Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience.

Asylum by Jack Adams was riveting! A Must read.

Ten-year-old best friends, Nathan and Adam, really liked Joe. He was their friend, an artist, the man they spoke to through the wire fence of the lunatic asylum. But something happened behind those walls, in those rooms, on the grounds, at the river. The inmate sketched it all – fine lines, truth in the negative space, truth in the pencil strokes. Then one day Joe was gone.

A very enjoyable book and this one will keep you guessing through to the end well worth reading I will be looking for more from this author

A very intriguing book and definitely one that will keep you guessing through its entirety. Well worth a read.

This book has a great premise and it really delivered on its potential.

Adam and Nate were two young boys when they befriended a quiet but nice man at an insane asylum near their home through a wire fence, Joe. Eventually, Joe disappeared and Adam and Nate grew up. Suddenly, Adam and Nate learn that not only has Joe left them substantial inheritances, but that no one knows what happened to him. He didn’t just disappear from the fence, but seemingly into thin air. Adam and Nate decide that before they can accept any money, they must find out what happened to their old friend.

This book had everything - a creepy, dark setting, great characters that were charming, funny and interesting, and a fantastic mystery. I was not disappointed on any front. Adam and Nate were really great characters and I am happy to see that this is the first in a planned new series.

The mystery itself was really interesting. Joe’s past is complicated and with each new revelation, the guys realize that things aren’t exactly as they seem, both with Joe and with the asylum administration itself - unfortunately, like in many institutions, things weren’t always on the up and up. The conclusion was very satisfying, however, as justice seemed to be served and many questions were answered - I don’t want to say too much.

I am looking forward to seeing more of these characters in the future and following their future cases. There’s so much potential here and I’m pumped to see where it all goes.

With thank you to NetGalley for a free copy of this title in return for an honest review.

Unfortunately, I felt that this book did not live up to the suspense and atmosphere I expected from an old asylum. To give the author credit, there were some very sad and terrible stories which give the patients life and I imagine is probably very close to the truth worryingly.

The writing style is good , but, for me, this book seemed to be lacking something and I'm not quite sure what. It just didn't grab me and I didn't look forward to reading it, I also found the characters were a little cliche.

I loved this book, and was so pleased to see that it's the first of a future series. I enjoyed learning about Nate and Adam's history with Joe, and appreciated that none of the mystery felt forced or improbable. Jessica, Dan, and Rob, while definitely more minor characters, were dynamic enough to be interesting, and I look forward to seeing where their plot lines lead in future books.

This book was a good read with some great characters. With a creepy setting and an intriguing plot. It was great to read an asylum book that ticked all the boxes. I'm glad I requested it.

This book captured my attention from the first page and never let up. I enjoyed the story immensely with likeable characters and the asylum being a very creepy backdrop. I look forward to the next book in this series.

This was a great book to read, intriguing plot with the history of an old asylum and a possible missing patient from there. An easy style of writing that was quite descriptive and the book went between the present and the past but told you which time frame we were in, which I like.

We start in the past with two 10 year old boys who are good friends, hanging out near a lunatic asylum chatting to an old man called Joe, he is separated from them by a wire fence. Nathan and Adam realise he isn’t insane, so why is he there? They visit him often and then one day, he is gone.

Twenty years later, Nathan is a private investigator and Adam is a psychologist when they go into partnership together. They had received a letter from a solicitor who claimed he was representing his missing client, Joe O’Connell. They visited the old asylum. Natham had pulled some strings so they could get in and they followed the instructions in the letter so they could find Joe’s diary. It was still there. It was crammed full of information.and drawings. Made for some interesting reading for Adam. Joe’s solicitor wanted to hire them to find Joe which they agreed to. Also, they found there were some strange goings on at the asylum whilst it was open and even now that warranted investigation so they decided to do that too. They wanted to help those that would speak to them.

It turned out that Joe had been a wonderful artist and done some good drawings. Some of these he had managed to smuggle out of the asylum before the management realised what was going on. Some of the drawings showed the treatment given to the patients. The management were then trying to find out who was helping him. The diary had some good information in it. Someone was trying to stop them from continuing with their investigations, perhaps they were getting too close to the truth from all those years ago…..

A really good read, had me hooked and I found it more interesting as the plot thickened. Nice and creepy in places. 5 star rating from me.

A fantastic new voice in Australian mystery fiction, ASYLUM is the brilliant debut by Jack Adams!

Three things grabbed me about this book - one, the awesome cover and dark title; two, the thrilling rundown of its description; and three, it is Australian! Hailing from down under myself, finding authors from my part of the world with the ability to captivate and thrill readers with the ease of such seasoned writers as Mark Edwards and Val McDermid, is like striking gold. They truly are few and far between...or they simply disappear after a few books, never to be seen again. It is my fervent hope that Jack Adams remains firmly entrenched on the market for years to come.

The story begins with a haunting Prologue consisting of just five lines :

"Something happened here.
Behind these walls, in these rooms, on the grounds, at the river.
The inmate sketched it all - fine lines.
See there, in the negative space, the truth in the pencil strokes.
Then he was gone."

With these words, you just know you are in for one hell of an enthralling mystery. And I couldn't turn the pages or devour each chapter quick enough. It sounds almost spooky, and in a way, I guess it kind of is. But it's not a ghost story. It is about two boys and the friend they made through the boundary fence of an asylum. Then one day, he was gone.

Nate and Adam grew up together on the outskirts of Brisbane, although both were from very different backgrounds. Nate was from an anonymous working class family whereas Adam lived in the more affluent area, the son of a model once linked to a former Prime Minister and who drew the attention of the media at every turn. But as 10 year olds boys, they were best friends who loved exploring, imagining stories and enjoying the simplicity of their lives.

It was on one such exploration that they noticed a lone figure in white who always sat by the boundary fence within the confines of the River Park Lunatic Asylum. They watched him from their vantage point in a nearby tree as the man sketched relentlessly, and they imagined stories surrounding the man and other inmates of the asylum. It wasn't long before the boys struck up a conversation with the man, with incessant questions that the man happily answered in his own way. And soon, Nate and Adam found themselves looking for Joe each time they frequented the asylum boundary as the three of them became unlikely friends.

Nate and Adam spent as much time as they could there, as Joe regaled them with stories and insights - some of which befuddled them - and often sketched them. But he never told them why he was there. Still, Joe intrigued them.

Wondering what had led Joe to end up at River Park, regardless of whatever stories surrounded the asylum, Nate and Adam knew their friend wasn't insane. So why was he there?

But then one day, when they came to the boundary fence, Joe wasn't there. Each day they kept returning and looked for him but Joe was never there. He had gone.

Twenty years later, former police detective Nate Delaney was separated with a young daughter and was now setting up his own private investigation service. Adam Murphy was divorced and now a successful psychologist. Still best friends, the two men had just opened an office for their respective businesses with Jessica as their joint receptionist, whom Nate appropriated from his time in the police force.

Then one day, they receive a letter from a solicitor naming their childhood friend who had bequeathed them what Joe affectionately referred to as "expectations". The endowment was, in its essence, very Joe, as the men recall that he had once regaled them with the story of Pip from the Charles Dickens novel. Nate and Adam are speechless. They had not thought of Joe in long time. When had they stopped thinking about him, they wonder?

At the request of his wife, Joe has now been declared legally dead despite no body having ever been found and no sign of Joe since Nate and Adam last saw him 20 years ago. But the solicitor has a request of his own...and enlists Nate's professional services to find out what happened to Joe all those years ago - whether he escaped, or whether he was alive or dead. What ensues is an investigation that starts a chain of events discovering a mound of secrets that neither men knew existed as they both find themselves reminiscing about their childhoods...and their memories of their friend, Joe.

As their investigation deepened, the horrific atrocities uncovered were appalling. But someone doesn't want those shocking secrets revealed and will stop at nothing to keep them hidden.

But the secrets that the hollow walls of the abandoned asylum still held had been captured by Joe and a treasure map given to the then boys were to lead them to his sketches. If only they hadn't lost the map to a cycle in the washing machine all those years ago. Joe had trusted them with what they had seen as just a game and they owed it to him now to decipher the code he left them from memory and find out once and for all what really happened to their friend.

ASYLUM is a journey between these two men that we follow from childhood to adulthood and their search for the truth. It's like nothing else I've read and yet it is intriguing, compelling and completely gripping.

The characterisation of Nate and Adam was incredibly well-developed as they are not stereotypical in the way men are usually portrayed in fiction today. They are flawed and they know it. They are divorced - or in Nate's case, almost divorced - and yet they don't seek the next woman to warm their beds. Their relationships with their mothers are different and yet it doesn't define them. They are simply grown versions of the boys they were 20 years before when they befriended Joe. I enjoyed the quips between the two men, as well as those shared with Jess and Dan. They were fun and likable and I enjoyed being around them.

After the prologue, ASYLUM begins with the opening chapters weaving between "Then" and "Now". I love a good dual timeline narrative and the balance between each is perfectly executed as the story is fleshed out with impeccable timing at just the right juncture.

Aside from the ensuing mystery recounted in past and present and in Joe's diary, ASYLUM gives an insight into the difference in attitudes towards mental health and how they have changed. The appalling practices that would not be allowed today but were rife in days gone by and how patients were treated more like prisoners than people. Even to the extent where they are referred to as "inmates", a term usually reserved for those in prison rather than a hospital (of sorts).

When I requested this title, I wasn't aware that it was a series. Thankfully, it is just the beginning and after reading it I am now looking forward to more featuring this dynamic duo. We are given a taster of the second in the series STALKER in the notes at the end and I eagerly await this next installment of Delaney and Murphy.

An interesting and intriguing read, I thoroughly recommend ASYLUM - for its gripping story and the refreshing difference in setting, being in Australia - as Jack Adams skillfully weaves a tale of suspense and unravels it with the ease of more seasoned writers of our time.

I would like to thank #JackAdams, #NetGalley and #AtlasProduction for an ARC of #Asylum in exchange for an honest review.

Nate and Adam were best friends who spent time playing outside of the grounds of the 'Lunatic Asylum" in their town. Their friend Joe was always there to entertain them with stories, pictures. Both Nate and Adam knew that Joe was fin, that he shouldn't have been in the Lunatic Asylum but that he was. Then one day, he wasn't.

Twenty plus years later, Nate and Adam, still best friends, open their own office. Nat is an ex-cop, Adam is a psychologist. They are contacted by an attorney about an inheritance - that shocked them both - and set forth a series of events that lead to their childhood and their old friend, Joe.

Jack Adams writes a fast paced thriller - full of history and adventure. This seems to be the first of a series and I'm already looking forward to the next book.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Asylum by Jack Adams
Delaney & Murphy #1

BFF’s for life Nathan Delaney and Adam Murphy have set up in the same office. Adam is a psychologist and Nathan has left police work for private investigation and have decided to share a front office person named Jessica. When they find out that a man they new two decades ago when they were ten has left them some money they are surprised. They hadn’t really thought about Joe for years but for awhile they spent time on one side of the fence with him on the other spending time talking, sharing and being friends of a sort. Joe was never considered by the boys “insane” though he was on the side of the fence where the institution was.

This book moves between the past and present telling the story of the Joe’s friendship with two young boys. It also tells of the friends, now adults and still best friends, searching for what happened to Joe. Their search leads them down interesting paths of inquiry, introduces them to people that are good and to a few who are evil, exposes cruelty and inhumanity experienced in the asylum and reinforces the friendship they have shared for so many years.

What I liked:
* The friendship of Nathan and Adam
* The fact that both men have believable backstories
* That they are not cookie cutter heroes but flawed and dealing with real life issues
* Danielle, Jessica and the introduction of Kelsey
* Joe – a kind gentle man that deserved so much more
* The reality presented that bad things happen to good people for no good reason – I mean – I don’t LIKE it but I like that this book does not sugarcoat issues but presents them as they truly might have been

What I did not like:
* The administrators and workers in the asylum
* The sad reality of that life does not come with happily ever afters for everyone – and yet that is also what I found real about this book.

Did I like this book? Yes
Would I like to read more in this series? Definitely

Thank you to NetGalley and Atlas Productions for the ARC – This is my honest review.

5 Stars

Review featured at www.books-n-kisses.com

3.75 Hearts I have never read anything like this book which I found very amazing considering how much I read. But this book was different and kept me intrigued throughout most of the story. I saw most because there did seem some extra side stories that were a bit out of the flow of the book but even with that being said the story of Nate and Adam, as well as Joe.

I liked the relationship of the boys/men. As boys, Nate and Adam, became friends with Joe, a patient at the Asylum but years later as men Joe shows up again and there are a lot of questions.

I found this really enjoyable even if there was a bit that didn’t need to be added. I liked that the book didn’t make the patients into insane monsters. They were people who need help and shows them as lonely and kind.

Better than I thought.

Disclaimer:
I received a complimentary copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

This is the story of Nate and Adam, two young boys who find a very unlikely friend in Joe, a patient at a local insane asylum. As kids, they enjoy spending time with Joe, who tells them stories and draws wonderful pictures. As adults, they must unravel the mystery of what happened to Joe and why he disappeared.

On the surface, this is a solid mystery/detective novel. We have an interesting premise and an intriguing case to solve: where is Joe and why/how did he vanish? Nate and Adam are wonderful foils for each other and I think the author does a great job breathing life into these two characters. The plot was well-paced and the story was a good one... until the end. The end was just a bit too unbelievable for me. On top of that, it felt like everything was rushed in the last few chapters so the mystery could be tied up in one book. I feel like this novel would have benefited from a few more chapters. Which, honestly, isn't a bad thing. That means I wanted more!

As it is, it's a decent mystery novel and I would pick up another Delaney & Murphy mystery. Where this book shines is in the characters and I want to see what Adam and Nate can get themselves into next!

Interesting and Intriguing....
This novel ( I did at times wonder if it was part biography but this is cleared up in the authors notes at the end ) is set in Australia and features 2 men, now in their 30’s, life long best friends who when they were 10 played near an asylum!, 20 plus years on and Joe, the patient they used to speak to through the security fencing is back, and about to change their lives
The book then goes from past to present and endeavours to put together, with various clues, just what happened to Joe, why he was in the asylum and then a broader bigger picture of the horrors that went on there, and can justice be brought for the survivors
It gives good insight into how attitudes to mental health have changed and also just how horrifyingly lonely and scary it must have been for the ‘patients’, tbh they were more like prisoners
The 2 main characters Nathan and Adam work well and they have great rapport and lifelong friendship, some of the other characters then, to me, felt slightly weak in comparison
The time line of events is explained well and in a book where reader concentration was vital you were kept ‘in the picture’
I felt that maybe a couple of ‘add on’ sub stories were not needed but they didn’t harm the story or take
away from it just seemed unnecessary
The writing and style was on the whole good and the dialogue between characters if at times clunky was always understandable
A really different idea for a book and I look forward to the authors next book ( again written about in the notes at the end )
4 Stars

"Joe was their friend; the man they spoke to through the wire fence of the Lunatic Asylum, and 10-year-old best friends, Nathan Walker and Adam Murphy, knew he wasn't insane. Then, one day, Joe was gone.

Now hitting their thirties - jobs and divorces in their wake - ex-cop, current P.I. Nate and psychiatrist Adam decide to share office space and a receptionist. That's when the letter arrives advising them that they have received 'Expectations'. A quaint, old-fashioned bequest delivered by a solicitor which amounts to an inheritance for two boys - left by Joseph O'Connell, a missing-believed-deceased former patient at the River Park Lunatic Asylum."

Dun, dun, DUN! I know you need to know what happens next!

What a delightful and well-written story this is. Two boys finding themselves becoming sort of friends with a man with a strange past. The story shows how easily we can make friendships if we try and see in other people what really matters. Joe is locked up in an institution; the boys have all the freedom in the world? Or do they? Nate can pretty much do what he wants but would love to have some more attention, and Adam practically lives in the golden cage his mother built for herself and her son.
Years later, as Nate and Adam are working together as private investigator and psychologist, they try and find Joe again... meanwhile learning a lot about themselves.

Very nice rounded characters, lots of atmosphere and well-written! I liked it to learn some new words - 'message bank' for 'voicemail' is my favorite!

I hope to read more of Jack Adams soon.

Thanks to Netgalley for this digital review copy.

# Asylum # Netgalley
Wow wow wow, I really enjoyed this book. When you look st the title I think a little bit of us assume tinged with ghosts etc. Nothing could be further from the truth. 2 young boy befriend joe from one side of the fence at the local asylum. No give aways except when Nate & Adam grow up the are faced with with a task and that’s to find Joe. It’s a book of twists and turn with a few unexpected twist. I really lost myself in this book. I loved the characters Nate &Adam also Joe extremely well written a really really good book

I have what some would consider to be an unhealthy obsession with asylums, personally I think it’s more to do with having spent many years working in psychiatric hospitals. I spotted the cover of Asylum by Jack Adams on NetGalley and then I read the book description, immediately I knew it was a book I had to read come hell or high water (despite the self-enforced NetGalley ban I might add). Normally I’m one of those readers who likes a book to have an immediate impact on me, whether it be a gory crime scene, or a shocking opening I need something to grab my attention from the start. Unusual for me but this book had neither, what grabbed my attention was the promise of a mystery, and the need to know one patients backstory and his experiences of living within the walls of the asylum.

The book opens with the introduction of Nathan and Adam two young boys who befriend one of the asylum’s inmates Joe, but then one day he just disappeared. Fast forward twenty years and the boys are all grown up, Nat’s just started up his own business as a PI and Adam’s a well respected Psychologist. When the men receive an inheritance from Joe, they find themselves investigating Joe’s disappearance. Adam and Nathan are well developed characters who I couldn’t help but warm to, each has an interesting and very different backstory. The author's depiction of their close friendship is spot on, as the reader you get a sense of how deep their friendship is from their dialogue which captures the humour and banter only life-long friends can have.

Asylum is narrated in now and then chapters, the ‘then’ chapters were the ones I found the most unsetting as the boys memories of Joe are innocent, they take him at face value, unaware of the subtle signs that suggest Joe is being mistreated by the very institution that should have been there to protect him. This book is one that centres on the mystery of joe’s disappearance, so the pace felt slower to my usual type of read. I really enjoyed Asylum it made for a quick read, but unfortunately when all was revealed I wasn’t surprised, which was a shame. Definitely worth a read if you are looking for a mystery that isn’t too complex