This is part of a series
It is a slow burn . All of the characters are interesting. There are many of them
There is so many characters and so much action that it can become confusing

This is the first book I have read by this author, but it certainly wont be the last!

Engaging, with wonderful character development throughout, and a storyline that had me hooked, I thoroughly enjoyed 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.

A Sizzling Storyline…
A magnificent stately home, eleven guests, a party and a murderer. The launch of a new venture brings guests to a mansion in the countryside of Hertfordshire. Amongst the seemingly glamorous crowd lie secrets and scandals of grander proportions than the house itself. When a helicopter crashes it soon becomes clear that it was no accident. With a plethora of suspects and an intricate plot this is a wholly enjoyable mystery with a deftly drawn cast, red herrings aplenty and a sizzling storyline.

This book had me reading way into the night and I couldnt put it down. I couldnt figure out who the suspect was. Even though this is part of a series it can still be read as a standalone.

An international murder mystery which is set in England but with a global cast of characters. The story has twenty-first-century themes, with a nostalgic nod to classic murder mystery helped by the English setting. I have read the previous book in this series, but this reads perfectly as a standalone.

The cast of characters is plentiful, and some have points of view that illuminate the reader about their lives and motivations. There are many secrets, some of which impact the outcome, and all are complex characters.

DCI Jansen is the objective point of view, even though his personal life threatens to interfere with his professional detachment. The reader is allowed to draw their conclusions, but the twists are plentiful and the reveals gradual. The story keeps most of its secrets until the end.

Like Nordic noir, the story is atmospheric and intense with elements of psychological suspense.

I received a copy of this book from 'Head of Zeus' via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

A fantastic read by a new author for me. I am converted as a fan and absolutely cannot wait to read more. This is unique and original. I have been pulled in and unable to put this one down.
I cannot say anything negative about this gorgeous book. it has been a fantastic read.

Even though this book starts with a dramatic helicopter crash, I really struggled to get into the action of it. It’s something of a locked room mystery, with the timeline rewinding to a couple days before the crash and a group of people gathering at an English country house preparing for the launch of a new tech widget they all have an interest in, whether designers or investors. It’s obvious from context that at least one of them has nefarious motives… but the reality is, they all do. It’s a question of which one of them is willing to kill to cover up their secrets.

With corporate espionage and modern-day slavery themes in the book - a Bangladeshi character almost killed in a factory fire is a major character - it can be pretty heavy going at times. It’s an international cast, with Dutch, Norwegian, Bangladeshi and English characters, and into this mix comes DCI Maarten Jansen, assigned to protect a Dutch politician whose outspoken stance on corporate working conditions has earned her a lot of enemies.

The problem is that I just couldn’t bring myself to care about any of the characters. Maarten himself barely seems to have any emotions, despite being surprised by one of the characters being an old lover and another one holding potential blackmail material over him. His wife Liv is delightful but barely gets any page time. And I’m not really sure who the protagonists were supposed to be. I quite liked Filip, the industrialist hopelessly in love with his movie-star wife but desperately afraid of losing her; Lois, the ethical inventor was also quite nice, but we barely got to spend any time with her, and she was so clueless about what was going on she frustrated me.

In theory this is a sort of locked-room mystery, but the reality is, there were a whole bunch of people coming and going. There were staff around all the time, most of whom never got the dignity of a name. The villain was one-dimensional and obvious from the start, attempting to seduce every woman and cuckold every man, and the secondary villain wasn’t a villain but a victim. Plus, the book teasingly set up Iqbal’s desperate hunt for his wife and then dropped a total deus ex machina at the end. The whole thing was a bit of a slog with characters I struggled to care about and an unsatisfying ending. Two stars.

An interesting and well developed thriller that kept me reading and entertaining.
Good plot and character development, plenty of suspence, a solid mystery.
Even if it's part of a series it can be read as a standalone.
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

I found this a quick and easy read. I hadn't realised it was part of a series but I thought it worked ok as a stand alone book and I would be interested to read further books by this author.

Thank you to NetGalley and Head of Zeus for my ARC.

I didn’t know that this was part 3 out of a series, but nonetheless it flowed as if it were a standalone. The characters are very fascinating and complex and have interesting backstories. „Into The Fire“ is a smart, compelling and character driven mystery. If you like yourself a bit of a slow-burn this ones for you.

Thank you NetGalley / Head of Zeus for providing me with this arc in exchange for an honest review.

This multi-viewpoint mystery starts with a bang - literally - as a helicopter crashes into the remains of a Roman amphitheatre, deep in the English countryside. We move through different timelines as the truth is slowly revealed: who was the real target and who committed the murder?

This appealed to me immediately as I love a group mystery a la Christie and since I work in tech and the weekend when the events take place was the launch of a new VR, this sounded perfect.

Sisters Lois and Ebba are, respectively, the brains and the face of Archipelago, a gaming company about to launch revolutionary VR tech. Their guests and backers are all attractive and successful and there is a lot of high drama as relationships unravel and tensions build. Unfortunately, for me there were a number of issues.

I found out after finishing the book that this was actually the 3rd (?) book in a series about the same police department but it works as a stand-alone. As a new reader of this author, I couldn’t quite work out where the reader was supposed be positioned: with the police officers or with the guests? If viewed as part of a series, then perhaps the allegiance with the police department would be more obvious.

I was confused why this was set in England when all of the characters seemed to be foreign. I think a setting outside the UK would make more sense. I also didn’t find the tech side of The supposedly revolutionary new product terribly convincing.

Overall, I can imagine this as a good holiday read, I just found the tone a little too high octane for my taste all the way through but particularly in the last third of the novel. There are so many multi-POV mysteries around at the moment that I’m starting to long for a 3rd person, omniscient narrative voice. But that could just be me.

Thanks to NetGalley and Head of Zeus for an arc of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

With a great sense of pace and clever reveals, this is a really well structured crime thriller. I only realised afterwards that it was part of a series, it could easily be read as a standalone book.

A helicopter falls from the sky, and suddenly the reader is whisked back to the day before, to learn about the events leading up to it. It's a gripping way to begin a book, and got me instantly hooked.

The third in Blok's DCI Jansen series; each book can be read as a standalone. I really enjoyed the previous book so was excited to dive into this one.

I have an instant fondness for books set in places that I know particularly well. Having grown up just outside St Albans, I was able to picture the exact location where this book takes place. And in a Christie-esque closed circle mystery way, almost all of the story takes place in one manor house.

Eleven people — each a success story in their field — gather in a grand house on the outskirts of the city, overlooking the Roman amphitheatre. They've been invited, several internationally, to spend the weekend celebrating the launch of a groundbreaking VR game, focusing on ethics throughout the supply chain while securing enormous financial deals.

There is a large cast of characters from the beginning, however I found them easily to follow as each one was distinct. The book utilises POV chapters from a number of them, which greatly enhanced the mystery as the cast of characters are all far more deeply connected than first appearances would suggest, and therefore each POV character gives insight into different characters. Everyone in this house has secrets, and the pace at which they're slowly revealed was practically perfect. Rachael Blok was juggling a lot of narrative balls in the air throughout this story, and I was half waiting to see if she would drop any of them, but that didn't seem to happen.

As with the previous book in the series, the number of coincidences that occur to connect the characters — whether during the 3 day narrative or as part of backstory — definitely pushes the suspension of disbelief. However the story was more than engaging enough for that to not be an issue for me.

One thing I'd say is to recommend not leaving large gaps between reading sessions. The sheer volume of characters, the amount of key things that happen, and the ever-changing suspicions and motives could be difficult to fully keep track of if things aren't fresh in your mind.

I've been meaning to go and read the first in the series — [book:Under the Ice|41089945] — since reading [book:The Scorched Earth|51156403] and am yet to get around to it, however this third instalment has moved that higher up my tbr list. Another great, meaty crime mystery from Rachael Blok.

This starts off with a bang, but I found it hard to get into - it was only in the last quarter of the book that everything started to click. However, it's this last quarter that kept me reading, wanting to know who & why. All the characters were linked by some degree of separation, which is something that I both loved & struggled with. It's very character driven, and while we only get the perspective of a few characters, we get to see everyone's secrets eventually and why they did what they did.

Sisters Louis and Ebba, and their partner Iqbal, host 8 guests in the siblings’ old country manor to celebrate the launch of their company’s ground-breaking virtual reality game. The guests are all stakeholders, and 3 days might be too long to keep all their secrets hidden. Louis and Ebba planned the perfect party, every single detail, including the presence of DCI Jansen. However, it is not long before tension build, secrets start to leak… and someone dies.

The story was so promising, I was interested in this book from the get-go. Blok made one of my most beloved tropes her own. The atmosphere was superb, and though this was a slow burner, I felt that the pace was perfect for the story development. I love multiple POV’s and Blok chose the perfect characters as narrators, we also get some flashbacks to a pivotal moment in the recent past. I enjoyed most characters, especially the contrast between the sisters’ personalities. I just wish that Iqbal and Marieke had lived up to their potential.

This is a book I recommend, even though its writing style wasn’t for me. The physical book comes out on June 1st, but the kindle version is available now! I have purchased it on its release day, and Blok intrigued me enough to check the first two books in this series!

Thank you, Head of Zeus, NetGalley and Rachael Blok for providing me with an advanced copy of Blossom and Bud in exchange for an honest review.

#IntotheFire #NetGalley

A familiar crime scenario of eleven people in an English mansion and one is killed – is there a murderer amongst them? Told from different character’s perspective in flashbacks as they gather to celebrate the launch of a new 3D computer game. The saga begins with a helicopter crash in the present and the various relationships and connections are then revealed in hindsight. Unfortunately, the story did not live up to expectations, with a lack lustre group of protagonists and lacking in suspense or tension, so only a two-star rating. With thanks to NetGalley and the author for a preview copy for review purposes. All opinions expressed herein are freely given and totally my own.

Really thrilling, intriguing and oh so engrossing. It’s like Agatha Christie in present day mixed with all the upheaval of immigration and the tragedy of what happened in the past and how vengeance can boil over into a chaotic mix of tragic, death and sometimes bad things do happen to people you hate. I loved the complexities in each character especially with the detective too. Absolutely gripping a must read.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Head of Zeus for an advance copy of Into the Fire, the third novel to feature DCI Maarten Jansen of the St Albans Police.

An IT company is having a big launch on Saturday so the major stakeholders have been invited to the owners’ country house for the weekend. One of the guests, a prominent Dutch politician, has been receiving threats so Maarten is sent to the Friday evening dinner for security and reassurance. What he finds is secrets and uneasiness.

I thoroughly enjoyed Into the Fire which is a compelling tale of secrets, lies, personal animosities and relationships and murder. The novel opens with a literal bang on Saturday afternoon. This is helpfully labelled “Now” and then it flips back to Friday evening, labelled “Then”. This is needed as the novel flips between the then and now on a regular basis, and, to add to the mayhem, it is told from various points of view, also helpfully identified at the start of each chapter. I would have been totally lost otherwise. Strangely this does not make for a choppy read once the reader adapts to the rhythm, but, instead, is intriguing. None of the narrators knows what is going on so it’s full of secrets from the past, speculation and emotion. What is even more interesting is that several characters do not have a voice, but have either a motive or a dislike or distrust of some others, so the reader is free to indulge in their own speculation and boy, did I speculate. Needless to say I got it all totally wrong, as the twists can attest, but that didn’t stop me, although I remained clueless until the end. That’s not say there aren’t hints throughout the novel, it’s just that I interpreted them wrongly, as the author intends.

Not being a techie I was apprehensive about taking on a novel based in that world, as so many times it all goes over my head. I can confidently state that I didn’t have a problem as both the technical and financial stuff is all broad brushstrokes that even I could understand. The novel is more character and emotion driven, universal themes for all. Even Maarten Jansen has skin in this particular game.

It should be noted that while the appearance of DCI Maarten Jansen would suggest that the novel is a police procedural it really isn’t. He’s more of a catalyst for the unfolding events than the protagonist.

Into the Fire is a good read that I have no hesitation in recommending.

I do love a mystery set in a country mansion. There is a party, a virtual reality game launch and a murder. The third in the DCI Jansen series but I haven't read the earlier ones but it really doesnt matter.

A unique take on a locked room mystery with a few cliches but plenty of atmosphere