Lee Child has a successful formula and he sticks to it. But unlike many series, Child's Reacher is a peripatetic, and while I've never been to many of the locations Reacher finds himself in there is always plenty to suggest Child has. In this novel Reacher comes to London, and Child captures perfectly the reality of the modern day city and how it has changed recently.

The great thing about the Jack Reacher novels of Lee Child is they always deliver. Technical detail of weapons and their impact on both user and victim are never gratuitous but never leave the reader in any doubt the real thing is best avoided.

"John MacRae is the cover name of a former senior Intelligence Officer with a Special Forces background. He has written extensively on intelligence and military history, and has worked for BBC television and other TV companies as an advisor on military and intelligence subjects. He saw active service in the Falkland Islands, Cyprus, Arabia, and Northern Ireland."

But can we believe any of this when the publisher, allegedly "the UK's largest independent publisher of digital books" needs to cheat and list a fiction Kindle Store > Books > Nonfiction > Biographies & Memoirs > Leaders & Notable People and
Kindle Store > Books > Nonfiction > Biographies & Memoirs > Professionals & Academics ?

Amazon have supposedly clamped down on authors using the names of more successful authors in the title to game the search engines. Evidently "the UK's largest independent publisher of digital books" is unaware of this.

The great thing about James patterson is, if you like his style and like one of his books you'll like them all. Formulaic they may be, but that's what series are about. Comfort reading.

WMC to takes the characters from the first of the series and wastes no time in getting the reader headlong into the action.

Four stars because at the end of the day it's neither realistic nor Shakespeare. But a great action yarn.

Having been blown away by Sugar & Spice I was apprehensive about this new series, which is most definitely not a sequel. Sugar & Spice was unlike anything else out there, with it's dark exploration of the mind of a child-killer. An incredible read, but not something you could ever follow. It's one of a kind.

Instead the author has opted for a totally new and fresh approach, with the first of a series of crime thrillers based around European fairy-tales. The result is another fast-paced, action-packed thriller with so many angles you simply cannot put it down.

Desforges is the master of the cliff-hanger ending and the throat-grabbing opening line. You desperately want to stop reading and make a cup of tea, but the next chapter opener grabs your attention and before you know it you're whisked into the story again.

And though I didn't spot them all (too absorbed in the story - I'll have to re-read) I loved the allusions to the Disney movie and the fairy-tale.

Can't wait for the next book, Rapunzel.

If you love comic-book superheroes, you'll love this.

If you hate comic-book superheroes you'll still love this!

The author takes a tired genre graphic-novel superhero concept and tranforms it into a very readable, thought-provoking and throughly enjoyable book that I cannot recommend highly enough.

Not just a fresh take on an old idea, but written with insight and intelligence, not to mention a mastery of the English language.

This was recommended to me by a Kindle UK best-selling author and I was not disappointed. Nor will you be.

I love Sherlock Holmes, so a free edition on my Kindle seemed too good to be true.

Sadly there were formatting issues that ruined my enjoyment.

The British pound sign (£) for example, did not survive the conversion and was replaced by meaningless characters and values and given this happened frequently it ruined the flow of Conan Doyle's writing.

Yes, it's free. But it's a Kindle version of a published classic that has stood the test of time. It's demeaning to see classics reproduced in shoddy fashion like this.

This is the "American" version of the Kindle UK best-seller. The storyline is essentialy the same in both books, but here the story has been relocated to New York state, spellings have been Americanised and British phrases and pecularities have been Americanised.

It's a unique idea, recognising that the British and American justice and legal systems are very different, and rewriting the story for each market, while making sure both versions are available, for those who like their novels unadulterated.

Did it work? Absolutely!

Even though I knew what was coming, the storyline is so compelling I found myself unable to put this down. What follows is my review for the original version, which applies fully to the US edition.

***

Now and then you come across a book that take a tired old concept - in this case a serial killer stalking little kids - and turns it on its head, to produce something truly original.

Not since The Silence Of The Lambs has anything in the crime thriller genre come close to warranting the term ground-breaking.

Until now.

Sugar & Spice takes us on a roller-coaster ride of emotions, at once appalling yet mesmerising in its subject matter. It takes apart the mind of the paedophile and reassembles it in three different characters, only one of which is the killer.

And therein lies the true depth and beauty of this novel.

For while the mother of a murdered child seeks, and eventually succeeds, in bringing the killer to justice, two innocent men pay the price along the way.

Only, neither are innocent. So why do we feel for them? Care about them? Dare I say, trust them?

If you want gory detail of post-mortems, stick with Scarpetta. If it's plodding police detectives, Morse is your man. If you like the mystery to be solved with high-tech forensics, go back to CSI:Miami. This is unlike anything else out there.

And written in a unique style that just drags you through the pages by your hair, defying you to take a break. And on those odd moments when you dare put it down you are left with questions you wish you hadn't been asked, that taunt you, compelling you to read on.

This was recommended to me by Mark Williams, co-author of the Kindle UK best-seller Sugar & Spice: The ground-breaking debut crime thriller, but when he told me it was one of the best books he'd EVER read I confess to questioning his judgement.

What would a writer of gritty crime thrillers know about romantic literary fiction?

Quite a lot, it seems.

This book is quite simply in a league of its own. I was stunned.

Previous reviewers have already summarised the storyline, so here just to say, this is a novel of exceptional quality.

The five stars available are quite inadequate to do it justice.

Now and then you come across a book that take a tired old concept - in this case a serial killer stalking little kids - and turns it on its head, to produce something truly original.

Not since The Silence Of The Lambs has anything in the crime thriller genre come close to warranting the term ground-breaking.

Until now.

Sugar & Spice takes us on a roller-coaster ride of emotions, at once appalling yet mesmerising in its subject matter. It takes apart the mind of the paedophile and reassembles it in three different characters, only one of which is the killer.

And therein lies the true depth and beauty of this novel.

For while the mother of a murdered child seeks, and eventually succeeds, in bringing the killer to justice, two innocent men pay the price along the way.

Only, neither are innocent. So why do we feel for them? Care about them? Dare I say, trust them?

If you want gory detail of post-mortems, stick with Scarpetta. If it's plodding police detectives, Morse is your man. If you like the mystery to be solved with high-tech forensics, go back to CSI:Miami. This is unlike anything else out there.

And written in a unique style that just drags you through the pages by your hair, defying you to take a break. And on those odd moments when you dare put it down you are left with questions you wish you hadn't been asked, that taunt you, compelling you to read on.

I understand this is a first novel from this author. Let's hope it's not a one-shot wonder and there's plenty more to come!