The death of Spencer, in the arms of an offduty paramedic, in the Gallowstree Lane area of London, is as unflinching and hard hitting as you’d expect it to be-the violence and unecessary nature of this boy’s death spills from the page as does the blood from his femoral artery. London was equally brilliant at her portrayal of the investigation and I was pleased that it wasn’t cold or unfeeling. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. Yes, the slang, used in everyday communication between London’s youth, that was what hooked me on this book.

Detective Inspector Sarah Collins and her team are tasked with finding the killer and before long she is once again crossing paths with Detective Constable Lizzie Griffiths. Thank you to Atlantic Books/Corvus for this eARC via NetGalley of ‘Gallowstree Lane’, due to be published on 7th February.And, as these crimes vastly differ in nature, different police departments are all vying for information, all keeping things close to their chest and actually not really playing nice with each other, almost as if they aren't even on the same side at all. But if you want a fictional account of the reality of gang life in an inner city today written in a gritty style by an author who knows her stuff, this could be your sort of book. A very gritty, down-to-earth, and gripping police procedural that while fiction does address very real contemporary issues.

I think the main reason was because whilst the recurring characters who are the police do feature much of the novel concerns Ryan, a young teen who is a drug runner for a local gang.Ryan’s father ran in the same circles and it is his father’s old friend, Shakiel, that takes Ryan under his wing, showing him the ways. We were being given gritty reality and the author’s experience was starting to show through, but for me, it was just a bit too grim. I just flowed with this and plan to read them so that I can understand their backgrounds as well as reading two more excellent police procedurals from Kate London.

A tragic end for some of these young people caught up in worlds too big and serious for them to navigate.This book is a real page turner and one I was able to read really quickly, it constantly kept me guessing, just when you think all the ends are starting to tie up and you think you’ve worked out where the story is going something else happens to prove you wrong. DI Kieran Shaw is adamant that the undercover operation must not be disrupted whilst DI Sarah Collins is anxious to catch the killer of a fifteen year old boy. How this book made me feel: I read an extract before requesting this book, and I picked it mainly because of the language used in this novel.