Deadline by Geoff Major
Adam Ferranti was drinking away his waking hours, getting by in a regional newspaper in the North of England. An award-winning journalist, he moved to England to escape the media glare that followed his spectacular fall from grace at The Washington Post; only to be thrust back in it when a mysterious serial killer decides to make him his confidante.
DS Stephanie Walker is a successful member of the West Yorkshire Police force. Whilst she is tough and results-driven at work, with a fearsome reputation on the streets, she hides the domestic abuse she suffers at home.
She finds Ferranti exceptionally difficult to deal with, but he’s her only chance to stay close to what the elusive killer is planning next. Ferranti reluctantly complies with the Police, even though he is fighting his own personal demons, but when his best friend is murdered by the killer, it suddenly gets personal. And suddenly, no-one is quite who they seemed to be
About Geoff Major:
A long time ago, Geoff Major had an idea for a story, whilst walking his girls to primary school. Two years ago, he decided he had the time and patience to try to write the story down. His wife was wholly supportive, so he turned from full-time to part-time for four months and now - 23 years after that idea first popped into his head - it has been published.
As a self-employed business consultant for 18 years and a fundraising adventurer for 10 years (including ski-trekking 50 miles, over 6 days and 6 nights, to the geographic North Pole), he now works for a debt charity whilst plotting his next three books
Social Media:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/GradusPrimus
Blog: https://lets-start-at-the-very-beginning.blogspot.com/
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Review
Well wasn’t this a doozer of a book! Absolutely loved this one. The mixture of police procedural with journalism and political thriller was great. It completely captivated me from the opening car crash scene right to the very end. It was such a compelling book, it had me on tenterhooks the whole way through. There were scenes where I wanted to throw away the book in anger and that means for me I got so involved with the characters that I was annoyed for them!
I really enjoyed the characters in this book. Adam, Stephanie and Kharti were my favourites. I wanted to just give Kharti a cuddle and tell him that everything would be alright. I liked that the issue of domestic abuse was handled well by the author. Even though as a police officer Stephanie should have been able to stop it, it shows that it can affect everyone. That’s it’s a complex issue with psychological issues behind it as well as the guy being a violent ahole. Adam was a complex character who had a good back story and I really enjoyed the resolution for his character and the book in general.
The pacing of ‘Deadline’ was great, it had punches of action throughout that kept your attention. My attention never wavered as I just spent the whole day reading this book as I couldn’t put it down! The plot of the murders was easy to follow but the political angle was complex! Not too complex that you couldn’t follow it but made you doubt yourself and what you thought the outcome was going to be. I love books that do that!
Just one point to note I grew in Scarborough and you can’t actually see Valley Bridge from castle! I fricking loved the show down in the castle though. I also loved all the Leeds references as well as my dad lived there when I was growing up. He actually sold a picture to the Yorkshire Post of Scarborough - random fact of the day!
To sum up this book was great - it was entralling, complex, entertaining, it had great characterisation and a stunning plot! It’s one you should all be putting to the top of your tbr piles!
