The Two o'clock Boy by Mark Hill Book Review

BLURB

TWO CHILDHOOD FRIENDS... ONE BECAME A DETECTIVE... ONE BECAME A KILLER...

One night changed their lives
Thirty years ago, the Longacre Children's Home stood on a London street where once-grand Victorian homes lay derelict. There its children lived in terror of Gordon Tallis, the home's manager.

Cries in the fire and smoke
Then Connor Laird arrived: a frighteningly intense boy who quickly became Tallis' favourite criminal helper. Soon after, destruction befell the Longacre, and the facts of that night have lain buried . . . until today.

A truth both must hide
Now, a mysterious figure, the Two O'Clock Boy, is killing all who grew up there, one by one. DI Ray Drake will do whatever it take to stop the murders - but he will go even further to cover up the truth.

Discover the gripping, twist-filled start to a fantastic new London-set crime thriller series starring morally corrupt DI Ray Drake - the perfect new addiction for fans of Luther.

MY THOUGHTS 

Mark Hill’s debut, The Two o’clock Boy, is a startling first novel from an exciting new voice in crime fiction. The ending of this book blew me away.

I was drawn into Hill’s book which focuses primarily on events which took place in 1984 at the  Longacre children’s home which is under the management of a man, not to be reckoned with, Gordon Tallis. The children there are petrified of the man and when a boy called Toby Turrell arrives on the scene, who has been entrusted into the care of Gordon by his parents, things begin to go from bad to worse. In the present day, a family have been slaughtered in their home and it doesn’t take Detective Inspector Ray Drake and Detective Sergeant Flick Crowley long to establish a link between the recent murders and what went on in the children’s home over thirty years ago.

DI Ray Drake is desperate to brush any link between the children’s home and what is happening in the present under the carpet which arouses suspicions in his colleague, DS Flick. As the investigation progresses, tension grows between the pair as DS Flick struggles to unravel the truth behind the ghastly crimes that are taking place today and what happened in 1984 which continues to haunt DI Drake.

Mark Hill’s book was intelligent and expertly plotted. Each chapter will leave you on tenterhooks waiting to find out what happens next. There is no doubt about it, if you enjoy crime fiction, you will enjoy this book. Mark Hill is a talent to watch! Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the advanced review copy.

Publisher: Sphere

Publication date: 22nd September 2016 (kindle) 6th April 2017 (paperback)

Print Length: 432 pages

THE TWO O'CLOCK BOY IS OUT NOW!