Well, I have to say WOW! Thomas Holgate's 1st novel is a thoroughly engrossing story of a dedicated policeman in pursuit of a serial killer. BUT, this is definitely NOT your typical police vs bad guy book. Our hero has a well earned reputation of doing whatever is necessary to solve the crime. This time, whatever necessary means the line between the two men becomes blurred. The tension ratchets up as the chase moves quickly and the law becomes less and less important while the killer's capture is the only thing that matters. The story has the basics of a great mystery/thriller mixed with the thrill of a great psychological battle between two matched egos.

This was a tough book to review, while I enjoyed the overall storyline and was gripped to the book, I struggled in a lot of places with the similarities between the two main characters, so much so I was convinced they was the same person at times.
It was gruesome in places and more graphic than had expected.

I voluntarily read and reviewed this book, all thoughts and opinions are my own.

An average detective novel, with no real detecting since the killer is known from the get go. More of a "chase" novel.

I received an ARC from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for my honest opinion.

DNF @ 4%. I usually try to give at least 25% before I DNF a book, but sometimes you know right away if you're not going to click with a story and that was my experience with this book. The first chapter was enough to make me not like the main character - mainly because some of the events remind me a lot of my father. The writing style didn't really mesh with me either. However, I will say that the reviews I've seen so far for this book are pretty positive, so this is probably just a case of not being the right book for me.

I really enjoyed this book. It kept me engaged and interested to the end, with lots of twists to make it interesting. The hero is a flawed cop hunting a vigilante. It feels like he’s one step ahead and yet I almost wanted the vigilante to succeed and finish the job and for the cop to get the girl. Fast paced, thrilling and at times graphically gory and a little highbrow, it was a good entertaining read right to the end.

I love a good cat & mouse story. A jaded, surly detective pursuing a psychopath story. In some ways this was a good fit, in other ways it didn’t live up to expectations. I feel it’s important for me to note right up front that this book is not breaking any new ground in the genre. Czarcik is like so many other surly over-the-hill detectives in detective novels. He likes booze, cocaine and hookers and doesn’t like following the rules. Nothing new to see here. The killer styles himself an avenging angel, a vigilante bringing justice to the helpless victims. Again there is nothing new here. So, if you aren’t bringing anything new to the table, you really need to give me a good chase.

Ultimately that is where this book failed for me, the chase. We find out who the killer is in the 3rd chapter and find out his whole plan about 40 pages after that. Once we know those two things, there’s not much left to do except chase him down and stop him, right? That was a very slow process, it seemed to take a long, long time. We spend about 275 pages on the first 3 victims, then rush through the entire last 2 victims and finally stopping the killer in less than 75 pages. We spent way too much time on the first half, not early enough time on the second half.

Another odd point for me was the writing itself. Technically, there is nothing wrong with the writing. The grammar and spelling are solid. The narrative is enjoyable. But the author seemed to occasionally throw things in that were just strange. And because they didn’t make sense, I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what he meant rather than enjoying the narrative. For example, in a single paragraph the author managed to change a single character’s eye color 3 separate times. First her eyes were described as deep blue, got it. A sentence later they were “more like opal than ice”. Um, okay, opal is generally iridescent though. I have seen blue opals, but they aren’t deep blue but then neither is ice. So is it deep blue? Or blue opal? Then two sentences later they were sapphire. Which again, is a totally different color than either deep blue or blue opal. So I spent about 10 minutes trying to figure out what color her eyes were instead of continuing to read. I think the author tried to get too fancy.

Two more minor gripes. First, can we stop giving people psychic powers but insisting they aren’t psychic? The not-psychic-but-kind-of-psychic “rush” that Czarcik gets was strange, never explained and didn’t make a lick of sense. At one point he is tipped off by someone mentioning how they wouldn’t want to be the insurance adjuster who has to come out to the murder scene. Although I have no idea why an insurance adjuster would be necessary at a murder scene but somehow this leads Czarcik on a long, winding path from insurance adjuster to….AH HA! Someone is keeping a secret from me….about insurance….sort of, but in the end not really. Very weird.

So, I know this sounds like a book I didn’t really like, and on the whole it was disappointing. But it did keep my interest. I did want to find out how it ended. I enjoyed Czarcik as a character. I enjoyed the writing. So overall, it was not a great book but it was entertaining and worth the read.

This book grabs you from the very beginning and doesn’t let you go. I couldn’t put it down. The author almost makes you feel bad for all the characters whether they’re “good” or “bad”. All in all a great read that has you on the edge of your seat.

Detective Paul Czarcik is good looking but quirky with a lot to hide. He is a loner with few friends and never married.

Detective Czarcik is also a great detective. As more victims are uncovered, he realises how little they know. People are dying around the country in ways that appear to be purposeful and brutal.

This is an intriguing crime investigation that keeps you involved with its unusual storyline.
Will justice be served?

Thank you Netgalley for sending me this arc. I will be reviewing this book in the near future with an honest rating and review.

This was amazing. This was something that had twists and turns . It’s captivating and I loved every page. Thank you Netgalley for this amazing read.

Rain Will Come by Thomas Holgate

Publication 10 March 2020

Detective Paul Czarcik works for the Illinois Bureau of Judicial Enforcement, a flying squad of investigators with cross jurisdictional involvement where and when it’s needed. He’s an arrogant, belligerent, and irreverent coke-using loner. He does things his own way, in his own time but manages to get results and outcomes that have meant he’s still in a job. In spite of his methods he is allowed run his own race.

Czarcik becomes involved in some cases where there don’t immediately appear to be many similarities but when he uncovers some information about the offender, and then has a close encounter with him, things get a lot more interesting.

The reader knows the identity of the offender, Daniel Langdon would normally be the man next door, whose behaviour is disinhibited by a medical diagnosis, resulting in him becoming a serial killer. His aim is to avenge the lives of people who have been wronged - his initial victims are a Family Court judge who physically abused his disabled daughter, and some foster parents who physically abused the children in their care.

The question is who will be next, but this is made more predictive when Daniel’s wife contacts Czarcik, and gives him birth a list of files for possible targets and also offers to aid Czarcik in his pursuit of Daniel. Can Czarcik trust her, or does this signal his undoing?

Czarcik is far from likeable in his hero role. In fact, I found him downright obnoxious, but he got stuff done and it was quite the wild ride! The violence inflicted through the book is quite graphic, but consistent the story. There was always a sense of unease as far as Daniel’s wife was concerned but Czarcik was aware and willing as far as any outcome from this relationship.

I enjoyed this book and recommend it for those who like thrillers with a healthy dose of policing drama, some gore where it’s deserved, and an ending that leaves you with an eyebrow raised.

Thanks to Thomas Holgate, Amazon Publishing and Netgalley for this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Rain Will Come by Thomas Holgate is a fast-paced crime thriller. It is about how the infamous detective, our protagonist, catches up with the serial killer.

It is a run-of-the-mill cat and mouse story, with encounters between the participants that keep happening throughout the race.

The character build up is excellent. Both the protagonist and the antagonist are shown in good as well as bad light.

I liked how his intuition guides the protagonist time-and-again to point in the right direction. Although I did expect the author to give a rational explanation behind it, to make it more believable.

Warning alert: The prose contains a lot of violent and descriptively gruesome scenes. So if you are not up for that kind of thing, you might want to give it a pass.

Disclaimer: Thanks to the author and the publisher for the ARC.

Verdict: Recommended.

I thought based on the description that this book would be something I really liked. But at the end of the day, it was definitely something that I didn't mind finishing, but not something I would say that I really enjoyed.

You have the cat and mouse game between a detective named Paul and the serial killer, Daniel. But you know who the serial killer is from the very beginning, which I feel like I lost something with. I usually like books for the suspense and the twist at the end.

I was also extremely uncomfortable with how graphic some of the scenes were in the book, it truly turned me off. I also felt like I didn't find any connection to any of the characters. It was a difficult book for me to read.

This book is different in that you know who the killer is in the beginning. I am usually not thrilled when authors do this but this book plows through your psyche. There are people being killed that have done terrible things. However, should Humans playing God, judge, and jury?
The characters are presented in a way that makes you like them and dislike them at the same time. The good guys are flawed and the bad guys have some positive traits.
A recommended read!

Holy shit I loved this book! It kept me riveted throughout the entire story and I found myself wanting more at the end!

A well written twisty turny cop novel. With terrible characters, characters you just know you'd hate in real life. These are my favorite kind of books, ones that make me feel either way about a character. It sucked me in and held my attention until the last page!

The writing is beautiful, story line was well done. I will definitely read this author again.

I was given this book in exchange for my honest review from Netgalley.

I love crime novels and this is my first time reading this author so I was pretty skeptical about if I would enjoy it or not. I shouldn't have been.

This book is so engrossing from the very beginning. It drew me in immediately and held my attention the entire way through. The characters are so well written and layered and the story itself was wonderful. I highly recommend this book.

4 stars

This was a pretty good twist on the whole "catch the serial killer" crime thriller as you know from the beginning who the killer is and it's more about the motivations of not only the killer, but the detective who has decided to pursue him. The detective himself is deeply flawed and works outside of the lines, but he still has a strong conviction of what true evil is. As the story develops, you find out some things about his own past as a rookie cop that helps you understand some of the conflicts that he's working through as he races to stop the killer. The victims of the serial killer add another dimension to this cat and mouse game as you have to decide whether they deserve what is happening to them. I found this book to be very interesting and well written, and was surprised to find out that this was a debut novel. Some of the violence in this book was a bit hard to read as it was fairly graphic, but I think it fit with the story. There was also an element of romance in this story that I'm still deciding if it was necessary/believable, but it did help wrap up the story at the end. In many ways, this book reminded me of film noir and I think it could make a very good movie, depending on how they handle the more graphic scenes. Overall, I very much enjoyed this book, and couldn't wait to find out how it would end. I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys a good thriller/crime novel, doesn't mind a little bit of violence, and finds deeply flawed protagonists to be interesting. Because despite his faults, I did like Detective Czarcik.

Thanks to #NetGalley, #ThomasHolgate, and #Thomas&Mercer for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A well written and absorbing story. Both the detective and the criminal in this book have layered character builds, they're more than what meets the eye.

On the shaky moral grounds that the crimes in this book take place, the author has done justice in voicing the opinions of both sides.

A compelling read with a handful of twists. Another crime novel you won't be disappointed reading.

Unfortunately this one wasn't for me. The synopsis of this book sounds absolutely amazing but personally it fell flat for me. At first I thought it was going to be a little too violent. Then I ended up finding myself hanging out for those action scenes because I was just so bored any other time. I wasn't a fan of having all the answers and just watching it play out. I couldn't connect with any of the characters, I found them all extremely overbearing. I also thought the romance felt very uncomfortable. The truth is I wouldn't have continued reading this through if I didn't feel obliged to finish it, in order to give it an honest review.