I gravitate towards books set in the 80s, and with this being on the cusp in 1979, I knew it was right up my alley. Hunting ex-Nazis, ex-con, and PI? Say less. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, it was just the right amount of suspense to keep me going.

I totally enjoyed this book but it would have been more enjoyable if I would’ve read the previous books! Having said that it is a fantastic book and I recommend it and it is a must read for sure! It is a page turner and you will love it from start to end! Thank you for writing such a great book!

This is the first book in the series that I have read and I plan to read the others. I quite liked the character of Colleen - a felon on parole working as a P.I is certainly an interesting concept! I always enjoy the format of a dual timeline and this was no exception, when it alternates with Ingrid's time at the Nazi camp. Overall, it was an enjoyable read.

I enjoyed reading this suspenseful historical story. This is my first book by this author which I look forward to reading more from in the future. I found this book to be past paced and well writtern. A story that is full of suspense, mystery and secrets. It is a hard to put down book that you don't want to miss. The author's use of details made the story come to life on each page. The characters are relateable and pulled me into their world from the start. I really enjoyed them and what they brought to the story. They made it an easy and entertaining story that I highly recommend.

San Francisco, 1978: Colleen, a convicted felon now working as a private investigator, has a new client. Ingrid has hired Colleen to find her adult nephew, who is allegedly in San Francisco. Colleen completes the assignment, but is bothered by the whole thing. As the story continues we learn there is a big part of Jewish History wrapped in this book. While I enjoyed this and will be giving it three Stars. This story is just not for me.

A solid and snappy detective/procedural novel, which delivers exactly what you expect it to – easy reading and an engaging plot – this one set in late 1970s San Francisco where Colleen Hayes, an ex-convict PI is dragged into the world of Nazi hunters searching for those who fled Germany in the dying days of the Reich. There is added complexity with various plot devices inspired by real events that occurred in WWII. The story is good – well paced and interesting, and the closing pages are a pow-wow of fast-paced action and a satisfying conclusion to the story. I must say though I was a bit incredulous that a convicted ex-felon has the clout to not only become an (unlicensed) PI, but also pull the favors she does from within law enforcement and move with impunity internationally. There was also perhaps a little too much mention of the cliched “jurisdiction” tugs-of-war between various levers of law enforcement and generic police talk. In all, a solid book which gives us what we expect. 3.5 stars rounded up. My thanks to Oceanview Publishing and NetGalley for the ARC. The book was released on the 16 August 2022.

Colleen Hayes, a private investigator in San Francisco, is mysteriously hired by Ingrid Richter, the senior vice president of First Trust in Zurich, to look for her missing nephew, Erich Hahn. At first, it seems quite easy for Colleen to complete her duty, but she’s so brainy to understand that there’s something else behind this story.
She has secretly inspected Erich’s hotel room and found out a gun and an envelope containing an ID card of an SS officer, Werner Beckmann, who was at Sachsenhausen. The story is intimately connected to what happened in Barrack 19, in Sachsenhausen, and to Operation Bernhard, a Nazi counterfeiting effort intended to ruin the British economy during WW2. Colleen undertakes this dangerous investigation and even risks her life, because the Aryan Alliance, a local neo-Nazi group, threatens her and also her pregnant daughter. This is what encourages Colleen even more to unveil all the hidden truth.
What complicates the story is the killing in the SF Tube of a woman and Erich is responsible for it and he is even linked to the killing of SS officer Kruger in Buenos Aires.. Erich, whose real name was Jakob Rosenstein, is actually vindicating the killing of his parents in Sachsenhausen concentration camp, and his journey takes him first in Buenos Aires, then San Francisco, and finally in Rome.
Colleen starts following his path and she is authorized by the SFPD to travel to Italy as a CI and thanks to her we are gradually revealed what lies behind this mysterious story. The ending is what really makes the story even more intriguing. I definitely recommend Max Tomlinson’s Line of Darkness to all thriller book-lovers, because it is a novel full of suspense and twists and nothing in it should be taken for granted.

Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this.

I read this unaware that this was part of a series, but found that this could still be read as a stand-alone.

Told from two views: Colleen Hayes is an ex-con, almost-license private investigator in 1979 San Francisco and Ingrid Richter in the 1940s who is arrested and taken into custody for interrogation at a concentration camp for political prisoners after her father an anti-Nazi protestor has been shot. Ingrid meets a young Jakob Klaus en route to the concentration camp and forms a connection with him, vowing to help him in any way possible.

The story moves between 1979, where Colleen is hired by Ingrid to find Jakob (who at this point is going by a different name), and the 1940s with Ingrid's earlier life at the concentration camp. In her search, she finds details do not add up and when she does find Jakob, he disappears again, leaving behind a dead body with an Auschwitz tattoo.

Colleen is left with more questions than answers, as her investigation leads her to Rome.

I really enjoyed this, and look forward to reading more in the series.

San Francisco, 1979. When a German businesswoman hires ex-con and struggling PI Colleen Hayes to find a missing relative she is supposedly in town to visit, Colleen thinks it’s a simple job. However, things soon turn nasty and Collen discovers that the woman’s “nephew” is linked to an international vigilante group hunting down ex-Nazis. Targeted by some right-wing thugs Colleen finds herself drawn into a bloody battle that has its origins in the War.

This is a very well written PI thriller with a good cast of characters and an interesting backdrop. The story moves along at a good pace and the flashbacks to World War II, and the horrors of the concentration camps, are well handled and are seamlessly woven into the story. The characterisations are credible and interesting, and have a good unvarnished feel to them. I particularly like Tomlinson’s portrayal of Colleen, who has a gritty edge to her, but always behaves in a credible manner. Her relationship with her daughter is unsentimental and believable and is well grounded in the 1970s milieu.

I thought that the story’s credibility was slightly weakened when the action moved to Europe, but not enough to stop Line Of Darkness from being an exciting, first class crime thriller. One of the best PI novels I read for some time.

Colleen Hayes is an ex-con, almost-license private investigator in 1979 San Francisco. She is hired by a German woman to find her "nephew" she was supposed to meet up with in the city. Colleen's search turns up strange links to Nazi hunters looking for revenge instead of justice and a Neo-Nazi group that threatens her and her pregnant daughter. Colleen follows the clues where they lead, which ends up being Italy. The story alternates between 1979 San Francisco and the mystery, and a concentration camp for political prisoners in 1942. I enjoyed this gritty mystery with its unique female lead, its nostalgic San Francisco late 70s setting, and, of course, the Nazi hunter storyline.

Darkness by Max Tomlinson is the fourth book in the crime series. Collen is a former felon and now a private investigator, supporting her pregnant daughter, while dating a police detective and trying to run her increasingly busy business. She is hired by a woman to find her nephew, which she does but the dead body of a woman on a train further complicates things and then Colleen’s office is burgled and her daughter is threatened at her home. As she investigates further the possibility of a nazi assassin being linked to a major criminal case further complicates things. As a result, Collen travels to Italy to investigate further and is caught up in a dangerous standoff. Set in 1979 in San Francisco, this is an enjoyable enough historic fiction tale that makes for a three star read rating. With thanks to Oceanview Publishing and the author, for an uncorrected advanced reader copy for review purposes. As always, the opinions herein are totally my own and freely given.

Thank you NetGalley and publishers for the book for an honest review.

I usually dont read detective mysteries and I figured to give this one a try. I didn't care for this one. I don't know if it was wrong book ,wrong time or what but, this turned out to be a dnf 30% in.

Line of Darkness Colleen Hayes #4
by Max Tomlinson

It's 1979 and Colleen's life is jam packed with moving into a dockside office, navigating the minefield of a surly, needy, eight month pregnant daughter, doing her PI work, and trying to fit in time to spend with her guy. When her PI business, which just employs her and under the table part time employee Boomer, a college going ex vet, takes on a missing persons job for a German business woman, Colleen gets the job done. But she's very suspicious about several things concerning the woman and her missing "nephew".

Turns out the body of a murdered woman, a huge case that Colleen had been involved in but has been ordered to stay away, and this German woman/nephew case could be connected. Being fresh out of prison you would think that Colleen wouldn't be able to get so much done in just about a year but she is as savvy as they come. And, by the way, you don't tell Colleen to stay out of anything because she'll be all in it in a blink of an eye. That's if she isn't already in it up to her eyebrows.

While there is a lot of ground work, paperwork. boring sitting in a car watching and trying not to fall asleep work, there is also international travel, and lots of action. Colleen is tough and not to be underestimated and her daughter takes after her. If Colleen's daughter ever gets over her sullen grumps (she kind of has good reasons), they could make a good team someday.

Thank you to Oceanview Publishing and NetGalley/Edelweiss for this ARC.

With "Line of Darkness", Max Tomlinson delivers a Thriller worthy of the genre's name. The novel follows PI Colleen Hayes, who finds herself in the middle of a spiderweb consisting of former Nazis, Neo-Nazis and Holocaust survivors trying to get revenge.

I want to start this review off by saying that this was the first Colleen Hayes novel I read, and despite it being the fourth book in a series, I never felt like I missed any information on the characters or their relationships.
Tomlinson carefully sets up a story that, once you dive in, won't let go of you until you've finished it. I devoured the book within few days, and not once wanted to lay it away. Carefully placed time-jumps into the Concentration Camp of Sachsenhausen 1942 reveal the mysteries just at the right moments, however the novel won't reveal its last secrets until the very end.

However, there are two things I need to criticize about the novel.
Firstly, I was rather irritated by a few usages of German terminology: While the German words for certain ranks etc were used by the narrator, the characters in direct quotes used English translations - I would have found it more intuitive the other way around. Additionally, at one point Tomlinson insists a character being adressed as "Sir" - not common practice in the German language.
Secondly, and more importantly, I had a very hard time following the moral balancing act the novel tries to make, seperating Nazi guards into "good" and "bad" Nazis - as a German reading I found this rather irritating. As Tomlinson himself writes in the novel "But Colleen’s world wasn’t his. Or Ingrid’s. She would never truly understand what Fisher, and millions, had gone through." Maybe he himself would have needed that advice.

Nevertheless, "Line of Darkness" is a worthy read and certainly lived up to my expectations for a thriller with its setting. I give it 3.5 out of 5 stars.

This is an excellent detective story that will have you hooked from the start. It’s historical setting and ties to the Second World War give it an extra exciting edge. Colleen Hayes is an interesting character and you don’t have to have read the others in the series to enjoy this book, though you will be left wanting to pick them up. Safe to say, If you like mysteries you’ll like this book.

Thank you Netgalley and Oceanview Publishing for the copy of Line of Darkness. I liked the San Francisco setting as well as the time period. While the story was slow it turned out to be pretty good. This is listed as a thriller/mystery, but I was sorry that the historical fiction aspect wasn’t played up more and that it wasn’t the focus of the story. I didn’t think Colleen was a compelling or believable character, but Jakob had the potential to be a great character and should have been the MC. 3.5 stars rounded up to 4.

It's 1979 and Colleen Hayes is continuing to build her PI practice. She's opened a small office and named it Hayes Confidential. But she's an ex-con so getting her license is proving to be problematic. She is visited by Ingrid Richter, a senior bank executive from Germany who is in San Francisco for a conference. She hires Colleen to find her nephew Erich Hahn, who has just arrived in town but has disappeared. It turns out that finding Erich is not the real problem. Colleen discovers that Erich may be a dangerous Nazi hunter. And a local neo-Nazi group Aryan Alliance may also be linked to the case. When the group threatens Colleen and her pregnant daughter, things get personal. Through Colleen impressive skills, she learns more about Ingrid and Erich and their experiences during WWII. The story includes flashbacks to 1942 and Sachsenhausen, the concentration camp where they both were imprisoned. Colleen's investigation takes her from San Francisco to Rome where she puts her own life in jeopardy.

The Colleen Hayes Mystery Series has been thoroughly enjoyable to date. I love that it is set in San Francisco and its late 1970s time period has brought a nice sense of nostalgia. And imagine being a PI today without a cell phone and online resources. Author Max Tomlinson has gone a little darker in Line of Darkness, the fourth novel in the series. The action is fast-paced, and Colleen is a fierce protagonist. Including characters who have been impacted by WWII and the Nazis, makes this installment much more somber, yet no less entertaining. If you are not familiar with this series, it is so worth checking out. And I recommend reading the books in order, starting with Vanishing in the Haight. Happily, book #5 has already been announced making it a must-read for next summer.

Rated 4.25 stars.

Colleen Hayes, ex-con, almost licensed Private Investigator accepts a new case. Sounds simple, locate the adult nephew, one Eric Hahn. His aunt, Ingrid Richter, is in San Francisco for a conference and is concerned since they were supposed to meet. Of course, Colleen has never had a "simple" case.

Max Tomlinson once again works that time machine and we are in 1979, phone booths, leisure suits, cameras that use film to take pictures, and gas for a dollar a gallon. This fourth entry into the series is dark. Having located the nephew, he is found with a SS ID card and a loaded gun, her case is done, but her curiosity is saying, " there is more to this." She is right, the book follows in two timelines, World War II, concentration camps, and Colleen's present day. The author does an excellent job weaving the past into events of the "present".

Colleen deals with Nazi hunters and goes to Italy to find answers. This is an excellent addition to the series. It can be read as a stand alone, but I highly recommend reading the series from the beginning to really get to know Colleen, she is a great character. I can hardly wait for her next adventure.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC. The review is my own.

Line of Darkness by Max Tomlinson.
A Colleen Hayes Mystery Book 4.
When a German businesswoman in 1979 San Francisco hires ex-con PI Colleen Hayes to find a missing relative, supposedly in town to visit, she thinks it’s a simple job. But she soon discovers that the “nephew” is linked to an international vigilante group hunting down ex-Nazis. Then the body of a mysterious woman turns up on San Francisco’s Municipal Railway, mirroring a murder committed the week before in Buenos Aires where the “nephew” had just been.
A good read. I did find it slow but readable. 3*.

A refreshing thriller! I wish I’d have read the other books in the series as this is really good
I think I’ll read the others next