The Final Round

I always enjoy discovering excellent new police procedurals and the partnership of Garibaldi and Gardner is an interesting and original one.

I was totally engaged by this thriller and its fascinating plot although it did get slightly over complicated.

Well worth a read and i look forward to the next instalment.

Detective Inspector Garibaldi "as in the great Italian nationalist. And the biscuit" is country music loving, well read and the only officer in the Metropolitan Police who can't drive a car. He's the filling in the sandwich between DCI Karen Deighton, the boss, and nice but dim DS Milly Gardner. The characterisations and the relationships are a bit heavy handed, it would have been preferable for them to emerge rather than be spelt out and it's obvious they are going to get honed as the series goes on. As it is it reads a bit like a parody on Morse (especially with the Oxford connected crime) but that sells it well short!

Six former Balfour College, Oxford friends get together for an annual charity quiz. The twenty-fifth anniversary quiz has an unexpected final round which accuses the each of the six of a plausible sin. Then one of the six meets his maker in a particularly gruesome manner. The six turn out to be fairly unlikeable so Bernard O'Keefe does well to make it matter who committed the crime and why!

The story is a good one, the pacing is excellent and it kept me reading until the book was finished. I'd recommend this and the next installment is going to be even better.

Thank you NetGalley and Muswell Press for the eARC.
This is the first DI Girabaldi book in what I hope will be a series. I liked it a lot. When I read a book and I want to get back to it, rushing through my chores, it's, as far as I'm concerned, a good book.
None of the characters are likeable, they're all a bit too entitled, but that was what made them intersting. Garibaldi is divorced, has a chip on his shoulders, doesn't drive (he bicycles) and loves country music. But I did like his DS, Millie Gardner, who will hopefully be more fleshed out in the future.
It doesn't make sense not to like most characters, but it works for me. The killing is brutal, and everyone is a suspect. There were 6 of them that all went to Oxford togethet, but drifted apart, except for the annual charity quiz. The only one who didn't do well for himself is the man who was murdered.
I did not see the end coming, and that I also enjoyed. A good start to a series that I definitely recommend.

Fast Paced Investigation.....
The first in a new series featuring DI Garibaldi. A gruesome killing takes Garibaldi to Oxford to investigate further. Fast paced investigation with an intricate and sometimes convoluted plot, characters that are for the most part pretty unlikeable, including Garibaldi himself and with a surprising denouement. Solid, escapist reading.

I really liked this book. The plot was good and kept moving at a decent pace, the characters were engaging and I enjoyed the ending.

Revelations about a group of old university friends’ past lives come back to haunt them years later. Are they true or false? Who knows their secrets and was that person capable of murder? A light, easy reading murder mystery.

If this is Detective Garibaldi’s first appearance, we can only hope it is not his last. A group of six alumni from Balfour College, Oxford, now nearing forty years of age, have sort of kept in touch. Every year one, Melissa, a noted newsreader with an equally successful husband, holds a quiz night in aid of charity in the Ocean Bar. This is held on the evening of the boat race which is said to be ‘more about the Day than the Race’. On this occasion, they are all there, some with partners who were not at Oxford, and things go wrong when there is an unexpected final round listing a scandal about each of the six and asking which statements are true. Who planned that? Then one of them, Nick Bellamy is found dead, poisoned but with his tongue cut out and a college scarf stuffed into his mouth. Garibaldi is an attractively conceived character with a habit of quoting aptly from classical literature to describe what he is seeing. There is always the assumption that the murderer is one of the group but it is hard to guess which it might be. The story moves to an unexpected ending. This book has all the tension, mystery and pace that is needed to keep readers’ attention. It is very well written. I recommend it.

A well written and descriptive story with believable characters, I especially like Detective Garibaldi. I really enjoyed trying to work out 'whodunnit ' unfortunately I got it wrong but it was fun trying.

Good detective novel with a new lead character to follow D I Garibaldi. As with all the best current crime novels we are treated with details of his complex private life but in this case they add rather than detract from the narrative. A murder on boat race day with five Oxford graduates as suspects after a strange final round on an annual charity quiz night. People who have things to hide, all classic ingredients are all here in this entertaining pot boiler! More to come hopefully!

I would like to thank Netgalley and Muswell Press for an advance copy of The Final Round, the first novel to feature DI Jim Garibaldi, set in Barnes, London.

On the day after the boat race a body is discovered with his tongue cut out and multiple stab wounds, an Oxford college scarf stuffed in his mouth. He is eventually identified as Nick Bellamy, last seen at a charity quiz organised by his Balfour College friend, newscaster Melissa Matthews. Garibaldi’s attention soon centres on this quiz and the final round that asked contestants to speculate on a series of lurid allegations about Melissa, Nick and their four friends.

I thoroughly enjoyed The Final Round which is a fine introduction to an interesting character and an absorbing read. The novel starts with the murder then slips back in time to the charity quiz and the six friends’ reaction to it and that strange final round. This introduces the prime suspects and the petty jealousies and tensions in their interactions and sets the scene for the investigation, which doesn’t get going until chapter seven when Garibaldi makes his entrance. I found myself absorbed by this by play and Garibaldi’s slow teasing out of the secrets these characters are keeping. I’m not sure I found the solution credible and it seems slightly fantastical in comparison with the almost prosaic tone that precedes it. Well, whatever, it certainly fits with the theatrics of that final round, which I think is a very clever and unusual plot device, that kept this reader guessing throughout.

The downside to this novel is the general awfulness of the six friends and their spouses. They are all self absorbed and entitled to the extent that I couldn’t bring myself to care about who did it or why. Any one of them would make a suitable killer. I suppose it’s to the author’s credit that his characters are well enough developed to elicit a response. Garibaldi, on the other hand, is a character I could grow to love. He’s definitely an eccentric in policing terms, the only detective who can’t drive, reads books (lots of them and the literary ones) and loves country music and QPR (shades of Tom Thorne in these last attributes). I like his basic humanity.

The Final Round is a good read that I have no hesitation in recommending.

I was grateful for the preview copy from Muswell Press in return for an honest review.

I loved Detective Garibaldi. A man with quirks and foibles, and irreverence and disdain for authority.

I loved the storyline, the intricate twist, turns and connections. The plot was good, the array of suspects, all college buddies, broad enough to do justice to the storyline, and it kept moving at a fair pace.

Having visited Oxford in early September 2020, I could also visualise the settings and the context described, which added to my enjoyment.

I highly recommend it to you, and further episodes in the series as they arrive.

The Final Round introduces us to O'Keefe's detective, Garibaldi in an easy-read police/crime procedural novel.

Six old Oxford University friends find one of their number dying in less than natural circumstances. All fingers point to the group of friends but it all feels a little contrived. Who is to blame? Garibaldi will get to the bottom of it all.

There was a familiarity to the story - not in its content but in its style. This made for comfortable reading on the whole - the formulaic nature of an easy read crime drama meant that it didn't challenge too much. As an Oxbridge grad myself I found more than a smattering of realism in the characterisation, both of individuals and of relationships inter se. Geographically too, the novel progressed with an accuracy that allowed the reader the freedom to believe, with places and neighbourhoods well researched.

At times I felt that the segues between characters and their stories made some chapters harder to read than others. More than once was I forced to backtrack to double-check just who we were talking about and this made some sections rather clunky. Hopefully, a couple of minor syntax and wording errors will be ironed out in the final publication.

I think that this is the kind of book that lends itself to a bedtime/travel/beach read - easy escapism. I for one would certainly not be averse to reading more of the detective's investigations and would hope that with subsequent books, Garibaldi is developed as the Morse-esque character to whom he may well aspire.

With thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the advance copy.

A good plot and narrative for a new series. The suspense is tightly maintained to the conclusion. But for a police procedural there are some glaring errors and the lead detective doesn’t come out as sharp and the second detective gets mentioned only as a driver. Hope these are rectified in future books. As for the characters, all of them are vain and headstrong, it became monotonous. With quite a good number of characters their differences could have been highlighted. 3.5 stars

Six university friends see each other once a year for a trivia fund raising event, despite their ever-decreasing contact and familiarity. Then a dead body is found by the Thames and an unusual detective who can’t drive is assigned the case. The investigation is going nowhere and the friends lives and secrets begin to unravel as the mystery and possible connection deepen. A whodunnit which builds nicely and has great characters and revelations. A four-star read that is an appealing police procedure. As an independent reviewer, my thanks to the author for a copy gratis prior to publication. All opinions expressed herein are freely given and totally my own.

Oh the twist at the end! Love it! I admit I was slow to get into the whole reunion thing. I just don't get why folks can't let go of youthful friendships that go nowhere after school is done. But that is really the premise of much of the book. How the foolishness of youth colors adulthood. I do like the detective. He is full of normal human doubts and questions of life. Yet he sees the worst of humanity. I found him refreshing. I didn't like any of the main suspects. They were sure full of themselves. So it made a good story. I enjoyed the book.

A story about old friends and secrets. The overall story was good but it was very hard to like any of the characters.

Thank you to NetGalley for my copy.

I thoroughly enjoyed meeting DI Jim Garibaldi and his colleagues. How refreshing to find a police procedural without too much backbiting and skullduggery amongst the ranks, stained clothes or sweaty officers; these people almost seemed normal.

It made a nice change for our hero to be quirky, but not outrageously so, and generally a decent man. The supporting characters were interesting but again without being extreme which is so often the case these days.

The "suspects" were without exception the complete antithesis of our hero and it was intriguing to see his mind working during his interviews when he cleverly misdirected and subtly provoked the interviewees.

It has been a while since I have read such a refreshing story and I look forward to reading more in the series in due courser. My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read the ARC

“Keep your friends close, keep your enemies closer.”

Righty Ho! I guess you know what’s coming now? That’s another new series added to my list, as I just can’t resist a good murder mystery / police procedural. It’s also not often that I manage to find myself meeting a cast of new characters right at the beginning of their literary journey, so I can’t miss out on this opportunity, can I?

The opening couple of pages really helped to set the scene for me, then it was straight into the action, followed by a very thorough and well described and detailed police investigation, leading to a climax which didn’t really end well for any one of the multiple suspects. Definitely food for my macabre sense of justice!

I really honed in and enjoyed the fact that the author took license from his previous occupation as a teacher, when casting his characters and including narrative detail to the storyline, which added a really nice personal touch! I also liked the fact that the story was set in a real place, with genuine street names and at tangible locations, which I could locate and follow on a map to plot the crime scene for myself.

A well constructed, multi-layered storyline, where plot and characters play an equal role as the backdrop to a police procedural, where Garibaldi eventually works out ‘whodunnit’, although I am still wondering exactly how he managed it, as there were so many crimes, so many suspects, so many red herrings and false leads, with the eventual outcome not making great closure for the police crime numbers!

The chapters are just the right length to keep the pace moving along at a steady rate, the story is very textured and intense, definitely not designed to put me at ease or feeling comfortable, as I spent most of my reading time sat on the edge of my seat and turning the pages ever more rapidly, as the lies just kept stacking up and my suspect list grew longer and longer. After one particular aspect of the case was solved quite early on, I whittled my list down to a more manageable number and I kind of worked out who the protagonist was, but not quite! You really do have to read this one right to the very end, as those final few twists and turns definitely make all the difference!

What can I say about the multi-faceted cast of suspect characters, which might even begin to put them into a good light. Bernard has done an excellent job of creating a whole group of people, none of which I would personally have minded being locked up for a very long time. How many times did they play the ‘When we were at Oxford’ or ‘When we left college’ card, as if they expected recognition of that to offer them special treatment or privileged interview rights! They really were an obnoxious, self-centred bunch, although peel back the superficial layers of self-importance and the artificial veneer of respectability and you were actually left with some very hollow shells of emotionally damaged humanity, unable to connect either with each other, or anyone outside of their circle, with any degree of synergy or interest and with zero genuine compassion.

I’m still in two minds about the character of Jim Garibaldi, although I am hoping for a lot more tangible character development in future stories, which might offer me a little more personality to invest in. Although it is never really discussed in too much detail, Garibaldi obviously has some pretty serious emotional baggage he is carrying around with him. However even making allowances for that, I really did get to the stage where I could have given him a good kick up the backside. As DI, he never took control of a case briefing, leaving that function to be fulfilled by his DCI. In fact he only really had direct contact with one member of his team, DS Milly Gardner, and that only because she is also his unofficial driver, as Garibaldi refuses to take a driving test. He actually spent much of the investigation fantasising about Millie and his DCI, Karen, when he wasn’t contemplating his own current love life. He is also rather too fond of letting everyone know how well-read he is and his vague, often almost disinterested attitude to the case, got to be quite annoying and irksome. However, somehow he did get to crack the case eventually and he handled a very traumatic and emotionally distressing climax, with some genuine empathy. In fact, his whole demeanour and rather ‘sans fait rien’ attitude, together with his eccentricities and constant lapses in concentration, almost put me in mind of a modern day Sherlock Holmes and I do hope that Bernard isn’t too appalled by that analogy!

Some seriously confident plot and character building paves the way for this new series, I can’t wait for the next ‘Garibaldi’ instalment, just so long as I can train myself to separate the man from the biscuit!

In the Barnes area of London, I think it is fairly safe to assume that – “The female of the species is more deadly than the male”

Shortly after a charity quiz a man's body is found near the Thames. What makes it particularly unusual is that the tongue is cut out and an Oxford college scarf stuffed into the mouth. Body identification is easy. But the case is not. And the quiz ending is peculiar and unexpected. The team participants, Balfour college graduates, are accused of having committed acts from shoplifting to plagiarism to murder in their pasts. Is there a modicum of truth behind the accusations? Suspicion amongst them is rife as trust is broken down. The story is about how each character stands up under scrutiny and how layers of lies can shatter people.

Detective Garibaldi is in charge of the case. But his personal life is not without issues, too, which crop up in the novel. Several subplots intertwine but they are done well so only add, not detract. The story is chock full of fascinating twists and turns and drips with deceit.

The premise is excellent. The characters aren't really likeable to me but I needn't like characters to enjoy a book! The ending is a strong one, no disappointment there. Twists kept coming until the end.

My sincere thank you to Muswell Press and NetGalley for the privilege of reading the e-ARC of this riveting book.

My thanks to NetGalley and publisher Muswell Press for the ARC.

Set in and around Barnes in London. Six friends from Balfour College, Oxford receive invitations to Melissa's 25th anniversary Quiz night and, the couples immediately start comparing husbands, wives and children through various injustices in their lives since their college days and discussing whether they would go to the quiz. Nick Bellamy didn't have a partner but joined his college friends on one table that night. As the quiz comes to a close a voice from the speakers announces The Final Round - Melissa and husband Greg have no idea what's going on. The final round is for the audience to guess which were true of certain facts: reprehensible claims of wrong-doing were levelled at each of the college friends. Melissa and Greg try to cover up the nature of the accusations by trying to turn it into a joke.

In the following days the couples are on the phone to each other as they try to work out what's going on. Then, a week later, the day after the boat race on the Thames, Nick's body is found on a secluded path near the lake. The telephone lines are red-hot again amongst the couples as DI Jim Garibaldi starts the murder investigation. If the friends go to the police then they will have to give away certain secrets of their own.

This is a complex plot which incorporates several sub-plots which gradually come together with some surprising twists, although overall I found the pace of the book to be rather slow and the characters to be very shallow.

A good enough read.

Entertaining and enjoyable mystery where I didn't guess the culprit! I'm really liking Garibaldi and hoping this is the first of many to feature him. Very good location too

A solid four star read. Great premise. Well written. Good characters. Page turner. Plenty of suspense to keep me guessing Would definitely read his next novel. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the chance to review it.

A great premise and an all round good read.
I tried not to guess the murderer and I wasn't disappointed by the ending.
It was more 'Midsomer Murders' than 'Luther' in it's grit but That's fine by me. It made for an easy and entertaining read.
Many thanks

I received this book from the publisher through Netgalley for review and all thoughts and opinions are my own.
What a bumpy ride! Well written and delightful thriller. I read it straight through. Quiz night is a pub entertainment unfamiliar in the States. In pubs all over the UK, people gather to have a pint and test their knowledge on various subjects. It requires extensive knowledge and is highly competitive. On this occasion, several college alumni get together to celebrate 25 years, little knowing secrets will be outed and livelihoods threatened. It will end in murder. Setting and circumstances are unique in this fine mystery. Highly enjoyable reading experience.

Old University pals meet up once a year for a quiz night, but after this one, one of them is murdered. Who did it and why? Can Garibaldi find out the truth?
Well written book with interesting characters. Easy to read and enjoy. Highly recommend.