Fatal Hate

By Brian Price

Published by Hobeck Books https://www.hobeck.net/?msclkid=153f0efbbc9711ecb2a3265c587ae7e9

382 pages ISBN 9781913793623

Publication date 12 April 2022

Fatal Hate is the second novel in the Mel Cotton series.

I was sent an electronic copy to enable me to take part in this Blog Tour. I would like to thank Rebecca at Hobeck Books and the author for the invitation to participate.

From the blurb

DC Mel Cotton is back with a brand-new case, the murder of Duncan Bennett. But who would want an unassuming warehouse worker dead?

Synopsis

Duncan Bennett an employee of a confectionary distributor is discovered dead in a side street near his work. He has been hit over the head with a lump of concrete so its murder. When his flat is searched the police uncover right wing and Nazi memorabilia. Further digging into his background and IT establish links to very dangerous and unpleasant people. However, appearances can be deceptive…

Duncan appeared to be onto some anomaly at work just before his murder. The police place an undercover officer into the business and what she discovers blows open a conspiracy of drugs, terrorism, and paedophilia.

The local MP is an obnoxious man, the brother of the Home Secretary, who has right wing leanings and seems to be stoking the hatred rather than quelling it. This leaves Mel and her colleagues exposed, battling against a rising tide of racism and violence to protect the public and keep themselves safe.

My thoughts

Fans of police procedurals will know that there is the difficult compromise between realism and entertainment. List too many forms and outline too many internal procedures and it becomes boring. Here Mr Price has judged it well giving an authentic feel that due process is being followed without ever getting bogged down. Another criticism is too few characters, where a DCI a side kick and a couple of plods solve a massive case. This is not true in Fatal Hate, any more officers and I would have been drawing myself an organisation chart! Mel is our eponymous heroine but doesn’t but certainly doesn’t hog the story line. Some of the key moments are saved for Mel but the whole team play a role and it feels much better for it.

The writing style is breezy, and the plot moves along at a quick pace which is just as well because its full of incident and action packed. The chapters are short and encourage the reader to read just one more. If you read it in one sitting, you may well end up exhausted and a little dizzy. The action set pieces are nicely judged, these are ordinary police officers not superheroes or martial arts experts. This is a book you can quickly get engrossed in.

As the plot is incident driven and there are so many characters, there isn’t a great deal of space for detailed characterisation, but none are obviously two dimensional and Mel is particularly well drawn. We can see that she is a doughty and determined woman in a tough environment, but she is also impulsive and fortunate. Jack tells Mel she is using up her nine lives, which she is, though I can see her entertaining us with her scrapes for a few more novels yet. As the series progresses and develops no doubt Mel and Tom will too.

The pick of the other characters was Robbie the ‘Paedo Hunter’ and Jeannie McLeod who’s sister was the catalyst for the story. The reader feels he understands Jeannie’s motives throughout the novel but there is a lovely twist in the ending which explains her determination.

The central themes are dark, paedophilia, terrorism, racial hate, and class A drugs, a real explosive mixture. These are confidently handled. There are a couple of sensitive scenes which are delicately covered, leaving more to the imagination than is included on the page. The idea of the ‘false flag’ terrorist attacks was a good one, so good one wonders if it has been tried but thwarted by the security services. There are some light, funny moments, and bits of banter within the dialogue though. Indeed, I had a good chuckle when the most inappropriate vehicle for a ‘getaway car’ but I won’t spoil the fun by detailing it here. These stopped the novel from getting too dark and kept it entertaining.

Another device used was inserting ‘Easter Eggs’ into the text. The author has included within the novel over thirty quotes and cultural references and these comprise an Easter Competition which is set out at the beginning of the book. If you are the competitive type, then read with a notebook nearby and don’t hang about as entries have to be in before midnight on 30 June 2022. The prize is some special chocolates and a signed copy of Brian’s next book.

Fatal Hate is a fast paced, action-packed police procedural with an authentic feel about it. Great entertainment for a Bank Holiday weekend.

The author

Brian Price is a writer living in the South West of England. A scientist by training, he worked for the Environment Agency for twelve years and has also worked as an environmental consultant, a pharmacy technician and, for 26 years, as an Open University tutor.

As well as the Mel Cotton series he is the author of Crime Writing: How to write the science, a guide for authors on the scientific aspects of crime. He has a website on this topic (www.crimewriterscience.co.uk) and advises crime writers on how to avoid scientific mistakes in their books.

Brian reads a wide range of crime fiction himself and also enjoys Terry Pratchett, Genevieve Cogman and Philip Pullman. He may sometimes be found listening to rock, folk and 1960s psychedelic music. He is married and has four grown-up children.

Fatal Hate can be purchased direct from the publisher here