several strands in the story and it kept me interested until the rather sudden ending, which took me by surprise. I like the character development of Calladine and Bayliss and look forward to the next one in the series. Thanks to Net Galley for my copy. I reviewed on Goodreads, Amazon and Facebook.

Another entertaining read by Helen Durrant! It hits the ground running and doesn't let up. Lots of action and plenty suspense. Highly recommended. I'll anxiously await her next book.

I enjoyed all of the books I have read by Helen Durrant! I have not read them all, or in order. But this latest offering does stand alone. The title of Dead Bad continues the theme, but does describe the main "baddies". The book opens with the head of the unit being kidnapped and held miles from nowhere. The team have to deal with a murder victim who nobody reported missing. When a second victim is found, the boss is back. But then the whole area is flooded with drugs. Even with everything happening, the final solution was not expected. I will now go back and check other books in this series I really need to read!

I love this author's books and have read everything she has written and given them all five stars - so this book had a lot to live up too... and now I've finished I have to say that for me this is the best book she has written to date!!

It has a brilliant story, it has the characters that I love and the writing style was superb as always. I loved the pace and it had me gripped from the first page to the last - so, so good - so as you can probably guess, yes it is 5 stars from me - I loved it!!

DEAD BAD by author Helen H. Durrant is book eight of a new series of detective thrillers featuring D.S. Ruth Bayliss and D.I. Tom Calladine. Having read all the previous books in this series and really enjoyed them and the characters, it was like old home week, and touching base with some of my old friends. I looked forward to starting the next crime thriller in the series. This book will have you turning the pages until the shocking conclusion. I have to say that for me this is the best book she has written to date!
The novel takes place in the fictional town of Leesdon, Greater Manchester on the outskirts of an industrial northern English city…the breeding ground for crime on the Hobfield housing estate.

Detective inspector Tom Calladine is a workaholic, totally devoted to his job. But his personal life has not been so rewarding, being married and divorced before he was twenty-one.

Detective Sergeant Ruth Bayliss and Detective Inspector Tom Calladine, both work well together, and are well respected by their team. They now face a brutal serial killer in a mystery with a shocking ending.

A woman’s body is found in a disused church, a homemade stuffed toy by her side. The victim had been dumped there months ago. The crime has the hallmarks of twenty-year-old case whose alleged perpetrator is in prison.

But has a serial killer returned, or just a copycat provoking the police.

So much going on in this novel. DI Tom Calladine gets kidnapped and accused of corruption, and fights to clear his name. I liked how the author brought in DI Greco (character from another book in the series) to investigate Calladine. With the team under massive pressure and drugs flooding the streets, another gruesomely presented body is found.

Looking for a brilliant best-selling crime mystery with great detectives? Look no further. Highly recommend this exciting new crime fiction writer.

Many thanks to Joffe Books via Netgalley for my copy.

Excellent book, have read all Helen's books to date and can't wait for her to write the next one. Addictive reading!

EXCERPT: A young woman, her blank eyes staring into nothing. Her throat had been cut. For a few seconds Robbins was transfixed. He'd never even seen a dead body before. And this wasn't just a dead body, this was a murder victim he was looking at, had to be. The sight was horrific. She was nailed to something and things had been done to her.

ABOUT THIS BOOK: Detectives Calladine and Bayliss face a vicious serial killer in a mystery with a shocking ending.

A woman’s body is found in a disused church, a homemade stuffed toy by her side. The victim had been dumped there months ago. The crime has the hallmarks of twenty-year-old case whose alleged perpetrator is in prison.

Detective Ruth Bayliss must work out whether a serial killer has returned, or if a new killer is just taunting the police.

Her partner DI Tom Calladine faces the fight of his life to clear his name of corruption accusations. And then things go from bad to worse for Calladine . . .

With the team under massive pressure and drugs flooding the streets, another gruesomely presented body is found.

In an ending with a huge twist, the detectives must unpick decades’ old lies before anyone else dies.

MY THOUGHTS: I like this series. It has grown on me as I have read my way through the majority of the previous seven books. But this one just seems to be lacking something that the others had. It felt flat to me, although there was plenty going on, until the final few chapters when it finally got its teeth into me and I was rapidly flipping pages, determined to discover the outcome before I had to leave for work.

It is possible to read Dead Bad as a standalone, but I wouldn't really recommend it. There is too much background information, especially regarding relationships between the characters, that the first time reader would be ignorant of. But then, perhaps it might be a more intriguing read if you were fresh to them.

It was great to see Greco back, albeit briefly, although he didn’t come to the fore in Dead Bad as much as he has previously. I missed his little foibles. They were somewhat glossed over. He is a character who deserves to be made more of.

While I liked Dead Bad, I didn't love it. 3.5 stars.

Thank you to Joffe Books via Netgalley for providing a digital copy of Dead Bad by Helen Durrant for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.

Please refer to my Goodreads.com profile page or the 'about' page on sandysbookaday.wordpress.com for an explanation of my rating system.

This review and others are also published on my blog sandysbookaday.wordpress.com https://sandysbookaday.wordpress.com/...

I am a massive fan of Helen's books so jumped at the chance to read her new one, which I have been waiting ages for.

Even though this is book 8 in the series it can be read as a stand alone book if you so wish, although it would be advantageous of you to have a read at least a couple of previous ones to understand the team dynamics.

The book starts off really quickly with a hostage situation involving a young child and a dead body being found.  After this we find that DI Calladine has gone missing under suspicious circumstances.

With Calladine's disappearance comes the knowledge that he had a vast amount of money in his bank account so his seniors suspect him of corruption.  This case also bears an uncanny similarity to a case he was dealing with about 20 years previous so has this to deal with as well.

This story  is a brilliant one as we learn a lot more about Bayliss and her life, including some possible decisions she has to make, which could affect everyone around her.

The book has so much going on that at times it is hard to remember what has happened, but with so much happening you never lose interest and just as you think you have it sorted something comes up which throws you again.

Overall I thought this was a brilliant addition to the series and can't wait for more from Helen.

This is book number eight in the series featuring Calladine and Bayliss. It can be read as a standalone but makes more interesting reading when you have read the other books and know the characters history.
Calladine has shingles so is sent home on sick leave but on his way home he is kidnapped. He is then accused of corruption when a large sum of money is found in his bank account. Bayliss and the rest of the team are sent to an abandoned church where a body has been found. On investigating it is found to be identical to a killing many years previous, but the suspect who confessed to the murder is still in prison, so have they now got a copycat killer on their hands as well as an influx of drug overdoses!
This is a book you wont be able to put down, with so many different twists and turns that, like me, you won’t be able to wait for book number nine.
Thanks to NetGalley and Joffe Books for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book.

Thoroughly enjoyed reading this, and was luckily enough able to be on tour. I found the prose easy to read but it kept my interest. I found eyself going back to this book when I could. I would definitely recommend this.