When The Past Kills - MJ Lee

Book Five of the DI Ridpath series is out on September 24th from Canelo

MJ Lee has developed quite a niche in recent times, his creation Detective Ridpath first appeared in the latter part of 2018 and since then Lee has written with a breakneck pace of regularity providing the fifth tale of his cancer survivor Detective Inspector who has to overcome office politics, his own career aspirations and the criminals of the Manchester underworld.

From the second tale Where The Dead Fall, which was this reviewer's introduction to the series, Ridpath has this relatable everyman quality that comes across in the page; not once in the second book did this reader feel left out of a secret club with the first book narrative being relayed quickly and called back at times without leaving the reader none the wiser.

In this new book When The Past Kills, Ridpath is centre to an investigation where people who wrongly jailed an innocent man before getting the guilty coroner are being subjected to assaults, scare mongering, one by one a chain of command is being followed including online deaths to the dark web, hangings by live feed - Ridpath is in a race against time before he becomes the next victim of the serial attacker.

Lee writes with such a whipcrack rhythm full of short chapters incorporating a range of character arcs, story development and dialogue which is both expositional but gripping; set amidst the gloom of Manchester - Lee is at pains to paint this city as much of a character as his protagonists.

Every Ridpath book is one to relish, as it serves up tales that are full of tension and enjoyment - a sense of satisfaction is apparent and this book also features one hell of a cliffhanger, leaving his reader eagerly anticipating Book 6 which will hopefully drop

When The Past Kills is out on 24th September from Canelo Publishing and all formats