"Rain Will Come" is a thrilling debut novel by Thomas Holgate. It follows a troubled detective, Paul Czarcik, as he hunts a vigilante serial killer across the country. The fast-paced plot, combined with complex characters and a morally ambiguous storyline, will keep you hooked. Though dark and gritty, it's a captivating read for crime thriller fans. I would recommend this book.

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.

I wasn't overly impressed with the book but it wasn't bad. Detective Paul Czarcik pretty much runs rogue when it comes to finding a serial killer that no one else is believing in. When this serial killer comes knocking on Paul's door, Paul is going to do anything to get him. It was a good book I just had a hard time connecting to any of the characters and I felt like I was being told the story instead of being shown the story. Like I said, it wasn't bad just wasn't a great read for me.

In Rain Will Come, we find Paul a detective. He's always solved the mysteries quickly getting "his man" until now.

There's a double murder and it seems to be connected to a local judge. A catch-me-if-you-can game ensues and Paul must play if he wants to solve the case.

Going rogue, he accepts the challenge. But as the bodies pile up, he must come to grips with the fact that nothing whether it's the killer, the victims, or the rules is what it seems.

I love a good murder mystery, but unfortunately, I wasn't completely enamored with this story. This book was a little too graphic for my liking and a lot of the characters were unlikeable and had no redeeming qualities. The story also could have been told much quicker, which may have helped the reader enjoy the book more.

I love a good vigilante murder mystery! Daniel is in that grey area of being a criminal, but those he murders are predators themselves, so the reader can somewhat sympathize with him.

Czarcik is one of those old-school detectives who doesn’t follow the law so well himself.

This was a well written mystery/thriller. A bit graphic at times and that seemed to distract from the overall story. A decent debut novel from Holgate.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC!

Rain Will Come Thomas Holgate
4 stars
Considering this is a debut novel I really enjoyed it. Detective Paul Czarcik is entirely the wrong type, he drinks heavily, snorts cocaine but at the same time is incredibly fit considering he is about 50. He is one of those detectives who breaks all the rules but is always successful.
However when a serial killer starts to kill random victims in random places with no obvious connection even he is stumped. We, the readers are told right at the start who the killer is, a modern day Dexter, who has an incurable illness and only a few months left to live.
This killer, Daniel Langdon, chooses people who, in his eyes, deserve a horrible end. They include a judge who abuses his children, foster parents who treat the children in their care dreadfully and a priest.
Detective Czarnik manages to find a connection in a very clever way and not only finds out the identity of the killer but also connects with the killer’s wife, Chloe. He manages to work out the intended victims but is in a race against time to reach them before the killer does.

This book is fast paced and very readable. For me it dropped a star because it was almost too clichéd. Not only the hard-drinking detective who is still brilliant at his job but also a killer who is avenging the wrongs of others. However my main problem was the interaction between the detective and Chloe Langdon. This just did not ring true with me and detracted from the plot.
Although this book ended satisfactorily I think there is a potential further book with this character and if there is I would be very interested to read it



Dexter

Elite Book Group received a copy of the book to review

Unlike many mystery/thrillers, we know right off the bat who's doing the killing. We also know the detective trying to stop him. Yet, you can't help but sympathize with Daniel a bit - he might be a serial killer, but he's attempting to mete out justice to those who have done wrong and escaped. With a ticking time bomb in his head, it's a question of whether Czarcik or the tumor will stop him first. This was excellently written, and I loved seeing both points of view, and how the 'bad guy' is actually operating in more of a moral gray area. Definitely going to be recommending this one!

This was a pretty good detective story. I don't always love knowing who the 'bad guy' is upfront but it was okay for this one. The story played out well and I enjoyed it. Sometimes the thrill is solving the mystery - but this one it was nice to go through the story with the detective. Glad I gave it a try.

<i>A huge thank you to the author and publisher for providing an e-ARC via Netgalley. This does not affect my opinion regarding the book.</i>

This will not be to everyone's liking, due to the bad language, but it was a good solid read, and recommended.

Received an ARC from Netgalley in exchange for a honest review. I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

A good. Ipa bit hard to get into but I enjoyed it

A page turner for sure! A fast pace crime thriller. I'm impress with Thomas Holgate style being his first novel!

This book wasn’t the thrill ride it promised to be but I still liked it. In spite of his many vices, Paul Czarcik was a likable character. The serial killer’s identity is known pretty early on but the motives and methods behind the killings make for a pretty entertaining read.

I love a spellbinding procedural novel that keeps you guessing at every turn. This one did just that. The characters were rich. The story was propulsive. The plot was ever thickening and that ending made my jaw hit the floor. This one is being added to my best procedural list. Such an amazing story.

Some of this book is so very impressive.
The premise for one...rather than cop vs. serial killer that are both grey...these two are anti-heros but on the same side of coin. The serial killer only hunts down other criminals whose victims don't have justice.
The murders are extremely grisly and the plot is very well and logically plotted out. Reads like a film and so I am not surprised that the author is a screenwriter.

However and a very big however is this....

The psychologies of the cop and serial-killer were quirky but not quirky interesting but quirky unbelievable and although this might have worked in a crime manga it did not work at all for me here. Don't get me started on the femme fatale wife of the serial killer....a super cliche papercut doll albeit with beautiful eyes and lovely curves.


All in all this was somewhat entertaining with some very good pulp fiction writing but due to the incongruent and unbelievable psychologies was a bit of a bloody mess....pun intended.

Thank you to Netgalley, the author and Thomas & Mercer for an e-copy in exchange for my honest review. This book was released in April 2020.

this was a great mystery the characters were great and I really enjoyed trying to figure out who did it. The writing was really well written.

This synopsis definitely grabbed my attention, sounding like a fast-paced thriller I would love. As a debut, I was very impressed on the writing style and how the serial killer plotline played out, since we started the book knowing who the killer was!

For me, it was a bit too gruesome and shock and awe versus a well-written plotline. The voice was a little too harsh and blunt for me personally to LOVE the book, but I can see it being popular for a certain style of reader.

Thank you to Netgalley & Thomas & Mercer for an ARC of this title in exchange for an honest review.

Seeing that I received the book through Netgalley made me really happy, because the blurb got me curious! The book has a ton of ratings and gets around 4 stars, so I was hoping this would be a good thriller. As you can see I finished it in 3 days, and that's always something good, because I can't read that fast if I don't like a book.

Pros
Writing style: This was so easy to read. I can already feel it when reading the first pages. Since I'm Dutch, and not English, it's sometimes hard for me, but there are books out there that I can just rush through, and this is one of them. The writing style flowed for me and didn't contain a ton of difficult words.
Gruesome: When you write about a serial killer, it's inevitable to get in some gruesome details. This serial killer has something to say, is doing this for a reason, not just the thrill of it. So the ways he kills his victims is... quite original. The author will definitely throw the details in your face.
Characters: It's always a treat when authors can make you love the bad guy and not root for the good guy. That's exactly what happened in this book for me and it just makes me so happy, lol! The book doesn't contain a lot of main, or side-characters, but that's also what fit the story. The people that we did get to know, would get murdered 9/10 times.
Page turner: I was rushing through, and had the book finished before I knew it. This is a real page turner and it gets very thrilling toward the end so I just had to devour this book.


Cons
Plot twists: There is one major plot twist at the ending of this book and I had already guessed it, so I was a bit sad about that. It was just a bit too obvious. I think it's really hard to write plot twists that make sense, but that are hard to guess. There were some other plot twists and flashbacks that weren't too hard to guess either, so that would be my only con.


Overall
If you love mystery/thrillers you are in for a treat. This book is a real page-turner and I'm sure you'll be hooked in no time, not able to put the book away. Make sure you'll be able to handle gruesome details and before you know it you'll be rooting for the killer...

A very enjoyable read, highly recommended. Thanks to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for a copy of the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

My Rating : 4🌟
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Kindle/ Netgalley/ July2020
mabookyardchallengeJuly2020
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Thank you so much Netgalley for the gifted review copy which allows me to give you my unbiased opinion.
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*Trigger warning : Serial killers, Death and Gore*
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This book is a mix of sadistic thriller killer mystery novel that follows an ex-Chicago PD, Paul, who is now part of a new unique skills detectives Judicial Enforcement. Oh that blurb made me so happy I didn't even think twice before requesting this book.
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First, this book was so sadistical serial killery good, I was hooked from the first page. It's not a typical 'detective takes a case, cracks it, catch the killer' story, but instead the killer pays our main character a visit and baits him to catch him!
It's a double murder solving mystery that starts as a base for this plot, which then leads to a cat and mouse chase of a Serial killer who has the attitude to bait the catcher. Umm... If that's not an interesting plot, I don't know what else would be.
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Second, I really loved the way the characters and the scenes were placed in the story. Our detective main character Paul, goes on this merry go round trying to catch the killer, Daniel, while the killer's wife is filling the missing pieces for him! The crime scenes written were detailed, thorough and not less on any detail so it's very descriptive and realistic.
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Now coming to the characters and story, we get to see Paul as a character in both the timelines, his Chicago PD days and his current detective days, and the character arc he gets receives an appreciation. The support characters introduced were always in a necessary fashion that helps with the story development. The writing is really good and that helped with the imagination of the story even better. We can see the amount of research that went into the story with the kind of police procedural scenes that were written. The only thing that bothered me was the pacing or the momentum of the story. One chapter it would be a lot of c action, action, action, let's catch everybody' and some chapters were just filled with a lot of descriptions and explainations. And that ending was so satisfactory, I almost didn't expect that to happen!
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Overall, this story had amazing characters and character development, very good story line, amazing writing, lot of insight to police procedures, psychotic serial killer vibes, lots of action and slow - fast pacing. If you are not bothered by that, I think this is a solid novel to start your Police investigation/ detective story journey!