Martyn Waites

Newcastle born Martyn Waites is one half of the husband and wife thriller writing team publishing under the pseudonym Tania Carver. Although I haven't read any Tania Carver books, the name was well known enough to me to pique my interest in the Tom Killgannon series that Martyn Waites has published under his own name. I own a copy of the first book in the series, The Old Religion, and I was hoping to read it before I started book two, The Sinner, but as always there are too many books and so little time.

So having jumped into the series at book two and been absolutely blown away, I'd say you could definitely read The Sinner as a standalone, however, it will leave you wanting to explore certain parts of Tom's own story in more detail. Tom Killgannon is living under a new identity following an undercover operation that saw Manchester drug lord, Dean Foley, imprisoned in Blackmoor prison. A job well done as far as Tom's previous identity of Mick Eccleston is concerned.

Tom is now living in Cornwall with a young girl named Lila, who he refers to as his niece, and working for Pearl who runs a pub. Tom is approached by the police to return undercover in order to extract the location of the bodies buried by creepy child killer, Noel Cunningham. Tom is claustrophobic so the idea of going undercover in a prison is terrifying for him but unfortunately the assignment is an order not a request so he says goodbye to Lila and Pearl and heads to Blackmoor prison. Yes, the same prison as Dean Foley, who blames Tom for his incarceration. I'm not going to reveal any more about the plot but suffice to say, Tom is too busy trying to keep himself alive to worry about his claustrophobia.

Due to the changes of identity, it is a little bit confusing at first, but I soon got into the rhythm of the book. The rhythm being something like a very fast beating heart as there is so much danger around every corner. It's so fast-paced and perilous that I frequently had sweaty palms and a rapidly beating heart when I was reading The Sinner; I even found that I was holding my breath without even realising.

Tom is a very intriguing character as you don't really know who he is, but I also loved the spunky character of Lila. I wasn't surprised to learn that Lila has a huge backstory and features heavily in book one, The Old Religion. Reading The Sinner has made me very eager to read The Old Religion as soon as I possibly can.

Full of thrills and spills and packed with danger, The Sinner is a supersonic fast-paced page turner; calling it high octane doesn't even come close to doing it justice. The Sinner is a book that made me forget to breathe and if that isn't a good recommendation, I don't know what is!

I chose to read an ARC and this is my honest and unbiased opinion.… (mais)

This is a sequel to Susan Hill's classic ghost story The Woman in Black; or to be more accurate, this is a novelisation of a film which is a sequel to a film version of Hill's novel, starring Daniel Radcliffe. While it lacks the classic Gothic writing style of Hill, I thought this was nevertheless a very good sequel, with an atmosphere of pure horror throughout. It is the Blitz and a group of children is evacuated from London to isolated Eel Marsh House somewhere in the north east of the country. If possible, the spectre of Jennet Humfrye seems even more malevolent here than in the original. There are some tragic and heart-breaking incidents here, paving the way towards an ambiguous conclusion. Very good in its own right, albeit not of Susan Hill's calibre.… (mais)

This is the novelization of ''Angel of Death'', the mediocre sequel to ''The Woman In Black'' , a 2012 beautiful film based on the novella by Susan Hill. An attempt to cash out on the success of the first film, it verifies the rule of the sequels. The book is as good as the movie and that means average at best. There's nothing to write home about, really. Other than its striking front cover, the characters are weak, irritating, the ''scares'' badly-written. It certainly can't hold a candle to the original. Worth reading only for the atmospheric setting, amidst the time of the Blitz, during the Second World War.… (mais)

Tom Killigan is an ex-undercover policeman who is now living in a small fishing village in Cornwall; he is in the Witness Protection Scheme, in hiding from violent people who are intent on revenge. He wants only to keep his head down and to live a quiet life. However, when he returns to his house one evening, after his shift as a barman at the local pub, he discovers Lila, a seventeen-year-old runaway; she has broken into his house and is clearly very scared. He manages to calm her down and discovers that she knows something about the recent disappearance of a young student, on holiday in the area with a group of friends. When Lila saw an appeal from his parents on the television, she realises that Kai, her boyfriend, and Noah, the leader of the commune where she has been staying, are involved. When they discover that she wants to help the parents by telling the police what she knows, she is imprisoned at the commune but manages to escape and breaks into Tom’s cottage to escape from a storm. However, just as she is beginning to tell him what happened, there is a knock on the door and the unexpected caller is Rachel, his liaison officer from the local police, with whom he is having an affair. By the time he manages to persuade her that it isn’t a good time for her to come in, he discovers that Lila has disappeared, taking with her his coat. He doesn’t begrudge her that as it is a cold night and will keep her warm however, as it contains his wallet, which holds everything about his new identity, he has no option but to find her as soon as possible. His search exposes him not only to a much darker side to the community in which he is living, but also to considerable
danger when his determined investigations are perceived as a threat to what is going on.
This story is set against a background of a relatively isolated village community which is struggling to survive in a post-Brexit Britain; residents have turned to some desperate measures to try to ensure a more prosperous future for the village, aiming to win a bidding-war for funds to build a new marina. The village is on the short-list for the award but certain members of the community are not prepared to leave anything to chance, even if this means resorting to a bit of magic by restoring ancient Pagan rituals, old superstitions, witchcraft and sacrifice to increase their chance of success!
Although there were moments in the story when I felt I had to suspend my disbelief that any community would react so wholeheartedly to such desperate measures, I do think there is some truth in the premise that susceptibility to a belief in the efficacy of rituals can be very powerful, especially in those who feel they have been marginalised. I also know, from now living in such a community, that the “old ways” of isolated rural communities often lie not very far below the surface! I think that the author was skilful in his evocation of such a community and I enjoyed his gradual exposure of the influences which were being brought to bear at a time of crisis. He certainly captured the way in which, as history shows us, charismatic figures can abuse their power when people are feeling vulnerable, and can focus it in such a way as to override rational thinking and instil fear. He convincingly showed the process by which this intimidation gradually and insidiously took hold, as well as how effective the threat was to anyone who tried to sound a note of caution.
In making one of the “baddies” the victim of severe childhood abuse Martyn Waites captured, in a psychologically convincing way, the recurring cycle of abuse which so often follows such experiences. The abused child becomes the abuser, gaining the power he didn’t have as a child and using it in the only way he knows how, by inflicting pain and then gaining pleasure and a sense of control from that. I thought that this theory was demonstrated very effectively as the character’s background was gradually revealed.
The author’s decision to locate this story in Cornwall was influenced by the fact that this region voted overwhelmingly to leave the EU, despite being a major recipient of EU subsidies and support. Part of his motivation was to explore what happens when people start to recognise the full implications of how their livelihoods will be affected by the withdrawal of such support.
I thought that the characters of Tom and Lila were well-drawn and I really enjoyed their developing relationship which was based, in part, on the fact that each harboured secrets from their troubled pasts and was struggling to find a reliable haven. Lila’s childhood was characterised by abuse so she found it difficult to trust anyone and was also struggling to rid herself of the guilt she felt in her complicity in the kidnapping of the student by her boyfriend. Tom’s need to keep his background hidden meant that he couldn’t be completely open with Lila as he attempted to gain her trust but his need to make reparation for what he feels was his part in the death of another young woman makes him determined, whatever the cost to himself, to protect Lila.
I found this a highly entertaining and engaging thriller and particularly enjoyed the evocatively atmospheric descriptions of a Cornwall which was so far removed from the usual picture-postcard descriptions of a county which is one of the poorest areas in the UK. Any slight niggles I had about the plot (one being why would someone who wanted to remain anonymous choose to relocate to a small, insular village in Cornwall where, as in any established community, everyone would want to know everything about him!) didn’t take away from the fact that this story held my attention from start to finish and left me feeling delighted that there will be further stories featuring Tom Killigan!
The wide-ranging themes in the story would make this a good choice for reading groups.
My thanks to Readers First who provided me with a free copy of this novel in exchange for my honest and unbiased opinion.… (mais)