The Dirty Dozen by Lynda La Plante

Carrying on the #TeamTennison tour, we have my review for book five of the series "The Dirty Dozen" enjoy.

The Dirty Dozen by Lynda La Plante
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - in and out as able over a week

Pages - 490

Publisher - Zaffre

Source - Review copy

Blurb from Goodreads

April 1980 and Jane is the first female detective to be posted to the Met’s renowned Flying Squad, commonly known as the ‘Sweeney’. Based at Rigg Approach in East London, they investigate armed robberies on banks, cash in transit and other business premises.

Jane thinks her transfer is on merit and is surprised to discover she is actually part of a short-term internal experiment, intended to have a calming influence on a team that likes to dub themselves as the ‘Dirty Dozen’.

The men on the squad don’t think a woman is up to the dangers they face when dealing with some of London’s most ruthless armed criminals, who think the only ‘good cop’ is a dead cop. Determined to prove she’s as good as the men, Jane discovers from a reliable witness that a gang is going to carry out a massive robbery involving millions of pounds.

But she doesn’t know who they are, or where and when they will strike...


My Review

Book five in the Tennison series, Jane is doing well and now made it onto the Mets Flying Squad, the first female to do so. It is the 1980s so be ready for sexist, racist, chauvinistic, offensive language from the police and the bad guys. A gang are committing robberies, scoring big and the team are investigating. Jane is quite confident in her abilities and why she got onto the team, through her hard work, merit and record. She finds herself met with hostility both with some of her new team mates and the only other female in the office (not an officer).

The thing I like about Jane is she is almost always counted out and she brings it although admittedly she does have a few lapses in judgement at times. The other thing I really like is when they palm her off with nonsense or what they think is insubstantial she treats every job with the same level of efficiency - usually to her advantage.

As well as the investigation we get a bit as usual from Jane's private life, her family this time, a bit of office shenanigans, a rough estate and some shady characters/behaviours. Threats, violence, murder and all the things we have come to know/love and expect in the Tennison series, page turner, shocking turns of events and enough variety to keep it fresh even though we are five books into the series, here is to number six, 4.5/5.

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A Dark So Deadly by Stuart MacBride

A Dark So Deadly by Stuart MacBride
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - dipped in and out over 3 days

Pages - 608

Publisher - HarperCollins

Blurb from Goodreads

Welcome to the Misfit Mob…

It’s where Police Scotland dumps the officers it can’t get rid of, but wants to: the outcasts, the troublemakers, the compromised. Officers like DC Callum MacGregor, lumbered with all the boring go-nowhere cases. So when an ancient mummy turns up at the Oldcastle tip, it’s his job to find out which museum it’s been stolen from.

But then Callum uncovers links between his ancient corpse and three missing young men, and life starts to get a lot more interesting. O Division’s Major Investigation Teams already have more cases than they can cope with, so, against everyone’s better judgement, the Misfit Mob are just going to have to manage this one on their own.

No one expects them to succeed, but right now they’re the only thing standing between the killer’s victims and a slow, lingering death. The question is, can they prove everyone wrong before he strikes again?


My Review

A cop no one trusts, they think he took a bribe. A cop moved to the team for violence and two with health issues, they are the "Misfit Mob". DC Callum MacGregor is our main character, distrust is rife among his colleagues, rumored to have taken a bribe. Callum just wants a decent crack of the whip, when they get called to a dumped mummified corpse the team think this is another dead beat case. It slowly transpires there is a killer on the loose and the Misfit Mob must come together to solve it whilst trying to survive the force politics as well as their own person issues.

Oooooh I do hope this is the start of a new series and not just a one off standalone. The characters are flawed and very human in some of their questionable choices and damaged personalities. Poor Callum must be one of the most unlucky humans in the world! A sad childhood story, colleagues that don't trust him, a baby on the way and just when you think things can't get worse for him another strike of bad luck hits. As he struggles to juggle personal blows amidst a case that throws curve ball after curve ball you can't help but be drawn into the dark world MacBride has created.

We glimpse snippets of the killers world, the team interaction, the domestic side of DC MacGregor as well as the integration of the teams newest officer. If you have read MacBride before you can expect his usual humor and swearing from his Scottish characters. It is well paced and ties up earlier memories of MacGregors which initially I found a wee bit out of sync with the previous chapter however as the stories progresses it all takes shape perfectly. With twists and turns, swearing, violence, murder and mayhem this newest offering has all of MacBrides trademark writing but with fresh new characters and a chilling killer. 4/5 for me this time, thanks to Netgalley and HarperCollins for providing me with a review copy. A Dark So Deadly is out now to buy in hardback and e book.

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