Code of silence- Phillip Jordan - police procedural

Gordon Beattie has a large empire much of which is  sadly on the wrong side

of the law. He smuggles in drugs hidden inside concrete which is then

smashed open to gain access and for the remains to be used for roads.

He is not averse to putting people in line if they cross him- a rather

mild description of what his organisation gets up to. DI Veronica Taylor

is called in when there is a report of a man brutally killed and a young

woman severely beaten. A gritty crime thriller set in Northern Ireland.

Beattie has just escaped prosecution- the case having collapsed so

the police are determined to get justice. There is mention of “ The

troubles'  which some of us remember and the fall out in the years

following. Written in a brilliant way and incorporating some local

dialect (but easy to understand) we follow Ronnie and her team

across drugs, trafficking loyalist gangs and organized crime and

the violence that comes with it. For a debut novel -or any other

for that matter this is stunningly written. The vivid and at times

rather brutal  descriptions put you amongst the action and I

could easily see this as a TV drama. A cleverly thought out quite

complex plot (but easy to follow) with lots of twists and turns

along the way. If you like gangland/ organised crime thriller

reads then this could be one to read. A truly brilliant debut novel.

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