This is my first German fiction and I cannot enjoy it fully. Maybe the plot is written in a way that I could not understand. Hence, I did not finish the book.

Nevertheless, thank you to the author, publisher and Netgalley for approving my request to review this book.

I recieved an electronic copy of this book via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

The prologue and the beautiful cover grabbed my attention and kept me interested in the whole story. I enjoyed the bantering between the characters, it made them have depth. The last chapter and the epilogue really made the book feel finished.

Great story. Well translated. I hadn't read the first in this series but that didn't stop me thoroughly enjoying this story. Looking forward to the next one

Alexander Hartung’s Blood Ties is the author’s second book in the Nik Pohl series. However, it can be enjoyed without having read the first.

Following events from the first book, Detective Nik Pohl now works privately, joined by two acolytes : Jon, an efficient hacker, and Balthasar, a pathologist (& his pet parrot). A lot of the humor all along the book stems from their interactions (let’s not forget the mandatory funny informer). A welcomed reprieve from the darkness of the main story.

A teenage girl, from a wealthy family, has been abducted, while being driven to her ballet lessons. The driver is dead. No usable clues. Later on, a ransom demand appears, but Nik Pohl doubt the case is this simple. After investigating all avenues available, he and his partners conclude that as much as four parties might have been involved in this abduction.

That’s when we realize we’re heading down a complex investigation, and that it is not your random Tatort episode.

And all of this just before our protagonists happen unto a second kidnapping.

Blood Ties is a fast paced mystery thriller with well-fleshed, and interesting characters. Dialogue flows naturally, and never feel forced nor wrong. Jon’s hacking is plausible. No Deus Ex Machinas there.

This book seems to set up Nik and his friends as the Munich answer to Edward Woodward’s The Equalizer. I’ll be there to see where it goes next.

Thanks to Amazon Publishing UK, Amazon Crossing, and Netgalley for a review copy of the book in exchange for an unbiased review.

A young girl on her way to ballet class .... her driver is shot and killed and the girl is taken. A young autistic boy walking with his mother ..... she is assaulted and the boy is taken. Yet a third boy has been missing .... no one even seems to be looking for him.

Nik Pohl, once a detective, now a private investigator, is looking for a missing link that connects these children. Unfortunately, every time he gets close to the answer, someone dies.

Drug lords, money launderers and criminals stand in the way of the truth, but Pohl knows his way around, and he’s determined not to let another child disappear on his watch.

BLOOD TIES is filled with page turning action. Although second in the series, I would highly recommend reading them in order. This does well as a stand alone, but I would have appreciated knowing more about Nik's background ... and his close friends. It's suspenseful from the start and nicely paced until the very last page.

Many thanks to the author / Amazon Publishing UK / Netgalley for the digital copy of this crime fiction. Read and reviewed voluntarily, opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.

Blood Ties is the second book in the Detective Nik Pohl Thriller series, set in Munich, Germany, but it is not necessary to have read the preceding novel before this one as their stories are pretty self-contained. Nik Pohl and his crime-fighting colleagues genius hacker, Jon, and pathologist, Balthasar, are investigating the disturbing case of two abducted children. However, there doesn't appear to be any rhyme or reason the team can find for them having being snatched and a motive is usually what they need to help them bring resolution to a case so they are stumped. With the three protagonists' expertise, they must unearth the reasons behind the kidnappings in order to identify and locate the culprit before they take another child from their heartbroken family. The three men investigative team couldn't be more different than one another but the dynamic works surprisingly well.

This is an absorbing, gritty read and once I began there was no stopping me. I felt the author did a masterful job of concealing the perpetrator's identity until the closing chapter; I read a lot of crime fiction and this is indeed a rarity. As someone who is in love with Germany, I enjoyed the Munich metropolis setting and the mention of Oktoberfest brought so many memories back to me as it is such a huge festival full of alternative people and artists. I can't think of a single other crime tale that is set within Germany. Much like all cities beneath the bright neon lights is a criminal underworld full of nefarious characters out to get what they can. It's an intriguing and engaging case moving at a swift pace and featuring an interesting and varied cast and is action-packed with humour interspersed throughout to lighten the dark topic. Many thanks to Amazon Publishing UK for an ARC.

I wish I'd read the first book in the series, Broken Glass, before reading this installment. It might have tipped the scales in my so-so reaction to Blood Ties.

First, the positive. The novel's ending provided a tidy resolution to what was a fairly messy plot. The dialogue was crisp and lively. The setting of Munich was nicely rendered.

My quibbles: Once again, it seems a writer has fallen into the trap of portraying high drama in a character's life as a stand-in for depth. Nik Pohl's emotions are all over the place, without any backstory to account for them. (There is a sudden, vivid scene involving suicidal ideation, which came out of nowhere -- until I read the summary of Book 1.)

And speaking of backstory, there is nothing to explain Nik's odd relationship to the other primary characters, Jon and Balthasar, and how each of them arrived at the peculiar life stations where we meet them.

I was also frustrated at the repetition of Nik's interior monologue (on how deeply he felt for the young kidnap victims, ad infinitum), to the point where I skimmed those passages, muttering, "Show, don't tell."

I kept reading because the author had piqued my curiosity, but there were times when it was a hard slog. I think I would have enjoyed it more if there had been a tight edit of the narrative.

Thanks to NetGalley for an advance readers copy.

Not having read any German fiction in the past I was unsure what to expect from this book. I was really impressed. The plot was good and until the last chapter I had no idea why the teenagers were being abducted. I loved the investigative team consisting of violent former police detective Nik, super-hacker Jon and Abba loving pathologist Balthasar. It would be hard to find a more mismatched group of men but somehow they seem to make it work. I will be purchasing more of this great author's work.
Review posted on Goodreads and Amazon

Another new author for me and what a read. Two children have been kidnapped. There is no ransom or clues so why? It is upto Nik Kohl, a very clever hacker and a pathologist who does things on his own terms. Between them they have to find the children and the reasons they were kidnapped. This book was a joy, plenty of action, lots of humour and a really evil head honcho. This book had me laughing, got my heart racing and had to keep on reading. I needed to know the truth. When all was revealed I was shocked. A really good read and almost five stars. I am now busy searching for more of this wonderful series.
I would like to thank the author, publisher and Netgalley for the ARC in return for giving an honest review.

I will leave a review on Amazon or B&N on Dec 31, 2019.

I received Blood Ties by Alexander Hartung from NetGalley and the publisher and this is my fair and honest review.

Suspense thrillers are normally one of my favorite genre's, having said that for me this book was very hard to get into. The book was well written, it was just so complicated and jumped from this character to that character i never could connect with any of the main characters in the book. I do want to thank NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book. Others may enjoy this book, thats why I always say everyone should make their own opinion and not rely on others thoughts on the book.

Extremely well written thriller. Nik is an intuitive detective/private investigator. With his hacker and pathologist they have all areas covered. It was impossible to guess the next move in the story line. Nasty villain, with long reach, I downloaded the first in the series after reading this one. Couldn't put it down!

I have started this book 5 times and never made it to the second kidnapping. There is no dearth of characters which also makes it hard to keep track of. I know it is written and translated from German but many of the words have not been translated and doesn’t make sense without the translation. Sorry but I just couldn’t get into it.

This is a well written story with a good pace and great characters, except there are too many of them due to a plot that's both strange and complicated.

A cracking police procedural. A quite straight forward one that is definately enhanced by the unusual setting of Munich. The city comes into its own as many of the tourist sites and familiar places are highlighted. What's nice is the sense of how proud the people of the city are of Oktoberfest.

Always sad to read about missing children ieven if they are fictional, but this is a complex and interesting case to get into. Glad these are being translated!