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.

Claustrophobic Tale..
The fifth Enora Andressen thriller finds the world amidst a terrifying virus. When Haydn develops symptoms, Enora and her son need to do everything they can to save him. But, at what price? Set amidst the Covid pandemic, this a contemporary, powerful and claustrophobic tale.

For readers new to this excellent series from Graham Hurley, here's what you need to know. The central character is Enora Andressen, an English stage and screen actress in her early forties. She is in remission from a brain tumour, lives in Holland Park and is in a platonic relationship with a former cocaine baron, now a 'reputable' businessman, Hayden Prentice. He is the father of Enora's son Malo, the product of a drunken fling on a yacht moored at Cannes a couple of decades earlier. Like 'Bazza' MacKenzie, the memorable anti-hero of Hurley's magnificent Joe Faraday books, Prentice - nicknamed HP or 'Saucy' - has his tribal roots in the violent world of Portsmouth football supporters.

Intermission is, I am sure, the only novel I have read so far that has, as its spine, the Covid-19 pandemic. The action begins in that fateful early spring of 2020, and Hayden Prentice learns that one of his old friends, a former bent copper known as Fat Dave has been laid low with the virus and is in the local ICU, and not expected to live. Visiting is, of course, completely off limits, but the sight - via a video link -  of his friend expiring amidst a sea of tubes and monitors chills HP to the bone. He travels from his Dorset manor house and summons Enora down to Portsmouth, where they have been given the use of a shabby flat owned by HP's solicitor.

Fat Dave dies, and the newly announced lockdown measures prevent HP from organising the kind of send-off he was planning. Then, another bombshell. HP contracts the virus himself but refuses point blank to go into hospital. Enora has previously learned, via Malo, that due to the collapse of an insurance business he has set up, HP - formerly awash with the money he made in his criminal days - is in serious financial difficulties, but trapped in the claustrophobic flat Enora and Malo have no option but to buy in private care, involving  a rotating shift of nurses, the attention of a consultant, and  specialist medical equipment. The cost of all this is going to prove ruinous, but Enora is told by a violent psychopath called Wesley Kane - a sometime employee of HP - that before the virus laid him low, HP had a little investment plan. A plan that didn't involve the risky world of insurance, hedge funds or commodity futures, but one where huge percentage profits are almost guaranteed - class "A" drugs. Back in his Dorset mansion, HP has kept a substantial stash of cash - in the proverbial used notes - and his housekeeper Jessie delivers this to Enora.

It seems that there is a woman in town named Shanti who has a long history of drug dealing. The restaurant she runs has gone bust, the power has been cut off, and she is hungry for money. Despite her attempts to run a straight business, she has retained contacts with the wholesalers of the ever-popular pharmaceuticals, and Enora pays her a visit.

There are complications, however. Enora meets Dessie Wren, a serving police officer and former colleague of the late Fat Dave, but rather more honest. He makes it very clear that the Hampshire police have not given up on their long running campaign to nail Hayden Prentice for his past misdeeds. To add to the woes of HP - and those close to him - someone whose father died as 'collateral damage' in a drug deal that went wrong is out for revenge.


There are so many good things about this series (click the links to read reviews of the earlier books Off Script, Sight Unseen and Curtain Call). Graham Hurley is a brilliant storyteller and a man of great learning and wide interests; as if the Joe Faraday books, the Jimmy Suttle series and these books are not sufficient evidence of that, he also writes superb military history thrillers like Kyiv. Enora herself is a wonderfully nuanced character. There is nothing remotely criminal about her, but through loyalty she is drawn into the murky world of Hayden Prentice, rather like Chandler's character who finds that, “down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid."

The best contemporary English crime writers always give us an almost palpable sense of place; Christopher Fowler gives us London, Phil Rickman draws us into the haunted borderland between England and Wales; Chris Nickson has us treading the cobbles and breathing in the dense air of industrial Leeds, while Jim Kelly leaves us with the quiet menace of the Fen country. Graham Hurley has a recurrent major character in many of his novels, and it is the city of Portsmouth itself. Enora muses:

"It's an island community. It's a bit cut off, a bit claustrophobic. It seems to expect the worst, and I get the feeling that it's rarely disappointed, but for all its stoicism, it remains oddly upbeat. It also has a long memory. The thirst for a fight evidently lies deep in the city's DNA, and I get the feeling the Pompey tribes have been picking quarrels for ever. Tim, my thespy friend, is very good on this. First, he says, Pompey's finest went to sea and took on the Spanish, then the Dutch, and then the French. Trafalgar was a great moment, a really tasty ruck, and then came two world wars and shoals of sneaky U-boats. The monument on the front, visible from this flat, tallies the thousands of lives lost, but even so the city has never abandoned its passion for lots of blood and lots of treasure."

Intermission is published by Severn House and is out now.

This is book 5 of the series and so usual series rules apply. The characters do have a bit of a backstory so if you want the very best from them, you'd do well starting from book one and reading in order.
First though, a warning. This book is set in the days of covid. Covid is front and centre, warts and all. We start the action on the day BoJo issues his stay at home order. And it all goes a bit downhill from there. This means that, for some people, it might be a bit too soon. I'm not trying to put you off. I've not had as bad a time of things as most but even I struggled with some of the very graphic things described. Harrowing just doesn't describe...
But the thing that got me through, the thing I absolutely LOVE about this author is that this book is predominately set where I live. Good old Pompey - or Portsmouth to give it its proper name! I get excited when he describes somewhere I know. Especially when it's "off the island". He also manages to capture the real Pompey. The place, the people, the football team. The whole shebang. And this book, unlike the previous in series, is set pretty much wholly here. Gunwharf, the beach, the pier, the common, the list is endless. I "saw" every place in my head. Easy really as I have walked more round my home city more this past year than I have in all the years that came before. I'm 51 now and moved here when I was 7. You do the math!
I digress. But you see how excited I get! I was gutted when the author ended his Faraday and Winter series, also set here if you are interested.
In this book we follow Enora as she faces a whole new set of difficulties. Not just the fact that H, her ex, goes down with a bad bout of covid as he is visiting the widow of an old friend who had already succumbed. But he refuses to go into hospital. Now, no offence, but I don't blame him there. So it is up to Enora and their son Malo to arrange round the clock medical treatment for him. But that don't come cheap, and the money is dwindling... But if that wasn't enough to contend with, a face from the past rears its head up and causes a whole other world of pain...
I love this series, and not just for the (occasional) setting of Pompey. I love the characters that the author has created. And the situations he keeps putting them in. The challenges, the way he keeps them on their toes, dodging the curve balls he peppers them with along the way.
All the way through you are reminded of the things that happened during the first wave of covid. The road blocks, the ghost town feeling, the police patrolling people who are breaking the rules, clapping for the NHS. It's all here, which is why it might be too soon. And punches are not pulled with the effects covid had on the body in the early days. The vulnerable. Yes there are a few things I am not 100% sure are quite 100% right but it's fiction for goodness sake so I guess a smattering of poetic license should be allowed.
All in all, an emotional, harrowing, but at the same time satisfying read which I did enjoy all told. A worth addition to an already impressive series. Roll on next time.
My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

I have always enjoyed the author's Faraday & Winter series. I was aware of three other series and reviewed one of these books - "Limelight" featuring a middle aged attractive french lady Enora Andressen who is an actress. I enjoyed this very much and this latest book is also excellent. This is becoming one of my favourite series.
Set at the start of the covid pandemic. Enora is enticed away from her London home to Portsmouth by her son Malo's father. Hayden Prentice known as H was once a successful drug baron. Now retired and wealthy he wants Enora and Malo to accompany him as one of his oldest friends, the corrupt ex policeman Dave Munroe is hospitalised with the virus and in Intensive Care on a ventilator.
When Enora and H visit Dave's partner Cynthia a video call to the hospital is very shocking and very soon Dave is dead. A distraught H with Enora and Malo sharing a small unpleasant Flat courtesy of H's solicitor are awaiting Dave's funeral. H is determined to invite all their old friends, despite Enora's warning about limited numbers allowed at funerals.
Then H comes down with the virus. He is determined not to go into hospital and die like Dave. He has convinced Malo that H's cash savings can be increased through underworld contacts in the drug trade. Can Enora prevent a catastrophe as she comes up against a variety of local characters? Who can she trust and who is trying to kill a bedridden H and why?
A wonderful read very highly recommended. I look forward to the next book featuring Enora.

Thanks Netgalley and the Publisher. I have not read anything from this author for a while and I shall be changing that. Fast paced read, good characters and an even better storyline.

Thank you Netgalley and Canongate Books for the eARC.
In the midst of the Pandemic, Enora goes to Portsmouth to help take care of H (Hayden Prentice, the father of her son Malo), who has caught the virus. Unbeknownst to her, H is in financial trouble, but having seen a video of a good friend dying of Covid in the hospital, he refuses any talk of calling for an ambulance. Lenora has to come up with ideas to pay for his extensive and super expensive home care as well as find out who is trying to kill H.
I really like Enora, she's a feisty woman who really fights for and takes care of her loved ones. At first I wasn't sure about reading this book in the series, because I am (like everyone else) sick of Covid, but
so glad I did. I'm invested in the series and the main characters have really grown on me, plus I love the setting of Pompey.
Definitely recommended.

I have included notes to the publisher explaining my reasons for finding this book a great disappointment and not worthy of my expectations of Graham Hurley.

This is the fifth in this new Enora Andresson series that Graham Hurley has written in a phenomenally short period of time - barely a couple of years and yet I look forward even more eagerly to each one.

The characters develop more every time and I love the harking back to Portsmouth and the bad old days of Faraday and Winter.

This book deals directly with COVID and effect of the pandemic and is all the more accurate for it. It is tightly written, tense and atmospheric. A masterly book written by a masterly writer at the top of his game.