William Shaw / Audiobook and Book Reviews by Audiothing

Dead Rich, G.W. Shaw

Tuesday, 4 October 2022

Author: G.W. Shaw (William Shaw)

Pub date (paperback) November 2022

Publisher Riverrun Quercus Books

ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1529420032
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1529420036

Blurb:

Super yachts are secretive, like their owners. The bigger the richer. Like castles, they are created to inspire awe. Like castles too, they are defended. They are an entire world, separate from the rest of us.

Kai, a carefree once-successful musician is invited by his new Russian girlfriend Zina to join her family's Caribbean holiday. Impulsively accepting he learns that Zina is the daughter of a Russian oligarch, Stepan Pirumov and that the trip is aboard his yacht, the Zinaida, moored in St Thomas in the US Virgin Islands. The crew consists of Captain Marius Falk, the first mate Erin Wade and a hastily assembled staff, including a chief stewardess Marissa from Miami, a chief engineer from Lagos and a personal trainer from Los Angeles. All know how to behave around the very rich.

On arrival Kai discovers that the head of security has been arrested, armed guards are below deck, there's an onboard panic room and a strong sense of all not being quite right beneath the gleaming surfaces of the Pirumov's lives. An unnerving presence punctures the atmosphere: a murderous imposter is on board the Zinaida, but who is it?

Kai will find that the only person he can trust will be Erin and that the world of the super-rich will become a prison from which they must escape. Part locked-room suspense, part adventure story, Dead Rich is an unforgettable, edge of the seat thriller set in the blazing heat of the Caribbean

Review

The Best Read of the year

This is something a little special from William Shaw, all his stories are guaranteed to keep noses to books yet this is something a little different, a real, heart pounding thriller! It has everything, including a glimpse into the glamorous world of the super rich, travel to exotic and distant shores, intrigue, plots and counter plots, the world of music and much more.
The further I got in to the story the faster I read, I had to slow myself down so as not to miss anything.
As is usual with William Shaw's books we learn something new about the world around us.
As with all his work, this is beautifully written, another master class in "how to write"

thanks to NetGalley, Quercus Books

The Birdwatcher. William Shaw

Wednesday, 18 May 2016

Author: William Shaw

Source: Netgalley ARC Image via NetGalley

Publisher: Quercus Books Riverrun

Publication Date: 19th May 2016

5 STARS

Publishers Summary

Police Sergeant William South has a reason for not wanting to be on the murder investigation.
He is a murderer himself.
But the victim was his only friend; like him, a passionate birdwatcher. South is warily partnered with the strong-willed Detective Sergeant Alexandra Cupidi, newly recruited to the Kent coast from London. Together they find the body, violently beaten, forced inside a wooden chest. Only rage could kill a man like this. South knows it.
But soon - too soon - they find a suspect: Donnie Fraser, a drifter from Northern Ireland. His presence in Kent disturbs William - because he knew him as a boy. If the past is catching up with him, South wants to meet it head on. For even as he desperately investigates the connections, he knows there is no crime, however duplicitous or cruel, that can compare to the great lie of his childhood.
Moving from the storm-lashed, bird-wheeling skies of the Kent Coast to the wordless war of the Troubles, The Birdwatcher is a crime novel of suspense, intelligence and powerful humanity about fathers and sons, grief and guilt and facing the darkness within.

My Review

This beautifully written book tells the story of Billy McGowan, the boy raised amidst "The Troubles" of Northern Ireland who then becomes William South, Police Sergeant and Neighbourhood Officer for the Kent Police. He lives his life alone and he lives quietly, he is also a birdwatcher. He and his birding companion Bob Rayner spend hours together, yet neither man has any clue of the secrets held by the other.

Until Bob Rayner is found dead, murdered in a most horrible and brutal way.

For Detective Inspector Alexandra Cupidi who has transferred from the Metropolitan Police, this is her first case in her new post. Despite knowing that Bob was a friend of Souths, she wants him to accompany her to the grisly crime scene. South is deeply affected by the sight of his murdered friend, there appears to be no explanation, no possible reason why someone should do this, yet South recognises the effects of rage when he sees it.

Despite having a murder to investigate, Cupidi is distracted, her teenaged daughter, Zoe, is having problems settling in to her new home and school. Zoe and South develop a friendship of sorts, they discover something in common, each ones mother had moved them to a place they thought safer, yet both mothers had their own troubles to leave behind.

The body count rises, one of the dead is a name from Souths distant past, Donnie Fraser, who as a young man had admired Souths violent father, what possible connection could there be between Fraser and the other deaths? Why does Cupidi order South to keep away from the investigation?

I enjoyed how the author skilfully wove in the stories of both the young Billy and the adult William, separately yet somehow seamlessly, the reader isn't jarred when moving between the two ages and countries. The ending of a book is, of course important! For me, this book has two endings, difficult to explain without spoilers so I won't attempt it, just to say that one of them came as a real surprise to me.

I do hold the faint hope of a William South series.

This is a book to buy in hardback, to keep and savour, to take out now and again to re-read. It's a keeper.

Thanks to NetGalley and Quercus Riverrun for providing an Advanced Reader Copy of this book

Authors, Who Do Ya Love?

Tuesday, 28 July 2015

What makes an author a favourite? Like any other avid reader, I've had a few over the years, in the early days, it was Enid Blyton, Anna Sewell and just about anyone who wrote about horses. Later, moving on to the historical romances of Georgette Heyer, then dropping the romance, I moved on to Jean Plaidy. Of course, in there somewhere were the Brontes, Austin, Dickens, all the usual stuff. Later I picked up on some Jilly Cooper because she wrote a horsey saga, but I never quite copped on to the Harlequin type stuff. Then I moved on to crime novels, reading all the usual popular authors. I've read a lot of books over the years, and can't be without a book on the go. Then there were the awful years, when academic reading commitments ousted fiction, no fave authors there!

These days, I'm choosy, very choosy about the authors who become favourites, naturally, the attributes for making an author a favourite are very personal, for me they must give me more than a good story. It's for this reason I've chosen my top three who are (in no particular order): William Shaw, Chris Nickson, and Adrian McKinty. All of these great authors add an extra dimension or more to their work, be it weaving in social history, music and/or humour. The narrative is so good that it transports me, the reader, somewhere far away from the mundanity of everyday life, and the dialogue is sharp, witty and realistic. Then of course, there's nostalgia, yes, I'm old enough to be nostalgic for the 60's, 70's and 80's, be reminded of my old portable record player and Dads' old radiogram. They also write stuff that makes me think, what's more, I can't just finish one of these authors' work and just forget about it, oh no! They linger in my head making it difficult to start a new book.

They are, quite simply, memorable.