Fireflies

DSI Jeff Barton Investigation #2

by David Menon

L’Inspecteur en Chef Jeff Barton est de retour pour enquêter sur une série de sauvages assassinats de jeunes hommes le soir de leur enterrement de vie de garçon à Manchester. Est-ce le fait d’un psychopathe ou, comme le soupçonne bientôt Jeff, l'oeuvre angoissante d’une personne agissant pour le compte d’une autre et prête à tout pour se sentir exister ?
Durant l’enquête, Jeff est confronté à un vieil ennemi qui n’est autre qu’un célèbre gangster de Manchester. Mais ce maître du crime est-il vraiment lié aux meurtres, ou Jeff ne voit-il que ce qu’il veut voir ? Et cette affaire a-t-elle un rapport avec l’assassinat d’une jeune mariée le soir de ses noces dans un luxueux hôtel de Manchester ?
Jeff et sa collègue l’Inspecteur Rebecca Stockton continuent à hésiter sur les sentiments qui les unissent, sans avoir le temps de s’y attarder s’ils veulent démasquer le meurtrier avant qu'une autre victime ne soit retrouvée morte un de ces lendemains de fête.

215 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 25, 2014

About the author

David was born of an English mother and an Indian father, neither of whom brought him up. He spent his childhood in Derby but has since lived all over the UK, and also for several very happy years he lived in Paris. He loves to travel, loves Indian food closely followed by French, he’s into politics and current affairs and all the arts – books, films, TV, theatre, and music. He’s a seriously devoted fan of Stevie Nicks who he calls ‘the voice of my interior world’. When he’s not writing he teaches English to Russian students for a school in St. Petersburg.

Reviews

[Tabitha Ormiston-Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Increasingly I am seeing in Menon's work a strong moral component. In Fireflies, the subject of the day is bullying in its manifold forms. We are treated to several examples of the mental anatomy of different types of bullies. Menon does well at portraying the nastier characters, and it's all presented wrapped up in an intriguing mystery; a good read for anyone who's interested in social issues as well as crime.

[Win Wearmouth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed the book but Chapter 4 the first paragraph is incorrect as Timperley is in Altrincham and not Sale as it says .I was actually born in Altrincham but lived in Timperley most of my life before I married and moved away.

I still return there as well and someone should have checked the locations a bit better but saying that I have bought all the books with DSI Barton in and I am now waiting for his latest one to come out.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good read, so much so I will read book 3 next.

[Milena · Rating 2 out of 5]

For me this is the best book belonging to the Jeff Barton series. There is usually a lot of drama in Merton’s books that altogether with his – for me – rather stiff style of writing render his stories more similar to the over-emotional plastic soap opera than to a decent crime story. This is what really irritated me in his other works but it is not the case with Fireflies. Maybe it is more digestible because of the theme itself that is concerned with love, emotions, jealousy, intentionally stupid characters, vengeance and infidelity. Maybe it is also because of the lack of moralization that permeated his other works – or I’ve just gotten used to it.