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Without Warning
Rush hour on the underground and a killer is at large in London, striking apparently haphazardly in a series of vicious attacks. Andy Brewster, ex-SAS, on sick leave from active service in Iraq, works undercover for the Metropolitan police with his bomb expert partner, Burgess. Together they must find the killer before he strikes again. So far the victims have all been women with no apparent connection. Beth Hardy, former caterer who now runs a gourmet food shop; her daughter Imogen, dancing at the National; sad Celeste with her terrible secret; widowed Margaret, in town to shop; and American tourist, Ellie, stranded there alone. Each of them regularly travels by tube not knowing they could be potential victims. When the July 7 bombs go off and public awareness is raised, Brewster and Burgess have a race against time to apprehend the stalker. But danger comes not just from knives and bombs. Murder is deadlier when the heart is involved ...
320 pages, Paperback
First published September 7, 2006
4 people are currently reading
57 people want to read
About the author
Carol Smith
157 books31 followersLibrarian's Note: There is more than one author with this name.
Carol Smith was born in London and worked in the book trade, both in London and New York, before becoming a full-time writer herself. For much of that time she ran her own literary agency, focussed on finding and developing new talent, although now her own writing takes up most of her time. She lives in Kensington. She also writes under the name Alex Crowe.
Carol Smith was born in London and worked in the book trade, both in London and New York, before becoming a full-time writer herself. For much of that time she ran her own literary agency, focussed on finding and developing new talent, although now her own writing takes up most of her time. She lives in Kensington. She also writes under the name Alex Crowe.
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Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews
November 6, 2021
Interesting concept, kept waiting to see if my favourite characters would get murdered!
December 17, 2008
I enjoyed this book, but feel there are several flaws which hold it back from meeting its true five-star potential.
Basically the novel is set around the summer of 2005 and a Circle Line Killer on the London Underground who stabs random women to death, before pushing them under oncoming underground trains. Firstly that whole premise is flawed due to the amazing amount of CCTV which happens to be around London. Its unbelieveable that none of the cameras trained around Tube stations in London would pick up on the women being murdered in the middle of a crowded station. Equally unbelieveable is the fact that the case detectives would be told just to ride around all day on the Tube in order to bump into the killer.
Secondly the novel moves between several different characters, mainly females, who are in London and regularly travel by Tube. This technique is a fresh approach in a crime novel such as this, but in this case is poorly used and the short (3 page) glimpses into each character are not sufficient to increase the tension. Also one detail which particularly annoyed me was that in the end at two of these characters end up being completely and utterly pointless and have no link whatsoever to the rest of the story. It could also be argued that several more of the characters are equally pointless and do not contribute anything to the plot. I kept waiting for these two characters to become relevant to the rest of the story but they never did.
Finally the novel finishes far too quickly, with the murderer being caught and killed and buried within the last four pages, as well as the detective realising that after shooting the murderer he cannot possibly have a relationship with the murderer's sister and with this returning to the British Army. This is sloppy and rushed writing.
The whole premise of the book as well as its style are very good and while it is well written in that I could clearly visualise both the city and the characters, it is a poorly thought out plot and lack of tension which really damage the book.
I did give it two stars, but would only suggest it as an untaxing holiday read or perhaps a present for someone you didn't like all that much! :)
Basically the novel is set around the summer of 2005 and a Circle Line Killer on the London Underground who stabs random women to death, before pushing them under oncoming underground trains. Firstly that whole premise is flawed due to the amazing amount of CCTV which happens to be around London. Its unbelieveable that none of the cameras trained around Tube stations in London would pick up on the women being murdered in the middle of a crowded station. Equally unbelieveable is the fact that the case detectives would be told just to ride around all day on the Tube in order to bump into the killer.
Secondly the novel moves between several different characters, mainly females, who are in London and regularly travel by Tube. This technique is a fresh approach in a crime novel such as this, but in this case is poorly used and the short (3 page) glimpses into each character are not sufficient to increase the tension. Also one detail which particularly annoyed me was that in the end at two of these characters end up being completely and utterly pointless and have no link whatsoever to the rest of the story. It could also be argued that several more of the characters are equally pointless and do not contribute anything to the plot. I kept waiting for these two characters to become relevant to the rest of the story but they never did.
Finally the novel finishes far too quickly, with the murderer being caught and killed and buried within the last four pages, as well as the detective realising that after shooting the murderer he cannot possibly have a relationship with the murderer's sister and with this returning to the British Army. This is sloppy and rushed writing.
The whole premise of the book as well as its style are very good and while it is well written in that I could clearly visualise both the city and the characters, it is a poorly thought out plot and lack of tension which really damage the book.
I did give it two stars, but would only suggest it as an untaxing holiday read or perhaps a present for someone you didn't like all that much! :)
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 17, 2023
It was a good idea but there were too many characters who didn’t need to be included at all and just caused confusion at times. It wasn’t difficult to guess what was going on so no great revelations at the end - apart from one which I totally didn’t see coming. The end seemed rushed I’m sure this could have been a bit more in depth but it’s worth reading if you can be bothered to concentrate enough to know who everyone is.
February 9, 2017
I liked this book and thought it could have earned a 4-star review if a few things had been done better. Personally, I struggled to keep track of the characters and especially in the first half of the novel it seemed to jump all over the place earning it only a 2-star review.
I liked the premise of focussing the novel on several lives of female characters living in London and travelling on the Tube but there was not enough insight into who each character was and there was too much jumping back and forward and all over the place - made this novel difficult to follow. Strangely, it improves towards the second half and seems to tie up most of the loose ends reasonably well. I didn’t understand why the unhappy wife and her husband (who spent a lot of the second half of the novel in Hospital) were in the novel at all. I must have missed something, else the Author did.
You only get glimpses into each character and at times I found myself wondering why they were mentioned. A lot of the time these character ‘drop-ins” didn’t move the story forward and seemed quite irrelevant. I struggled in nearly every part of this book to figure out how and why each character related to each other.
I was both disappointed and content with the ending. The bad guy got it. The ending circles back to the ex-SAS characters' dog, Burgess, whom I hadn’t noticed at the start of the novel because he was only mentioned briefly and then a heap of other characters dumped in there. The dog could easily have been a human partner not a dog and I assume Finch was a dog too but I can’t be certain. Sorry if this all sounds confusing but that’s how I found this novel throughout. Using She or He to start chapters and assuming the reader could work out who the Author was talking about which luckily most times was workable but at the start you really didn't get to know the characters - it was challenging.
All too quickly the novel finishes with the bad guy caught, killed, buried and this dog (partner to the ex-SAS guy, that was introduced briefly at the start), brings him down. The supposed romance between the ex-SAS and his ex-suspect fizzles and I think only because the writer must have thought that if the guy ends up with the girl it would be cliché. The ending felt like: “Bugger, I forgot to make dinner, I’ll just end it – stick the dog in, end the romance and get the ex-SAS guy back to his old job; that’ll do it!”
If you want to read this book I suggest you be prepared with a notepad and pen and jot down the characters names and keep track of them. I feel I should go back and re-read this novel to find out how each character fits. However, I don’t need to waste that much of my time when there are so many more books to be read.
The book had some redeeming features as it was easy to visualize the city and the characters. In fact some of the scenes were excellent. I did feel the pace quicken towards the second half and I could finally remember a few characters which helped increase the novel's appeal. It was actually quite gripping towards the end. I’m not 100% sure but I think there may have been some POV shifts which also added to the confusion.
I think I might try to read another of Carol Smith’s novels as I think this may have just been one of her lesser works and I feel it was close to being a great read but for a few flaws and a lack of hard editing being done.
I liked the premise of focussing the novel on several lives of female characters living in London and travelling on the Tube but there was not enough insight into who each character was and there was too much jumping back and forward and all over the place - made this novel difficult to follow. Strangely, it improves towards the second half and seems to tie up most of the loose ends reasonably well. I didn’t understand why the unhappy wife and her husband (who spent a lot of the second half of the novel in Hospital) were in the novel at all. I must have missed something, else the Author did.
You only get glimpses into each character and at times I found myself wondering why they were mentioned. A lot of the time these character ‘drop-ins” didn’t move the story forward and seemed quite irrelevant. I struggled in nearly every part of this book to figure out how and why each character related to each other.
I was both disappointed and content with the ending. The bad guy got it. The ending circles back to the ex-SAS characters' dog, Burgess, whom I hadn’t noticed at the start of the novel because he was only mentioned briefly and then a heap of other characters dumped in there. The dog could easily have been a human partner not a dog and I assume Finch was a dog too but I can’t be certain. Sorry if this all sounds confusing but that’s how I found this novel throughout. Using She or He to start chapters and assuming the reader could work out who the Author was talking about which luckily most times was workable but at the start you really didn't get to know the characters - it was challenging.
All too quickly the novel finishes with the bad guy caught, killed, buried and this dog (partner to the ex-SAS guy, that was introduced briefly at the start), brings him down. The supposed romance between the ex-SAS and his ex-suspect fizzles and I think only because the writer must have thought that if the guy ends up with the girl it would be cliché. The ending felt like: “Bugger, I forgot to make dinner, I’ll just end it – stick the dog in, end the romance and get the ex-SAS guy back to his old job; that’ll do it!”
If you want to read this book I suggest you be prepared with a notepad and pen and jot down the characters names and keep track of them. I feel I should go back and re-read this novel to find out how each character fits. However, I don’t need to waste that much of my time when there are so many more books to be read.
The book had some redeeming features as it was easy to visualize the city and the characters. In fact some of the scenes were excellent. I did feel the pace quicken towards the second half and I could finally remember a few characters which helped increase the novel's appeal. It was actually quite gripping towards the end. I’m not 100% sure but I think there may have been some POV shifts which also added to the confusion.
I think I might try to read another of Carol Smith’s novels as I think this may have just been one of her lesser works and I feel it was close to being a great read but for a few flaws and a lack of hard editing being done.
February 21, 2012
I found it really hard to get into this book, as the author was jumping all over the place, from one character to the next and back again, making it difficult to keep up with them all, and in turn, difficult to get to know them.
The rush hour on the City Circle line of the Underground in London was the killer’s playground..he would strike, seemingly at random, the victims young women, many of them using their mobile phones at the time. The first victim seemed to stumble in the rushing crowd, the horror of her death creating havoc with people going about their business. The second victim was obviously a murder, as she had been stabbed, which made Andy Brewster, ex-SAS on sick leave from Iraq, and working undercover for the Metropolitan Police with his bomb expert partner, Burgess, realize the first victim was probably a murder as well.
In a race against the clock, and with terrorists setting off suicide bombs on the Underground, and also a double decker bus, things were getting chaotic. Suddenly a third murder gave them a suspect, but Brewster had his doubts! Was the killer still out there, with more potential victims in danger?
Once I had the characters sorted out about half way through the book, the story began to flow, I began to get to know and like the main characters, Margaret and Ellie, Imogen, Alice and Julie, Celeste and Beth, all with lives and secrets of their own, but seemingly entwined. But death and danger was out there...who would be safe, and who would not?
The rush hour on the City Circle line of the Underground in London was the killer’s playground..he would strike, seemingly at random, the victims young women, many of them using their mobile phones at the time. The first victim seemed to stumble in the rushing crowd, the horror of her death creating havoc with people going about their business. The second victim was obviously a murder, as she had been stabbed, which made Andy Brewster, ex-SAS on sick leave from Iraq, and working undercover for the Metropolitan Police with his bomb expert partner, Burgess, realize the first victim was probably a murder as well.
In a race against the clock, and with terrorists setting off suicide bombs on the Underground, and also a double decker bus, things were getting chaotic. Suddenly a third murder gave them a suspect, but Brewster had his doubts! Was the killer still out there, with more potential victims in danger?
Once I had the characters sorted out about half way through the book, the story began to flow, I began to get to know and like the main characters, Margaret and Ellie, Imogen, Alice and Julie, Celeste and Beth, all with lives and secrets of their own, but seemingly entwined. But death and danger was out there...who would be safe, and who would not?
July 17, 2020
Great story idea but poorly executed.
The short introduction to numerous characters made it hard to differentiate between them for at least a third of the book.
Some of the many characters had storylines unrelated to the plot. I guess this was to add to the suspense/ red herrings but it didn't really work for me.
The identity of the killer was obvious by the middle of the book. In some books, knowing who it is, adds to the suspense. With this one, the early reveal didn't add anything.
The ending was flat and rushed.
My biggest problem were the glaring plot holes and unbelievable situations.
The short introduction to numerous characters made it hard to differentiate between them for at least a third of the book.
Some of the many characters had storylines unrelated to the plot. I guess this was to add to the suspense/ red herrings but it didn't really work for me.
The identity of the killer was obvious by the middle of the book. In some books, knowing who it is, adds to the suspense. With this one, the early reveal didn't add anything.
The ending was flat and rushed.
My biggest problem were the glaring plot holes and unbelievable situations.
January 6, 2019
Fairly gripping but let down by a hurried and disappointing ending. There were also 3 characters whose stories had no real reason to be included. As possible victims they needed only to make a brief appearance. However they were given lengthy and unnecessarily in depth stories and while interesting they just didn't need to be there in my opinion.
April 29, 2020
A mad killer is on the loose in London, attacking women on the Circle Line, until the 7/7 bombers drive him onto the streets. With a disparate selection of potential victims this has one or two moments of real tension but following up characters who ultimately play no part in the action and with a stereotypical hero, this never lives up to its promise. A disappointing read.
May 31, 2023
I know it takes a lot to write a book so I am loathe to criticise, but there should be some payoff for the effort of reading, and there wasn't one.
Throughout I was wondering how the different story lines would come together, only to find they didn't.
It was obvious who the killer was far too early, with no twist at the end. More could have been done to show how the killer had been raised rather than just telling.
Too many characters were irrelevant to the story an I'm left wondering why they were in this book and not a totally different one, where they belong.
Too many situations were unrealistic, and mentioning names of places without a map was meaningless to someone who doesn't know London (and is delighted to leave whenever a visit is required).
The lax use of he and she implies, to me at least, of lazy writing.
This is the first book by this author that I have read, but don't think I'll be reading another.
Throughout I was wondering how the different story lines would come together, only to find they didn't.
It was obvious who the killer was far too early, with no twist at the end. More could have been done to show how the killer had been raised rather than just telling.
Too many characters were irrelevant to the story an I'm left wondering why they were in this book and not a totally different one, where they belong.
Too many situations were unrealistic, and mentioning names of places without a map was meaningless to someone who doesn't know London (and is delighted to leave whenever a visit is required).
The lax use of he and she implies, to me at least, of lazy writing.
This is the first book by this author that I have read, but don't think I'll be reading another.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 23, 2017
This book was very good, I wouldn't say it was an all time favourite but the people's lives really interlinked and I love it when a story line does that. Other than that the book was gripping towards the end, and held a good plot.
July 3, 2017
Perhaps it is only getting used to the author's style but I enjoyed this one better than the one previously. In this book, someone was targeting the client's restaurants and him! The particular bodyguard featured was Katie.
August 26, 2020
I wasnt overly enthralled by this book it seemed to concentrate on a lot of different characters rather than the solving of the crime
May 27, 2021
Excellent read
October 15, 2021
Felt like I was waiting for the story to happen, all the way through until it had ended
Read
July 5, 2008Without Warning, by Carol Smith. B-plus. Narrated by Gordon Griffin, produced by Clipper Audio, downloaded from audible.com.
This is London in about 2005. Two terrifying things are going on at the same time. Someone seems to be stalking and killing women. And not just killing them, but cutting them up with a very sharp knife, strangling them, and raping them. Several young women, who don’t heed the warning not to go out alone late at night, turn up dead while Andy Brewster, a policeman, is doing everything in his power to figure out a profile for the murderer and then to catch him. At the same time, we have the group of terrorists working together to set off bombs in trains and on buses.
This is London in about 2005. Two terrifying things are going on at the same time. Someone seems to be stalking and killing women. And not just killing them, but cutting them up with a very sharp knife, strangling them, and raping them. Several young women, who don’t heed the warning not to go out alone late at night, turn up dead while Andy Brewster, a policeman, is doing everything in his power to figure out a profile for the murderer and then to catch him. At the same time, we have the group of terrorists working together to set off bombs in trains and on buses.
April 15, 2017
It took me few starts to get into the book. In fact I finished it within a few days, after struggling with the first 60 pages for more than a year. The story starts quite tangled with lots of characters introduced to you all of a sadden that sometimes it was hard to keep in mind who is who. However as the story starts evolving with the characters appearing more frequently, things fell into their places and you see where the author leads the story. At some point it keeps you strained till the end with your guesses, which are mostly accurate with the hints you get during the reading.
October 11, 2014
I didn't really enjoy this book very much. There were so many character's that it simply didn't gel. The individual storylines were interesting but I found many of the characters hard to care about.
There were also gaping holes in the plotlines. Police seeming to appear at just the right moment without any indication as to why they happened to be there. It made this story rather unbelievable and unrealistic.
There were also gaping holes in the plotlines. Police seeming to appear at just the right moment without any indication as to why they happened to be there. It made this story rather unbelievable and unrealistic.
November 11, 2011
I enjoyed the first half of this book more than the second. It was set in a part of London I used to know really well, which was good. There were too many characters to keep track of and the writing was a bit trashy. So many people died it was like an episode of Midsomer Murders!
July 22, 2009
Average read. Will read what I have on my tbr but if they aren't any better than this one won't be getting any more of hers.
May 23, 2011
She normally writes an excellent book but this one just never got going,
May 9, 2012
I enjoyed all the different plot lines. A quick easy read dealing with terrorism and murder in London.
Read
September 24, 2013I usually enjoy Carol Smith's books, but this one has so many and frequent point-of-view shifts, it felt like I was in a group of people who were all trying to talk at once. Maybe later.
February 21, 2014
Even though I rated this book very high I must say I didn't like the ending. It was a bit disappointing that there were characters that were just there for nothing really. But I enjoyed it anyway.
March 1, 2014
For an aeroplane read, this was perfect. How it was going to end got more and more predictable.
September 23, 2014
mmmmm.......half the characters really didn't need to be there
Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews