The Pick, The Spade and The Crow is a good read but on the scary side. I recommend this book to all readers.

great storyline, thrilling - Jo was a likeable character.
I am happy I got this book, will read the rest of them in the series

Thank you to Thomas & Mercer and NetGalley for approving the ARC

Great story, thrilling plot that I could not put down. Well worth a read, and would recommend to others.

This was a good novel of suspense. I really liked the character of Jo and look forward to reading more about her in the next installment. The plot was good and kept me engaged.
Many thanks to Thomas & Mercer and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

I had never read this authors work before. I am pleased that I have been introduced to him. This is a well written story and definitely will keep you guessing!

The story has a lot of characters, not all of which are directly involved in the mystery. It definitely was a mystery and it kept me guessing until the end. Enjoyable read overall.

Sorry but I just did not enjoy this book. I found it dull and uninteresting. Really tried to enjoy it but sadly failed to.

Senior Investigator Jo Stuart is assigned to the National Crime Agency to hunt for the killer of a man recently unearthed in woodland outside Manchester. It's discovered he had been bound, gagged and buried alive some ten years earlier. When Jo finds links to other disappearances, she realises she must act quickly to prevent a further tragedy at the hands of a serial killer.

The Pick, The Spade and The Crow was an engrossing British police procedural novel with an engaging female protagonist. It was a fairly quick and easy read without in-depth descriptions of violence and murder. I felt the balance was just right; I was able to visualise the horror without the author needing to paint it in vivid colour. Links to Freemasonry and its symbolism were a good addition, despite having been somewhat overdone in fiction of recent years. Overall, I thought this was an enjoyable read that wasn't bogged down by its own self-importance.

Thanks to Thomas & Mercer and NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

For some reason, I wasn't expecting anything good from this book - I think I had it mixed up with another - and yet, it won me over quickly.

The research into criminal profiling has clearly been done - the author references real life works and scenarios that wouldn't turn up on the first page of google. The characters were well drawn and a bit different to the usual (although we have another detective giving their all to their work and shredding their personal life in the process), and they're a cast I'd be interested in following to the next book in the series.

While the central mystery wasn't overly convoluted, this is the perfect example of a train or plane book - the writing is great, and easily draws you into the read.

I've read the previous books (the Tom Caton series) by Bill Rogers and enjoyed them so thought I'd try this. It took me a while to get into initially as there seemed to be a lot of description but not much action. However once I got into the book I found myself becoming more involved in the storyline and by the end of the book was pleased I'd persevered. I liked the fact that although this is a book about a serial killer it wasn't too gruesome and was easy reading. I'm not sure that we needed all the detail about Jo Stuart's personal life and hope it won't be too much of a feature in the next in the series.