A Cold Grave is a police procedural that focuses on 2 cases at once - one a boy who goes missing and the other 2 criminals that break out of a hospital. One of these criminals is a serial killer.

The story starts with a dog hunt/man hunt for the two men. That was interesting and sucked me right in.

Evan, the boy lives in a boys home run by Caroline. She says he’s run away before. The first part of this storyline was brutal… but felt abruptly cut off and moved to the main part of what happened. I feel like there could have been a little more information here (about the weight(s). But the rest of this plot line was good.

The main bad guy is Jimmy and he has moved in with Melissa . This storyline is pretty gruesome and Melissa is party to some heinous acts. In she a victim or his accomplice?

This was a very fast read for me - 2 sittings. I just kept wanting to know what happened next - well, except the gruesome parts… I did skip any, but was concerned I might need to.

Overall, it was a great book. It is the 3rd in a series, but it was my first book by this author. I was concerned about that, but this book can standalone,IMO. The only other point to note was that I didn’t care of much of the dialog between people. It felt rigid or something, not quite natural.

I’m giving this a 4.5 stars rounded down to 4 only because I don’t feel like it’s quite 5 stars. I will look at this author’s other books.

Thank you NetGalley for the advanced copy. .

Always enjoy finding a new British Police Procedural. This did not disappoint. Looking forward to the next

4.5⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️


This can be read standalone but if you want to read and understand the whole thing it should be probably read the rest.
Most of the story is plotting revenge . May contains some triggers as sexually abuse and drugs .

Writing style style was a definite great on this .


❤️shaye.reads

This was a well-written and well-constructed mystery. I like the protagonist DCI Danny Flint and his team, and the author's background as a police officer and investigator definitely helped to add gritty reality to the plot. Some reviewers have commented on the violence and the gore, and it is definitely not for the squeamish or faint-hearted. But this is the reality for police officers and the forensics teams that work to bring justice to victims, and if we look away, then we help to perpetuate the conditions that allow such horrors to happen to children.

Brilliant! I love a good thriller / whodunnit and this certainly didn't disappoint. Fast paced and very difficult to put down. Highly recommend putting aside a weekend and racing through this one!

When I started reading this book I didn't realize it was the third book in a series. Having not read the first and second book, I was reluctant to dive in to this one, assuming I would be lost on some parts. I am happy to day that A Cold Grave is a fantastic read, even as a stand alone.

This book alternates between two narratives, two separate plots. I kept expecting them to intersect at some point, but they never did, which was slightly disappointing. The only commonality was that they were being investigated by the same district.

DCI Danny Flint returns from his honeymoon and is immediately thrown into an investigation into the murder of an 11 year old boy. The investigation moved at the perfect pace, never feeling dragged out or rushed. Not long into the story it becomes clear that there is much more to this case than just homicide.

Jimmy Wade has broken out of prison and is on the run. He skillfully evaded capture with the assistance of Melissa Braithwaite - a prison romance that turns into a nightmare.

Negus does a good job depicting the devolution of Melissa's psyche as Jimmy continues to use and abuse her on his murderous quest for revenge. With the exception of Melissa, I did not feel invested in any of the characters - not even DCI Flint.

What the book lacks in character development, it makes up for in plot twists and surprises.

I would recommend this book, and plan to circle back to the first two books.


*I was given an ARC in exchange for my honest review of this book.*

This is the third book in this series and I have read the other two. Trevor Negus is one of my new favourite writers, and I have really enjoyed the series so far. The series is set is the 80s and the main character is Danny Flint. Throughout the series the author has carefully built the backstory of the characters, as I have read the other books in the series I am not sure how this would work if you had not read the previous books, as there are references to events and characters from previous novels. The author works hard to build a unique plot and this is hard with the amount of novels within this genre, and I have read a lot! I would certainly recommend the novel and the author and would be excited to read more books in the series. If you like crime thrillers, try it you will like it!

The first book I’ve read by this author and the third book in the DCI Danny Flint series. Unfortunately I just couldn’t finish this book 😕 it was extremely dark and the storyline I found to just be too graphic and upsetting for me, I will read more by this author as it was just the storyline that i didn’t like .

Thank u netgalley for another new author to follow.
Danny and his officers are called to a murder dump site where young Evan Jenkins is discovered. The officers not only need to find out what has happened to Evan but they are also trying to find escaped convict Jimmy Wade.
Bad things were happening to Evan, while most of the other boys at the home where Evan was staying disliked him because they thought he was getting special treatment.
Jimmy was busy torchering and killing prison guards, and abusing his girlfriend.

This story was not something I wanted to read as it had content which was disturbing to me. I chose not to read more than a few pages of the book. I gave it three stars so as not to be mean.

A Cold Grave is the third instalment in the DCI Danny Flint series, part of the Nottinghamshire Major Crime Investigation Unit. Lots of twists and turns and a gripping read!

This book wasn't for me, minimal suspense or psychological insight & overwritten. The relationship between Danny & his wife Sue made me laugh - it's like a Disney idea of marriage. No one speaks like that... Ever. Won't be reading the rest of the series.

This book is part of a series and having not read the previous instalments, I was somewhat confused by the relationship between some of the characters. The story is in fact 2 parallel stories and one was fast paced and resolved without too much fuss but the other one seemed to drag and get lost in details that ended up grating on my nerves a little, especially with the too much description of the snipers’ guns. The last 10% of the book seemed to drag on for too long thus spoiling my appreciation of what could have been an enjoyable read.

Thank you for the opportunity to read and review this book. This was a little much for me in terms of violence and illegal behavior with children. I also felt like the story wrapped up at 75-80% and because of that the last chunk felt unnecessary. I did enjoy the dual plot lines because it kept me invested the whole time.

Third in the series, definitely the best - this one just keeps getting better! Pager turner all the way to the very end - with evil bad guys, and relatable good guys. The author definitely spends time letting you know just how evil the bad guys/girls are, gives equal time so you are just as eager for them to get caught as the detectives are. Strong interwoven plot, and a lot going on that all interweaves and works together - read it in a day. Can't wait for the next one!

Triggger warnings - Sexual abuse, Child abuse, Child sexual abuse, drugs, rape.

An absolutely thrilling read. A police procedural with very disturbing events unfolding through out the book. Perhaps not for the faint hearted reader.

When the body of a young boy is discovered at a secluded beauty spot in Nottinghamshire, the post-mortem reveals he had been sexually assaulted and then suffocated. Chief Inspector Danny Flint and his team are determined to find the perpetrator of this horrific crime and their investigation leads them into a murky world of child exploitation at Children’s Homes across the county. If you are a fan of solid police procedurals you will really enjoy this story. I think it helps to have read the other books in the series to get a better feel for the characters and a return of a baddie. Good character development, some interesting twists and an ending that makes you think there will be more ahead for Danny Flint. Thank you NetGalley for the advanced readers copy for review.

I think this book will be enjoyed by those who love police procedural suspense series such as Wire in the Blood
I have not read books 1 and 2 but I was able to get into the flow of the story and understand the characters from the get go. The story was fast paced and interesting, flowing between two plot points. One is the death of an 11-year-old boy. A trigger warning: the rape and murder of a child is never easy to read about. The brutal killings by a psychopathic serial killer was the other sub-plot and that too had its difficult moments.
There was a good balance of male and female characters especially in the CID. There was an interesting ending that hinted at a "bad guy" waiting in the wings to make a comeback...
Overall, a good read, but not for those who like light hearted cozy mysteries alone.

This is a disturbing thriller that will have you turning the pages as quickly as you can to find out the answers. I was hooked from the first page until the last!

I had not come across Trevor Negus and his DCI Danny Swift novels, and it was only a browse through Netgalley that brought it to my attention, and I am glad I found it - but sorry to come late to the series, which began with Evil in MInd, and was followed by Dead and Gone. The three books all came out in May this year from Inkubator Books, but A Cold Grave was first published in 2018 with the title A Different Kind of Evil, from Bathwood Manor Publishing, which seems to be no more. I am glad that Inkubator have picked up the torch and are running with it.

I have to say that the police procedural genre is my absolute Alpha and Omega in crime fiction, and chancing upon a new (to me) series is a 'punch the air' moment. The acid test of course, is deciding if the book is any good. I think police procedurals are harder to get wrong than most genres, but it does happen. I am happy to say that Trevor Negus does most things right in this novel, and so he hasn't dropped the Ming vase to shatter into a thousand pieces. The book is set in 1986, so in one sense it is Historical Crime Fiction, but only the absence of mobile phones stands out as a major difference between then and now. One of the elements that make this novel work so well is the sense - and continuity - of place. We certainly aren't in the most romantic or obviously atmospheric part of Britain, but Negus knows Nottinghamshire like the back of his proverbial, and so he should; his bio reveals:

"In 1975 Trevor joined the Nottinghamshire Constabulary as a Police Cadet, becoming a regular officer in 1978. As a uniform constable he learned his craft in the pressure cooker environment of inner city Nottingham which at that time had one of the highest violent crime rates in the United Kingdom.

During a varied thirty year police career Trevor spent six years as an authorised firearms officer and sniper, before transferring onto the CID. He spent the last twelve years of his career as a detective, becoming a specialist interviewer involved in the planning and implementation of interviews with murder suspects."

One of the most notorious places in Nottinghamshire is Rampton Secure Hospital, and it is here that the story begins. Two prisoners escape, after inflicting serious violence on several staff. One is quickly tracked down, but the other, Jimmy Wade, gets clean away, almost certainly helped by a member of the public with a car. Wade is a seriously deranged psychopath, and every day he remains at large is a day of anxiety for Detective Inspector Danny Swift and his team.

Swift has something else on his plate, though. That ever-reliable participant in murder enquiries (real and fictional)  - a dog walker - has discovered the decomposing body of a boy. The boy is soon identified as Evan Jenkins, who has been removed from the 'care' of his mother, a drug addicted prostitute, and placed in a care home called Tall Trees.wift has a bad feeling about the couple who run the home - Carol and Bill Short - and he connects them both to a drug ring and - even worse - a ring of paedophiles  whose members include several civic dignitaries and influential businessmen. Meanwhile, Wade's whereabouts remains a mystery.

Unlike Danny Swift, we know that Wade is living in a remote cottage on a country estate, aided and abetted by his girlfriend Melissa Braithwaite, who is drawn to him by a poisonous mixture of fear of his violence and the worst kind of sexual attraction. Wade has a revenge mission he hatched while under lock and key - the abduction of two prison officers who had given him a particularly hard time in Rampton.Danny Swift's hunt for Wade and the paedophile ring responsible for Evan Jenkins's death is played out against an impressively authentic geographical background - the Nottinghamshire towns of Retford, Newark and Mansfield. A police procedural this may be, but Dixon of Dock Green it certainly is not. It is dark, and sometimes frighteningly violent, but always compellingly readable. A Cold Grave is out now.