THIS IS NOT A PIPE
BY DAVID JARVIS
Published: 3rd October 2023
TROUBADOR
How would you go about finding a relative if they had gone missing abroad?
For Michaela ‘Mike’ Kingdom, this should have been all in a day’s work. After all, she had previously been a search analyst for the CIA in London. Unfortunately, she didn’t know which name her brother-in-law was using, what he was doing or even in which country he was working. His phone had been used in Málaga three weeks previously and then gone dead. Her initial investigations were off to a slow start until the killing of a British government minister in France on his way to Spain gave her that vital first clue. That’s all Mike Kingdom needed – until she befriended a fish gutter’s dog, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
I was really looking forward to this second outing for Mike Kingdom after reading The Tip Of The Iceberg recently, and it certainly didn’t disappoint. Mike is such a cool character to read, and whether she’s at home in her cabin, or out in the field where she doesn’t think she belongs, her personality gets her into, and out of sticky situations galore again here.
Across Spain, Morocco, and France, Mike chases down leads in this fast-paced thriller. Some supporting characters make a return, and new faces emerge that Mike may well meet again, who knows?
A tense crime caper brilliantly interspersed with touches of light humour.
*I received an eARC from the publisher via NetGalley – this is my unbiased review
5 / 5
Crime, suspense and touches of humour – first class!