The Hammer by R.J. Mitchell
After escaping the clutches of a Glasgow drug lord nicknamed ‘The Widowmaker’, the newly promoted Detective Constable Thoroughgood heads for Manchester. The northern powerhouse is home to two rival gangs: ‘The Maine Men’ and ‘The Devils. When a drug deal goes wrong and Thoroughgood fails to stop it, a full-scale turf war is ready to take over Manchester — a city split into red and blue halves.
Seconded into an undercover Greater Manchester Police unit under the command of the legendary DCI Marty Ferguson, Thoroughgood soon finds that the drugs war is not the only battle being fought in the city.
‘The Hammer’ takes Thoroughgood out of the character’s typical Scottish stomping grounds, with 1990s Manchester and a nightmare at the Theatre of Dreams forming the perfect backdrop for Mitchell’s brand of gritty, high-octane crime writing.
Book #6 in the DS Thoroughgood series.
About the author
ROBERT JAMES MITCHELL was brought up in Stirling where he attended Riverside Primary school between 1972 and 1979 before moving onto Wallace High School.
Having developed a keen interest in history from an early age, especially medieval history, Mitchell regularly corresponded with the great Scottish historical novelist Nigel Tranter during his teenage years in the mid-eighties.
Mitchell graduated MA Honours in British, European and Scottish Medieval History from Glasgow University in July 1989 and joined Strathclyde Police, on July 31, 1989.
Mitchell was initially posted to the former ‘D’ Division, or the North, as it was known to all those who served in it and the author still cherishes his first set of shoulder numerals which were D325.
After 12 years Police Service in a 'variety' of roles Mitchell left to become a sports journalist where during a 13 year period he worked for the Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser, The Glasgow Evening Times and The Scotsman.
It was in 2008, while recovering from an appendicitis, that Mitchell decided to write the first draft of ‘Parallel Lines: The Glasgow Supremacy‘, a crime thriller set in Glasgow in the recent past, drawing heavily on his own experiences and featuring the characters of Detective Sergeant Gus Thoroughgood and DC Kenny Hardie.
After a myriad of rejections the novel was published in spring 2011, by the Strategic Book Group, New York. In July, 2011, the ebook of the same novel was published by Fledgling Press of Edinburgh, for whom it is the top selling ebook.
Review
‘The Hammer’ is a high octave police thriller that isn’t afraid to pack a punch! It was tense from the get-go, fast paced, packed full of content and had a cast of interesting characters. This time the action shifts to Manchester as Gus is sent on secondment to try and hunt down a Glaswegian working down there with various criminal gangs. He is to join the Flying Squad and deals with the major gangs in Manchester and to say he is thrown into the deep end is an understatement. As much as I enjoyed this book I do prefer the series being set in Glasgow - Glasgow felt like a character running through the series. But then as a Glasgow gal maybe I'm biased!
This is the sixth book in the Thoroughgood series but can easily be read as a stand-alone. Somehow I must have missed book five and although I was a tad confused at the start (it felt like an instant continuation) I soon picked up the salient points and ran with it. Gus being Gus is soon embroiled at the centre of the action and of course, a beautiful woman is on the scene! This book is definitely action-packed and it a tense read through out. I flew through it in a couple of sittings. It was a fun read that kept me reading into the wee hours as I needed to know what the resolution would be.
Let me know if you pick this one up!
