Their Final Moments by Jane Adams @JaneAdamsAuthor @JoffeBooks #review @mgriffiths163 @booksnall

Today I hand over to Mandie who has a review of Their Final Moments, book three in the Detective Mike Croft series from Jane Adams. With thanks to Jill Burkinshaw for inviting us to join the tour and to publishers, Joffe Books, for the review copy, here is what the book is all about:

About the Book

DISCOVER A BRILLIANTLY GRIPPING CRIME THRILLER FROM A BEST-SELLING AUTHOR

Please note this was first published as “Fade to Grey” and “Final Frame.”

HE WANTS TO CAPTURE THEIR FINAL MOMENTS ON FILM SO HE CAN WATCH THEM AGAIN AND AGAIN

DECEMBER: Detective Mike Croft is in pursuit of a serial attacker whose victims are all young blonde women. 

But forensics on the victims reveals an even more horrific scenario.

Many miles away, in Wiltshire, a young woman dies in a burning car.

In Norwich, an actress is found dead in her own home and a teenage boy runs away from a past he doesn’t know how to face.

Can DI Mike Croft work out what links these events?

Then a greater threat emerges. 

JAKE BOWEN: filmmaker and serial murderer. There is no pattern to his victims. He doesn’t care who dies, so long as their final moments make good film, and Jake is very imaginative in deciding how his victims will die.

MIKE CROFT FACES A RACE AGAINST TIME TO STOP A KILLER. BUT THEN THE KILLER COMES FOR HIM.

THEIR FINAL MOMENTS: An epic and unputdownable crime thriller full of heart-stopping twists and turns.

Perfect for fans of Kimberley Chambers, Damien Boyd, Rachel Abbott, Patricia Gibney or Mark Billingham.

Available from: Amazon UK | Amazon US

Mandie’s Thoughts

Their Final Moments is the third book in the series but not having read the previous two books I had no previous introductions to DI Mike Croft and his team or what to expect from this author. That being said I don’t feel that it hindered me in any way as the plot did not rely on the reader having to know any complicated back story to be able to follow the action.

The story follows Mike Croft as he leads an investigation into the murder of a girl found in a burned out car. To add to this there is also a rapist on the loose that has ties to the murder.  The investigations turn personal when those close to Mike come under threat. It is during this testing time that you get an insight into Mike and his relationships with his work colleagues and his partner Maria, a therapist who also ends up becoming involved in the case on a professional level.

Originally published as two instalments and you can clearly see this in the way it has been brought together with the first part bringing the investigation into the rapist to a close and opening up the hunt for the killer. There is also a difference in pace to the story between the two parts as the beginning spends quite a bit of time setting the scene and introducing the reader to the main characters. Once the investigations into the murder really got under way then the story really seemed to move quickly and I found that I became more engrossed in the book.

The plot deals with some unsavoury topics and although there are inferences as to why the murders are taking place the author manages avoid the trap of using graphic detail to get this information across, leaving it to the reader to work it out for themselves. I have never been one for graphic descriptions and sometimes get put off by books that put it in just for the sake of it. The fact that the author can leave the reader in no doubt of the motivation without going down that route will appeal to many encouraging them to read on rather than putting it down unfinished. Overall Their Final Moments is an enjoyable read and I hope to see more of Mike Croft in the future

About the Author

Why do I write?

Like most writers, it’s a kind of compulsion. The stories are there and I have to try and grab hold of them and pin them onto the page. Most of the time, I enjoy the process; sometimes, I’d rather be doing just about anything else, up to and including the ironing – and I hate ironing.

I started writing when my youngest child went to school. I was incredibly lucky and my first novel, The Greenway, was picked up by Macmillan in 1994 and published in 1995.

I currently write two series; Naomi Blake and Rina Martin. Rina was a character I’d had in mind for years before committing her to paper. An elderly, ex thespian who had played the part of a popular TV detective, she had retired to the seaside and bought a boarding house for other ex performers. Rina’s feisty, no nonsense character is, I suppose, based on the rather powerful and opinionated ladies I grew up surrounded by – mother, teachers in the all girls school I attended, aunts and pseudo aunts, all of whom had opinions about everything and made sure these were unstintingly shared.

Naomi Blake, on the other hand, was the brainchild of my late agent, Bob Tanner at International Scripts. ‘You should write a blind detective,’ he said ‘ and she needs a big, black guidedog, called Napoleon’.

I thought it was a daft idea, and told him so. I just couldn’t see how to do it. But, like a lot of seemingly daft ideas, this one wormed its was into my brain and I realised he was right. It could work and so, the Naomi Blake series came into being.

I have always written in other genres too, short stories in the SF, Fantasy and Gothic Horror genre, and am working on longer projects when time allows. I also teach Creative Writing and have had the great privilege of being a Royal Literary Fund Fellow at three different universities.

Author Links: Twitter | Facebook

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