When the Past Kills by M J Lee @CaneloCrime @WriterMJLee #20Booksofsummer22

The past is never over. It’s just waiting for an opportunity to return…

Book blurb

When the notorious serial killer the Beast of Manchester was captured, the streets should have been safe. Except the police got the wrong man. An innocent person was convicted, and only later was the culprit put away.

Now, those connected to the case are being targeted. Someone wants revenge. DI Thomas Ridpath has to relive the horrors all over again. As the bodies stack up once more, Ridpath knows the answers lie in the mistakes made the first time round. 

But as he is searching for clues from years ago, fresh terror awaits. While Ridpath seeks to save lives, he risks overlooking the greatest danger of all – and losing more than he can stand.

My thoughts

The past catches up with Ridpath and he has a big decision to make about his future in this explosive fifth book When the Past Kills by M J Lee.

Ridpath is a lovely character who has some darkness in him but always wants to get to the truth. He’s had cancer which is why he is working as the liaison between MIT and the Coroner. It’s a different kind of investigative work and that makes these books, for me anyway, that much more interesting.

I really enjoy the Ridpath series setting in Manchester. It is often familiar yet brings up places and areas that I don’t know too well which I find fascinating.

M J Lee tells a cracking story in each of the books but in When the Past Kills we are left on a major cliffhanger which impacts Ridpath on a very personal level. I need to get onto book six as soon as I can to find out what happens.

This is a fast paced, well plotted and very enjoyable story. I highly recommend it.

Book: purchased | My thoughts on Books 1-3 | Book 4

When the Past Kills is another of my #20booksofsummer reads. My list. Check out Cathy’s blog for details.

I’m a bit behind (there are now eight books in the series) so I very much welcomed the incentive of #20Booksofsummer22 to pick this doozy of a book. Just another three all waiting patiently for me to get to them.

I’ve been reading quite well but do have a few reviews to catch up on which I should manage through July.

Information

Published: Canelo Crime (24th September 2020)

Ebook: ISBN: 9781788637459 | Paperback: ISBN: 9781800320154

Buy: Canelo links

Author: M J Lee has spent most of his adult life writing in one form or another. As a university researcher in history, he wrote pages of notes on reams of obscure topics. As a social worker with Vietnamese refugees, he wrote memoranda. And, as the creative director of an advertising agency, he has written print and press ads, TV commercials, short films and innumerable backs of cornflake packets and hotel websites. 

He has spent 25 years of his life working outside the north of England, in London, Hong Kong, Taipei, Singapore, Bangkok and Shanghai, winning advertising awards from Cannes, One Show, D&AD, New York and the United Nations. 

While working in Shanghai, he loved walking through the old quarters of that amazing city, developing the idea behind a series of crime novels featuring Inspector Pyotr Danilov, set in the 1920s. 

When he’s not writing, he splits his time between the UK and Asia, taking pleasure in playing with his daughter, practising downhill ironing, single-handedly solving the problem of the French wine lake, and wishing he were George Clooney.

M J Lee website | @WriterMJLee

Books

M J Lee has written two other series Inspector Danilov Crime Thrillers and Jayne Sinclair Genealogical Mysteries

D I Ridpath Series

Where the Silence Calls | Where the Dead Fall | Where the Truth Lies | Where the Innocent Die | When the Past Kills | When the Evil Waits | When the Guilty Cry | When the Night Ends