Sarah Reviews… Nothing To Hide by James Oswald

Title: Nothing To Hide

Author: James Oswald

Publisher: Wildfire

Publication Date: 25^th July 2019

Format: eARC

This book was received from the publisher in return for an honest review

About the book:

Suspended from duty after her last case ended in the high-profile arrest of one of Britain’s wealthiest men, DC Constance Fairchild is trying to stay away from the limelight. Fate has other ideas . . .

Coming home to her London flat, Constance stumbles across a young man, bloodied, mutilated and barely alive. She calls it in and is quickly thrown into the middle of a nationwide investigation . . . It seems that the victim is just the latest in a string of similar ritualistic attacks.

No matter that she is off-duty, no matter that there are those in the Met who would gladly see the back of her, Con can’t shake her innate determination to bring the monsters responsible for this brutality to justice.

Trouble always seems to find her, and even if she has nothing to hide, perhaps she has everything to lose . . .

I will willingly admit that it took me far too long to read No Time To Cry But once I did I simply needed more DC Constance Fairchild in my life. I was very lucky and Wildfire approved my Netgalley request for this follow up and it certainly did not disappoint!

After the events of the last book Con has been hiding out in the Scottish Highlands waiting for things to calm down. On her return home she discovers a body by the bins, the man is still alive but it’s not pretty, he’s missing his tongue and he’s been castrated. Con calls it in and before long DCI Bain is on the scene. DCI Bain’s appearance makes it obvious that this is not a one off and soon Con discovers that they have already discovered 6 dead bodies across the UK with similar injuries. Still officially suspended from the force Con is directed back to Scotland out of the way but soon lands herself back in the middle of it as another body is discovered.

Nothing To Hide is another fantastically plotted book from James Oswald. I flew through it in just a couple of sittings and genuinely surprised myself when I glanced down at the corner of my kindle and it informed me I was 73% of the way through the book. It felt like I’d only just picked it up to start!

The action in the book moves between London and Edinburgh and back again with a couple of stops in Con’s birthplace, Harston Magna, along the way. The plot covers a lot of ground, and there is a lot of detail to take in along the way but the plot still feels well paced and builds to a particularly dramatic ending that I absolutely loved and I couldn’t turn the pages quickly enough to get to the end and find out what happened. I’m quite intrigued to see how the ending will effect Con and the family going forward.

DC Constance Fairchild is of course back for her second story and I am just as fond of her as previously. I totally understood her frustration with not being able to do her job, and being surrounded by paparazzi, being dubbed Posh Cop and being openly disliked by your colleagues cannot be easy! I did like her determination to keep digging even when perhaps she shouldn’t. It may have got her into a sticky situation or two but I’m fairly certain she won’t learn from it!

It was nice to see Izzy, Charlotte and Aunt Felicity return from the previous book alongside DCI Bain. New to Nothing To Hide are Bain’s superior officer Diane Shepherd and PC Karen-with-a-K Eve. Shepherd comes across as someone who is probably quite easy to underestimate if taken at face value and PC Eve seems like a solid cop keen to make the most of her career.I’m quite sure they’ll both make excellent additions to the series if they stick around.

One of the best bits about Con’s trip to Edinburgh was the return of Madame Rose, this was only made better when Janie Harrison and Manda Parsons stumble across Con at the pub, and I could not help but smile when Grumpy Bob appeared! I’ve always had a soft spot for Grumpy Bob!

Final Thoughts

Once again James Oswald has created a fantastic story, with plenty of drama along the way. This is shaping up to be another fantastic series that may even rival the McLean books in my eyes!

The DC Constance Fairchild books on Goodreads

More James Oswald on SWB

About The Author

James Oswald is the author of the Sunday Times bestselling Inspector McLean series of detective mysteries, as well as the new DC Constance Fairchild series. James’s first two books, NATURAL CAUSES and THE BOOK OF SOULS, were both short-listed for the prestigious CWA Debut Dagger Award. AS COLD AS THE GRAVE is the ninth book in the Inspector Mclean Series. James farms Highland cows and Romney sheep by day, writes disturbing fiction by night.