Death Under a Little Sky: The new debut rural crime detective thriller you won’t want to miss in 2023 (Jake Jackson, Book 1)

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We ask experts to recommend the five best books in their subject and explain their selection in an interview. I think it was a great debut, i would recommended it to anyone who likes a good detective with a side of realistic reality for the main protagonist, I felt the author normalised the character which made it real for me. I’m interested to see what’s in store for Jake moving forward.

In September 2001, Abell joined the Press Complaints Commission as a complaints officer; he completed other roles at the PCC including press officer, assistant director and deputy director before being appointed Director of the PCC on 19 December 2010. In August 2013, Abell joined The Sun as managing editor, his role until the end of April 2016. I do think this was more of a cosy thriller compared to the more edge of your seat thriller. However, that didn't take away my enjoyment of the book.This is the line that broke me: "a soft, biscuitty smell on her clothes." Full body cringe, gag-reflex activated. Awful, florid, excessively cute, I hate it. And the thing is, that was one of the less egregious examples! It's just one that stood out. Biscuitty. Soft. A soft, biscuitty smell. Aaargh. I’d call this book a cosy thriller, the first half of the book was definitely slower than the second half however that didn’t take away from the storyline. I loved learning about this quiet community that Jake found himself living in. I loved meeting all of the locals too, some good and some not so good. What I absolutely loved the most was the imagery, seriously, I could see Jake rambling around his acres of land and imagine every single step he took and what he was seeing, I love an author that gets that right.

The village has very little. A general store, which doubles as a bar. A church, but no vicar. No school and not much of anything else, while Jake's new house has a magnificent library and a lake, but no bathroom or washing machine. Gradually, he begins to get to know his surroundings and the few locals. Livia, the local vet, Dr Peter, an elderly biologist, Sarah at 'The Jolly Nook,' and a host of vaguely hostile, insular locals, mainly consisting of recalcitrant matrons and aggressive farmhands. We first meet Jake as he walks for miles searching for his late uncles property, Arthur had left this to Jake in his will and as Jakes marriage wasn’t doing great he decided to move there for some peace and quiet. There are some lovely references to detective fiction - in Jake’s reading and as he considers his investigations. In Jake I felt a sense of Morse and Endeavour; of catching a first glimpse of a great new detective at his inception. I LOVED this. I found it totally immersive, and couldn’t wait to squeeze some time from my day to return to it. The writing is very classy and the conclusion came as a surprise, which is always a treat’ Ann Cleeves In het begin moest ik even wennen aan de schrijfstijl, daar het niet als een thriller overkwam, maar meer als een roman die op gang moest komen. Wel is er direct heel beeldend geschreven, waardoor je het idee hebt dat je in het verhaal aanwezig bent. Geleidelijk aan begint er meer spanning te komen in het verhaal en gaat het meer op een thriller lijken. De spanning wordt na ruim de helft van het boek goed opgebouwd en je wordt nieuwsgierig wat er nu gebeurd is en wie dan uiteindelijk de dader is.The isolated setting worked well, although it was fairly unbelievable that you could have a whole house and modern extension, with some modern fittings, without any kind of access road or lane. There seemed to be no issue with vehicles travelling across anybody’s land (and the locals are hardly amenable.) I enjoyed this one to a point. It did seem a bit confused about what it wanted to be. Starts as a mystery thriller then veers into cosy thriller, a sort of self discovery book and a romance novel. The end I thought was a bit of a let down and a bit hard to swallow. Stig Abell is a successful and well-known British journalist and this is his first venture into fiction. He has apparently been a fan of crime fiction since his pre-teen years, having followed the same trajectory as so many of us have, via Holmes, Christie, Sayers, etc., and then on to contemporary crime. I wondered if this was going to be a kind of homage to the golden age authors he clearly reveres, but although he references many of them entertainingly, his style is very much his own. And he writes like a dream, making this pure pleasure to read (despite being in the present tense) with a distinctly literary feel. If you enjoy a cosier type of thriller with not much gore but enough action to keep you interested and intrigued then this may be the book for you. I enjoyed about two thirds of the book and the only parts I became bored with was the relationship between Jake and the local vet. The whole on again-off again aspect grated after a time. Second in the military crime series featuring Special Agents Scott Brodie and Magnolia "Maggie" Taylor, after The Deserter (2019).

It reads more like a character set up and introduction in a longer series for Jake rather than an exciting stand alone detective story Jake who is recently separated leaves the bright lights and bustle of London to move into his late Uncles house in the country. An ex detective, Jake wants a quiet life away from the stress of the job and to re-evaluate his life after his marriage has failed. When the bones of a young woman turn up during a treasure hunt, it is among these people that Jake will have to seek for answers. Strangers at first, he and the reader will gradually come to know them, to see their connections to each other – the loves and jealousies, the kindnesses and brutalities, the secrets and the fears. The depth of the characterisation is wonderful, layer built on layer. Many of the characters are eccentric, but none are caricatured – I found each one credible in his or her own life, seeing how the claustrophobia of isolation affects both individuals and community. The first one, Death Under a Little Sky, is out now and I’ve got a deal to write three more. So there will be four of them. The second one is pretty much written and being proof edited and I’ve actually finished the first draft of the third one. I don’t know if the publisher is happy or just bemused by me, because all I want to do is sit and write these books. I’m not worried about deadlines, I’m not thinking, ‘How am I going to get it done?’ All I want to do is sit and write. Jake leaves his failed marriage and job as Detective for a house in the middle of nowhere. Living totally off grid offers the opportunity to renegotiate a life that hasn’t gone well so far.. Embracing the practical and mental challenges of his self imposed exile, Jake is consoled by a library of detective novels, listening to music, swimming in the lake and the wildlife..Dodelijke Afloop is een Whodunit met persoonlijke sfeer. Je speurt als lezer met Jake mee. Zijn angst wordt levens echt beschreven. Het voelt alsof je hetzelf ervaart. Dit geeft het verhaal body en kracht.

Het nieuwe leven bevalt Jake prima en hij weet zich goed te vermaken zonder alle luxe van zijn leven in London. Dit zorgzame leven verandert alsl hij tijdens een jaarlijkse speurtocht een tas met menselijk botten vindt. Ik wil World of Thrillers en uitgeverij HarperCollins bedanken dat ik dit boek, Dodelijke afloop van Stig Abell, mocht lezen voor een review. i found this book very descriptive about everything to the point that i wasnt enjoying it as much as i thought i was going to...

But then, what starts as a fun village treasure hunt turns deadly, when a young woman’s bones are discovered. And Jake is thrust once again into the role of detective, as he tries to unearth a dangerous killer in this most unlikely of settings Jake ligt in scheiding met zijn vrouw en vanwege een erfenis van zijn oom besluit hij om weg te gaan en als voormalig rechercheur naar het helemaal afgelegen dorp waar hij eigenaar is geworden van een woonboerderij te gaan, die van zijn oom was. Tijdens een spel vind hij botten van een vrouw en raakt hij verwikkelt in het onderzoek om te ontdekken wie deze vrouw is en wat er met haar gebeurd is.