The Sinner

Martyn Waites is one of my favorite authors. The Sinner is another excellent book. Twists and turns, nerve wracking moments and suspenseful to the point that I kept physically tensing up at times, this is a great thriller of you've got a few hours to devote to it. You won't want to stop once you read the first chapter!

Thanks to Netgalley and Blackstone publishing for providing me with a copy of The Sinner in exchange for an honest review.
I was excited when I saw that my request to read this one was approved. I love Waites' books under the Tania Carver pseudonym, and I liked the first book in this series, too. Folk horror isn't really my thing, though, so I was stoked to find out that the setting was completely different, and a prison, at that. (I blame Different Seasons for my fascination with prison-based stories, haha.)
This was one intense read. Very entertaining, straightforward but carefully plotted, fast-paced, nerve-wracking and suitable mysterious, it is a perfect airplane read. The prision setting amped up the tension, with threats to the protagonist coming from all directions. At the same time, the secondary plot (involving his attempts to gain knowledge about the whereabouts of victims' remains from a prolific but weirdly compelling killer) was almost even more interesting.
But hoo boy, that nasty twist in the middle! Really? Really?! It didn't exactly come out of nowhere, but close, and it was such a shock. Usually that sort of thing feels kind if cheap to me, but this time it kind of worked? It definitely got a reaction out of me. I was so mad! I needed to know what was going to happen next. And the way it all played out slwas surprisingly satisfying. There was one or two small final shock reveals at the end to entice the reader into wanting more. It worked.
The Sinner was a good read, and I feel lucky to have been able to check out the ARC. Looking forward to the next Killgannon story!

After being arrested myself I can contest to the quote the front of the book. That not all those in prison are guilty. I have to say that this is one of the most suspenseful titles that I have read in some time. This was so perfect and creepy and dark and totally relentless!

Following on from the stunning first Tom Kilgannon book, The Old Religion, The Sinner is a book I’ve been wanting to read for a while. Readers don’t need to have read the first book, The Sinner works fine as a stand-alone.

Kilgannon is in witness protection in Cornwall but as a former police officer, he knows that he can be called back to duty if circumstances require it. So when DS Sheridan and DC Blake come to see him, they make it clear that his skills are required for an undercover job.

A child killer is currently serving life in Blackmoor prison and the authorities are keen to get him to say where he buried the bodies so that the families may get a degree of closure and be able to bury their children.

Kilgannon reluctantly agrees, but he’s not been in Blackmoor for long before he realises that he is inside with a dangerous enemy. Dean Foley is a hardened criminal and Tom is the man responsible for his sentence. Not only that, but Foley is the reason that Tom is in witness protection.

As not even the prison Governor is aware of his true identity, Kilgannon realises he has to make contact with his police handlers and get out fast. But DS Sheridan is adamant that Kilgannon has to see his role through and cuts off contact. Something is rotten in this relationship, but Kilgannon has more urgent things to deal with as it soon becomes apparent that Foley is the one who is really running this prison.

Not knowing who, if anyone, he can trust, Kilgannon must battle to survive in a deeply hostile climate whilst winning the trust of a child killer and hoping that he can find a way out of this situation.

Meanwhile, he has two people in Cornwall that he has left behind, one of them very vulnerable, but they stand out as pawns in a battle to get Kilgannon to do what his tormentors ask.

The Sinner does require a bit of a leap into suspension of disbelief, but once you have made the jump this is a fast-paced and thrilling read full of cross and double cross, duplicity, manipulation, lies and surprising twists.

Waites is excellent at conveying a nightmare scenario and then managing to ramp that up until it literally captures the reader’s breath as we wait for the devastating impact of events to strike.

His knowledge of prisons is very clear as he portrays a strong and convincing claustrophobic atmosphere in which alliances are everything and the price of life is as cheap as a packet of fags.

Verdict: Beautifully written, dark, tense and suspenseful with more thrills and spills than you could ask for. Well thought through psychology and a clear narrative structure infuse a classic cat and mouse game to expose double dealing and provide some surprising and dramatic moments.

WOW! After the first book in the Tom Killgannon series, I did not expect the second book to be this good. The Sinner can be read as a stand alone, but the first book, THE OLD RELIGION, is a top rate thriller too. Martyn Waites has managed to check off every item on a thriller genre lover's checklist.

First, introductions. Tom Killgannon is a retired undercover policeman who testified against the head of Manchester's illegal drug kingdom. He now is in witness protection, Tom Killgannon is not his real name, and has settled into his new life and new identity. This is his backstory. The Killgannon character is very well developed and this reader quickly became a fan of this hero.
Tom's police contacts use personal blackmail to coerce him into going undercover to obtain information from a convicted child killer. The information they provide says the undercover operation will be a short one. They lied. Tom will find himself face to face with the drug lord he help convict while he is unable to abort his operation. Anything you can imagine to happen, well, it does. The story is full of action, suspense, tension and has so many surprises you would think Waites is a magician. Again, WOW!

With the second book such a wild read, it's hard to imagine how Waites will be able to top the first two.

I was very excited to get a chance to read this book and I was not let down. I enjoyed the thriller very much! I really liked the ending and the characters were exciting and deep to me. I have not read book one but I did not feel like I needed it for this book. I think I will looked into more books from this author because I enjoyed this one so much. *This book was given to me for free at my request from NetGalley and I provided this voluntary review.*