A Good Day to Die

Excellent! Now need to get my hands on the third book in this series. Simon Kernick is really really good. I am ordering his other books too.

As I've said in other reviews, Simon Kernick is building a multi-volume tale of crime in contemporary London, albeit one with striking variations in plot from typical noir. In his first book, we met Dennis Milne, a CID with the Yard, who is a hit man on the side. He gets set up for a job in the beginning of the debut novel which turns out to be anything than what it was supposed to be, and disaster for Milne ensues. This volume finds him a world away, but compelled to return to London to avenge two former close CID colleagues. The twists and turns he must take to achieve his goal, especially in a CCTV blanked London where he is a most wanted criminal indeed, make for a very satisfying read, and I doubt few readers see the end unfolding as it does. Despite the fact that Milne has done some terrible things, he has a moral compass and he manages to find some of it in this book. Needless to say, the dialog and characters are well drawn, and the book comes to far too soon an end. However, every new book takes Kernick's characters forward (or brings them to their end) and so in some sense, the story never ends even thought the book does. Highly recommended.

In London Detective Sergeant Dennis Milne was known to straddle the legal line when it comes to the sleaze of the city. However, he crosses totally over when he kills a thug; however, besides taking justice in his own hands, the victim turns out to not have been involved with the crime that led Dennis to him. In other words he used excessive force to kill an innocent person. Knowing he would be convicted of the murder, Dennis flees his home country for Asia finally taking residence in the Philippines. Three years later, Dennis Milne no longer exists; instead Mick Kane earns a living as a vigilante bounty hunter for hire in Sabang Bay. His targets are nasty killers who beat the system. His current assignment is personal as he seeks revenge by killing a Londoner whose actions back home led to the homicide of a friend from his copper days, Detective Asif Malik. To complete his mission means sneaking back into London and hunting down the others. Milne is a fascinating anti-hero whose ethics propels him to risk his freedom and perhaps his life to avenge his friend while readers will wonder whether he is a champion or a brute. The story line is so action-packed, fans will read it in one sitting, but the adversaries remain somewhat caricatures. Still readers will devour Simon Kendrick's fine thriller in one good reading day. Harriet Klausner