Follow Me to the Edge

This book was sent to me electronically for review by Netgalley. Ghosts of the past...a murdered family...a man who tries to learn what has happened and why...family and friends...the dynamics of living a life that is problematic...characters who come alive on the pages...although the story moves slowly, at times, it comes to a conclusion that...wait...read it and discover...

I’m delighted to be the first person to rate and review this book, because I’ve such good things to say about it. So, let the praise singing begin…
It stands to mention that the author is an Edinburgh solicitor. With an apparent boner for all things Americana, specifically the neo-noir variety of small towns and brutal crimes. This is a not unusual thing, from books to Guillermo De Toro’s recent Nightmare Alley. The exoticism of noir cannot be denied, neo or otherwise.
Anyway, in Ashkanani’s first book he welcomes you to Cooper, a fictional Nebraska town as dirty and crime-heavy and bleak as any noir would have its setting be. And sure enough, it’s a bleak story of a detective and a serial killer battling wills and wits. A solid debut.
In this, his sophomore effort, the author takes you back to Cooper for an (arguably) even darker and more disturbing visit. Takes you back in time too, back to pager time. Another set of cops, this time a dedicated local and his newly assigned partner, a cowboy-looking fresh outta Texas detective. Together they set off to investigate a brutal slaying of a local family, made all the more brutal for the main protagonist since it occurs in the walls that housed his childhood once upon a time.
In a parallel narration, there’s a cult. A relatively small cult on a verge of boiling over into the sort of final act madness that makes the news. Gotta love a good cult story.
The two tales connect in interesting and unpredictable ways. In fact, one of the best things about this book, is its unpredictability – a must for a discerning mystery reader. But it has other strengths too, mainly the writing itself.
Ashkanani’s debut was good, this is really, really good. This is a talented author stepping up his game kind of good. It’s visceral realism at its best, a bleak place rendered with cinematic vividness so much so that it becomes it own character. Nebraska is never inviting in fiction, not the fiction I’ve read, but it does always lend itself to a sort of oppressiveness and here, once again, it hangs over the characters like a heavy grey cloud, obscuring all light. And in the ensuing darkness, desperate, traumatized people do terrible things to each other. Now that’s noir, that’s the very soul of it. What lurks in the shadowy corners of the mind, the soul, the street…
The author gets it just right. Well done. This dark dynamic read is neo-noir at its finest and ought to delight mystery fans of all varieties. Recommended. Thanks Netgalley.

Good book! This book had suspense, intrigue, action, murder and a great who done it! The storyline was interesting and flowed nicely, there was some good police work too! It was worth reading, but it wasn't one of my all time favorites?! Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for sharing this book with me!

This is a slow burner of a novel that works towards a great ending. It was well written with good characters that were relatable and a good storyline. I loved the setting too. I really enjoyed this book and would definitely recommend reading it.

If the Author's name sounds familiar, it's because he wrote the bestseller, Welcome to Cooper. Now we all know sophomore books can either be stellar, or a bit of a let down, as the magic of the first book usually can't be achieved. I did say usually, because Tariq HAS found that magic again!

What is doubly interesting is that he choose NOT to pick up where the last book ended, but to go back into the past (not really defined, but they have pagers, so we know 80/90s), and see where some of the root of the corruption of the Cooper PD was that was dealt with in the first book. Keeping to the neo-noir (still don't quite understand that concept, but it fits the definition) of the first book, this isn't s a quick read, but one you want to savor in smaller doses and let your mind work on all the background, before jumping back into it. There are clues dropped in that foreshadow future events from book 1.It's a tale of police corruption, a ying/yang of partners and a mystery of 3 deaths that keeps you guessing almost til the end. Don't miss this series, I know book 3 is sure to come around and fill in the middle

This book was a little bit of a struggle for me. It was a little bit slow which is the kind of book that I dont really enjoy. However the storyline and characters in the book are good.

Tariq Ashkanani's Follow Me to the Edge is a detective story about Joe Finch and his journey to solving a family's murders and the mystery surrounding his partner's roadside shooting a few months earlier. Finch is the quintessential flawed character, not coping with his marriage break-up and struggling even more with his ex-partner's shooting during a routine traffic stop.

I enjoyed the book’s pace, the parallel stories which we know for sure will come together at some stage, and the layered relationships.

In small-town Cooper, Nebraska, a man is found dead at a lake and shortly afterwards, his whole family is found beaten to death in the family home. The suspicion of course is murder-suicide, but the evidence doesn't support this. The crime scene is the house in which Finch grew up; where his mother committed suicide after killing her son, Finch's brother, who was suffering with incurable cancer. Shortly afterwards, Finch and his father left their family home and shortly after that, his father left him with friends before leaving Cooper for good.

Crooked politicians, organised crime, an unprofessional and over-ambitious reporter, corrupt police colleagues, and small town neighbours, many of whom are also Finch's ex-school mates, combine to make for a muddy and difficult investigation. And to make it worse, the case is quickly assigned to a newly-appointed, ex-Texas detective to partner with Finch.

There is a parallel story of a religious cult on a farm on the outskirts of Cooper which eventually merges into Finch's investigation and its conclusion.

The detective novel is suspenseful, filled with activity and well-paced. Evocative and descriptive writing helps to develop the characters’ complexities and back stories and enriches the setting, which worked well with the whole book’s sense of fatigue among the characters but especially with Finch.

The ending felt satisfyingly real. I wholly recommend Follow Me to the Edge for its solid writing, a genuine-feeling plot and its satisfying final pages.

The two tales connect in interesting and unpredictable ways. A wonderful and incredibly rich novel . . . I wasn't able to put it down till I reached the end. I was absolutely captivated by the atmosphere, and the characters...

Tried all the way through to work out the link between the two stories unfolding but failed to solve the puzzle. I thoroughly enjoyed this book which is the sequel to one I hadn’t read and it really didn’t matter. I only realised it was a sequel when I read the acknowledgments.
It’s clever and kind of believable with the two main detective characters both very engaging. Not my usual read but I will certainly be in the lookout for the third in what I’m certain is a series.

A most excellent follow up to one of my favourite books of last year- Welcome To Cooper - a kind of origins story of sorts and I would recommend reading the first one first.

The sub title could easily be Stories from the edge - this is gritty small town noir at its very best, mixing up a clever murder mystery witn the underbelly of a town run on dubious personality and ingrained corruption. It is a story of the grey edges, a morally ambiguous tale where you root for those you should condemn.

This won't be for everyone pretty much in the same way the debut wasn't- the author pulls no punches in this unrelenting yet wildly entertaining read - but I loved it as I loved the first and I'm honestly hoping for many more tales of Cooper and its increasingly intriguing inhabitants.

Recommended.

A new author for me, I wasn’t aware that this is the second book set in the engaging town of Cooper.
I loved the warm feeling of being included in a small town with characters that felt like old friends!
Readers follow the journey of detective Joe Finch and his partner as they work towards solving murders. Finch is a lost soul, burying himself in the job and struggling to forget a sad childhood.
A slow build storyline with clues that don’t add up, confusing evidence and Finch forced to face family demons. Cooper has a jumble of flawed characters, this investigation will take some time to solve!
Overall, a novel filled with suspense, mystery and country heart..
Appreciation and thanks to the publisher, NetGalley and also the author for the opportunity to review this book.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This police procedural follows rookie detective Joe Finch as he arrives at the scene where an entire family was murdered. Joe has been working alone ever since his partner was shot in a routine traffic stop a few months earlier. However, with a case this big and with pressure from all sides, Joe is teamed up with a new partner for this investigation. As the two begin to investigate, it is clear that in the small town of Cooper, Nebraska, not everything is as upstanding as it seems. Joe needs to deal with greedy politicians, a cartel boss, a nosy journalist, and even a cult all vying for power in the small town.
TW/CW: alcohol abuse, death of an infant, pet death, cults, domestic violence, police corruption

This is the prequel sequel to Ashkanani's 2021 novel Welcome to Cooper - which I absolutely loved. In Welcome to Cooper, we see Joe Finch as the partner to that book's main character, Thomas. This novel is set some time before Welcome to Cooper and we see Joe Finch evolve into the man and detective we see later. This felt almost like a villain origin story since Joe was clearly an antagonist in Thomas's life. But even if you haven't read Welcome to Cooper, this was still a compelling police procedural and works perfectly well as a stand alone read. But if you did read Welcome to Cooper, this is a wonderful follow up that gave me more of that gritty, small town feel that I loved.

Ashkanani does a fantastic job of making the town of Cooper its own character. We get so many details from the oppressive heat to the ancillary characters all seeming like they're just biding their time for something better to come along. Cooper is not painted as a picturesque, middle America, small town. Instead, it is gritty, sleazy, corrupt hole that these characters find themselves in and it seems like anyone who has the means to leave the town does so in a hurry. The people who live their do their best to make it a community, but there's only so much they can do. This was really highlighted when Joe - who grew up in Cooper - is reminiscing about fellow high school students with an old friend and when he inquires where X person is now, their stories are never happy. I also really loved how Joe, an insider to the town, was paired with an outsider so Joe could explain to his partner how this town really works. Getting that outsider perspective and sometimes shock at just how bad this town can be was a great lens for the reader.

I was pleasantly surprised when we got chapters from the POV of a woman in the cult - Laura. Her chapters start at about the 10% mark in the book and then we get one of her chapters for every 3ish of Joe's. Of course, it isn't immediately apparent how Laura and Joe's plots are connected, but they do come together eventually in the end. I was pretty equally interested in both plot lines, although I was more emotionally invested in Joe's. I think these cult chapters were a great way to break up the more procedural sections of the main plot line. I did find the cult plot line to move pretty quickly, but I didn't find myself lost or confused at any time. We just didn't get as much build up or tension that I think we would have if the cult plot was primary.

The actual police investigation was great and had some great reveals. We get a good balance of leads, dead ends, and double backing onto previously visited suspects. There were also some great pay off moments were a small detail from earlier paid off big time later on in the investigation. Having read Welcome to Cooper, I knew generally how some details were going to play out because I knew how Joe is in that book, but Ashkanani did a great job at really building up Joe's character that I was still hoping some details would end up differently. I also think the villain had a pretty great reveal that I didn't see coming. I didn't find the ending quite as bleak as Welcome to Cooper's ending, but it also wasn't what I would call a happy ending. I'm pretty sure no one in Cooper gets a truly happy ending.

Overall, this was a really great read and I loved being back in Cooper. This gave me more of that gritty, depressing, oppressive despair that I loved in the original. It was so interesting to see Joe's evolution from this version into the version we see later on. The investigation was well plotted and I was interested from start to finish.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC

Publication date: March 8, 2022

Gritty Goings On…
More dark and gritty goings on in Cooper, Nebraska and Detective Joe Finch has his work cut out and his own demons to banish. A dark and twisting tale runs fluidly with a flourishing writing style with more than a touch of pulp and laced with edgy, dry humour.

Dark, over the top, and colorful.
Many thanks to Amazon Publishing UK and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.