Crime on the Fens

DI Nikki Galena #1

by Joy Ellis

The town is being terrorised by gangs of violent thugs, all wearing identical hideous masks. Then a talented young female student goes missing on the marsh and Nikki and Joseph find themselves joining forces with a master criminal in their efforts to save her. They need to look behind the masks, but when they do, they find something more sinister and deadly than they ever expected . . .

Genres: Mystery, Crime, Audiobook, Fiction, Thriller, Procedural, Mystery Thriller

285 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

Joy Ellis grew up in Kent but moved to London when she won an apprenticeship with the prestigious Mayfair florist, Constance Spry Ltd. Having run her own flower shop in Weybridge for many years, Ellis then worked as a bookseller until a trip to the Greek island of Skyros, where she took part in a writer's workshop with Sue Townsend, encouraged her to write her own books. Joy soon after moved to the Lincolnshire Fens, where she has spent many of years living among the countryside accompanied by her partner, Jacqueline, and her variety of springer spaniels. After many years of writing, Jasper Joffe, from Joffe Books, discovered Joy's work and approached her with the offer of becoming her new publisher. This new relationship introduced Joy's work to the fascinating world of ebooks and audible listening. Since their partnership, Joy's success has grown further than she could have ever imagined. She has recently celebrated her 10th UK No.1 book on the Amazon 'Best Sellers' chart, with her 9th instalment in the Jackman & Evans series, Solace House. Joy boasts a staggering estimated total over 3.4 million copies sold worldwide, and became a short-listed nominee at the British Book Awards, 2021.

Reviews

[Tori Clare · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars for this one. It had a high rating and the reviews sucked me in, but in truth it was nothing special. Too many cliches. The pairing of the detectives was just too perfect - Joseph Easter, the man who could match and even surpass the protagonist for toughness blended with the ideal amount of gentleness and compassion; the guy who always says and does the right thing. The guy who has no flaws. Great looking too, and single. And guess what - they both have daughters from whom they are estranged. What a coincidence! And they both work round the clock taking only brief naps because they can't bear to let nasty baddies get the upper hand. They care too much.

Sadly, I wasn't convinced throughout, not by the don't-mess-with-me detective or her hot partner. The writing style was my main problem though. The story was OK, but there was nothing impressive throughout the entire book for me. Not the characters, the dialogue or narrative. No wow or whoa moments. No arresting sentences or insights. Nothing to keep me riveted. I waded through and was distracted at times by the author herself, which is never good. I hate to use the word amateurish, but that's how it came across to me and I don't mean the police details (I'm sure it was well researched) I'm talking about the writing techniques and character development.

Not for me I'm afraid. I never appreciate use of the F word either. As I always say, if Lee Child can write a couple of dozen bestsellers in the crime/thriller genre without effing or jeffing once, I'm sure other writers can manage without too. No one ever finishes a novel and wishes there'd been more F words. Wish I could be more positive. I don't enjoy delivering negative reviews, but I have to be honest.

[Phrynne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I decided to read this as I have seen a number of very good reviews for later books in the series and I always start with book one if I can.

I enjoyed this first book and liked the characters too. D.I.Nikki Galena was a bit brash and unlikeable at first but it turned out she had lots of reasons so to be, and she does warm up as the book continues. Her new partner, D.S. Joseph Easter, has lots of promise - good looking, smart, kind and with some very interesting hidden depths. Together they have the makings of an excellent team.

The story was fast and full of action with a number of different things going on at the same time. I enjoyed the detective work and watching the team pull all the different facts and clues together. An entertaining read and I will be adding this to my list of series that I wish to complete.

[Li'l Owl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well..... I'm hooked!
What a brilliant start to the Detective Inspector Nikky Galena series!

From the moment that she received his message, she had felt puzzled. Earlier, as she pulled on her rambling boots, she had wondered about the uncharacteristic secrecy. It just wasn’t his way. He would visit her, or ring if pushed. He’d blurt out something about the tilt of Saturn’s rings, or he’d got some brilliant new lens and some deep-sky viewing would be showing some glorious double stars that she just couldn’t miss. She knew that most people considered him a freak, but where they saw an anorak, she saw someone driven by passion, and that was something she could relate to.
She stopped and tried to ring him, but his phone was switched off. Her anxiety increased. If she took the message at face value, he had seemed desperate that she meet him. But where was he? And where was his dog? It almost always followed him out to the marsh. Something was wrong. She shivered, and then a scary thought entered her mind.
There were no stars tonight. Fear flooded through her. Oh God! She had been a fool , and now she needed to get off the marsh. If he wanted to see her, he could damn well . . .
Something far darker than the night was roughly pulled over her head, and an arm snaked around her throat, forcing her neck backwards and her throat to close. She jerked her arms and legs frantically kicking and beating uselessly at her unseen assailant, then a rushing noise filled her ears and bright lights exploded behind her eyelids. Abruptly, the roaring sound became everything, and she felt her legs stop their dancing and her arms fell uselessly to her sides. Her fight for air became almost impossible, and she slipped from the iron grasp, to fall silently into darkness.

********
*Audiobook Review*

Crime on the Fens by Joy Ellis is the first novel in the DI Nikky Galena series and it's a five star gem!
I wasn't really planning on starting yet another series but what can I say.....I'm hooked!
I'm already rearranging my 'next audiobook up' list to slip in book two, Shadow Over the Fens, as soon as possible!
Not only is this one heck of a story, but narrator, Henrietta Meier Oakley's strong performance adds another level of suspence, emotion, personality, and sparkle to this gem!
*I highly recommend the audiobook format! I didn't want to hit the pause button!

I Love Nikki! Her personality is priceless, her expressions are hilarious! Case in point, the suspect has "clamed up tighter than a ducks backside."

Nikky has a reputation for having an 'acid tongue', being impossible to work with, and an 'unconventional' way of getting her suspect by stepping over the mark. Despite all that, her arrest and conviction rate are the highest in the station making her invaluable. Despite this, she's on her last warning from the top brass if she wants to keep her job.
Don't let her fool you. There's more to Nikky than meets the eye. Much more...

Now she's been ordered to get along with a new partner, Detective Sargent Joseph Easter, who has moved to Fenland Constabulary to get a 'fresh start'. True to form, Nikky has already formed an opinion, sight unseen, so to speak. But she's about to learn that there's more to Joseph than meets the eye. Much more....

And so it begins...... Hold on for this ride!!!

[Brenda · Rating 5 out of 5]

When Detective Sergeant Joseph Easter joined DI Nikki Galena's team for a month, she was determined not to like him. She knew she was skating on thin ice with her bosses but she also knew she was a good copper. But what was ahead for Nikki and her team would be horrendous.

A young woman vanished one night and couldn't be found, no matter how many of them searched. A mask war was escalating - hideous rubber masks to cover the villain's faces while they did unmentionable things. Then another young woman vanished, this one the niece of a gang boss and a person Nikki had a tenuous relationship with. The criminals in the Fens were brutal, harsh and cruel, not caring who they hurt or what they did to achieve their goal - which was more often than not, drugs. Nikki knew more than most - her daughter in hospital was proof of that. Would Nikki, Joseph and the team find the missing women? Would they catch up with the people responsible for all the pain in the Fens?

Crime on the Fens is the 1st in the DI Nikki Galena series by Joy Ellis and it was excellent! What a start to a new (to me) series! I hope Joseph stays with Nikki and her team; she's a tough, determined character and although she doesn't show her soft heart much, it's there. Highly recommended.

[Liz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nikki Galena is a one woman wrecking ball when it comes to tackling the drug dealers in the Fens territory. She is also not well loved in the constabulary. In fact, her last partner hightailed it for Truro (and as her supervisor says, she was worried that might not be far enough). Her new partner, just transferred in, is nicknamed Holy Joe. An unlikelier match couldn’t be imagined. Both have secrets. But slowly, both develop a grudging respect for each other. In fact, watching their relationship develop is a thing of beauty.

I stumbled on this audiobook but I really enjoyed Ellis’ writing and the depth of her characters. I didn’t care for the narrator, as too many of her voices were indistinguishable.

The story moves along at a nice clip and I didn’t feel like it lagged at all. I was thrilled to find out this is the first in a series with many more books to come.

[Alan Cotterell · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was fantastic. Great characters, excellent multiple storylines. DI Galena and DS Easter are both complicated personalities that I grew to love and respect, can't wait to read more about them and see where they go. The rest of the team are a dysfunctional crew that somehow work well together. Each brings their own set of skills. Definitely a book you don't want to put down.
Easy 5 star's. Onto book 2.

[Linda Strong · Rating 4 out of 5]

CRIME ON THE FENS is the first novel in a gripping new crime fiction series featuring DI Nikki Galena. She’s woman on a mission … clean up all the drug dealers who have descended upon their community. She’s got a reputation of being really hard on crime, almost to the point of going outside the lines.

DS Joseph Easter is her new partner … orders from higher up. She has to make it work or her job may be in jeopardy.

The town is being terrorized by gangs all wearing hideous masks. No one seems to know where the masks come from .. or who is supplying them. Gangs are fighting anyone and everyone. Law enforcement is being stretched thin, but there seems to be no rhyme nor reason to the amount of crime… and no way to stop it.

Nickki and Joseph find themselves turning to a master criminal when his daughter goes missing.
When they delve behind the masks, they find a lot more than they bargained for!

The plot is tightly woven around solid character development. Nikki comes across as tough as nails, but there is a reason .. a personal reason … for that. Joseph also has some personal issues which land him in this community. But will he stay .. or will be leave?

This author is very descriptive. From the blurb: The Lincolnshire Fens: great open skies brood over marshes, farmland. There are still villages where the oldest residents have never set foot outside their own farmland and a visit to the nearest town is a major event. But it has a strange airy beauty to it, and above it all are the biggest skies you’ve ever seen.

There are twists and turns and a few surprises for the reader. It’s an excellent start to a new series.

Many thanks to the author / Joffe Books / NetGalley who provided a digital copy in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is very rare these days that I read a crime novel. But I thought I’d try this one as it was set in the Lincolnshire Fens in a made up area which vaguely approximates to Kings Lynn. It follows a well tried formula with a Detective Inspector and a sidekick Detective Sergeant (as in Morse and Lewis). In this case the DI is a maverick who has worked her way through a variety of partners because of her abrasiveness and being generally difficult to work with. Ellis makes her DI a woman and her DS a man. She also creates backstories for each of them and adds a little complexity to their interaction. She throws in a big council estate, plenty of disaffected youth, plenty of drugs, some nasty villains, some villains who were less nasty and a little helpful. There are characters that will no doubt be around in later novels. The plot is a little wooden, but pretty much works and doesn’t have too many holes. There are apparently at least ten more of these.
On the whole it was ok and didn’t irritate me too much; at some point a may read another.

[Andrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pleasantly surprised by this Audible freebie - the first in a gritty police procedural series, with plenty more instalments to look forward to.

DI Nikki Galena is a detective who is prepared to bend rules and cut corners to rid her patch of human scum, particularly if they have anything to do with drug-dealing. Although she sails close to the wind and few other cops want to work with her, her boss always has her back as he is one of the few to understand the personal demons that drive Nikki. As this story begins, Nikki is being assigned a temporary new DS to work with, Joseph Easter, who brings with him his own family baggage and secretive past. But as the two are quickly thrown into a time-sensitive case, Nikki has little choice but to give Joseph a chance to prove himself. And he does.

It's a fast-paced, short (ish) thriller, that balances an excellent plot with the important task of establishing the key characters in this series set in the Lincolnshire Fens.

As I said, this was free on Audible, and I've already downloaded #2 (also free) to continue Nikki's story.

[Nina · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great crime mystery, which somehow kept reminding me of the Ruth Galloway series, probably because of some similarities in the setting. I recommend reading both series, Nikki Galena and Ruth Galloway. :)
5 out of 5 stars

[zendegy · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book...it's just..so, so bad! It is painfully heavy-handed (don't go on and on telling me what a badass the main character is, SHOW me!!). It is full of cliches, like the badass, rule breaking detective who bucks the system to make the streets safe for good, law-abiding folk. Ugh. Just everything! (I listened to it on audiobook, and the narration is also lousy.) I even gave it a second chance, because, before this I read an Adrian McKinty book, narrated by Gerard Doyle, and that is just a hard act to follow. But it's not just that; this book fails. Period. I couldn't even bear to listen to the whole thing. I simply cannot fathom how so many liked it...are they friends of the author? I mean, honestly, I do not get it.

[E. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Was not as impressed as I'd hoped I'd be.

[Pat · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

To be honest the cover really put me off - I don't know why. So I'd seen these books around and kept thinking, nah. However, after reading The Murderer's Son and loving it and realising the author was the same Joy Ellis that wrote the Fens series, I thought I'd dive in. And boy was I wrong. Cover aside it was an entertaining story with enough drama and tension to keep you turning the pages.

We are introduced to DI Nikki Galena and her latest partner, DS Joseph Easter. Galena is a prickly character who goes through partners like other women go through pantyhose. Nevertheless she is fair and has a good heart. The other members of the team are also likeable and have different strengths and weaknesses. I won't go into the plot but we have a murder, a missing woman, a porno game developer, drugs and a spate of violence involving kids wearing horrid rubber masks and terrorising people. Of course all these things are related and will come to a boiling head one night.

I think with further character development Di Galena's team could take us through some thrilling crime sprees in future books.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first in Joy Ellis's series featuring Norfolk D.I. Nikki Galena, Crime on the Fens was a compulsive read.

Acerbic D.I. Galena doesn't expect any more success with her new sergeant Joseph "Holy Joe" Easter, a devout Christian, than she's had with any of his short-lived predecessors, but she's as surprised as everyone else in the (fictional) Greenborough nick on the (real) Lincolnshire Fenlands, when their partnership seems to be a tentative success. Easter has just the right balance of patience and investigative smarts to keep Galena's snarky comments mostly at bay as they investigate the disappearance of local student Kerry Anderson, followed by the murder of 19-year-old Lisa Jane Leonard, niece of Greenborough noble villain Archie Leonard.

Meanwhile, Greenborough is plagued by a crime wave perpetuated by gangs of local youth wearing hideous rat-face masks. A shadowy criminal referred to only as "Fluke" is reputed to be behind the trouble, but police are scrambling to keep the peace as the incidents of violence and vandalism escalate.

I found Crime on the Fens to be an engaging police procedural, with intriguingly complex central characters in Nikki and Joseph and plenty of plot twists and turns. I read the book partly by way of the Joffe Books Kindle edition, and partly via the Audible audiobook narrated by Henrietta Meire.

[Kim · Rating 2 out of 5]

Detective Inspector (DI) Nikki Galena is a tough, driven detective for the apparently fictional town of Greenborough. She's a loose cannon. She's a rogue cop. She's a firebrand, an incendiary, and agent provocateur. Rights? Here's your rights and a left to match, evildoer. She's managed to shed every Detective Sergeant (DS) assigned to her. The upper brass or whatever the hell they're called in the UK want her shield but her boss appreciates that she gets results.
Oh, my goodness. What an original idea. And please, write it in as gray a descriptive cadence as possible. This may be the only crime novel from the UK with only one description of the weather, let alone the town in which it's set, or a fen. Apparently a fen is flat and in this flat fen a foul force is afoot.

What we do learn of the city is that there's been some growth due to a rebuilt harbor, which has brought in shipping and drug traffic. There's a criminal organization, although it can't be very profitable as the head of the local organization lives in "estate housing" which would be comparable to public housing in the US. There has also been a rash of crimes committed by youth wearing masks. This, along with two missing young women, will eventually be resolved.

Meanwhile, DI Nikki Galena pistol-whips (or whatever the UK equivalent would be for cops who don't carry pistols) her way through some criminals because she had to hold a young girl as she died of a drug overdose and her own daughter is in a vegetative state in a local hospital after being poisoned by a local drug dealer. (The reason, when it's exposed, is as pathetic a thing as I've read in many years.) Her new DS Joseph Easter is a misunderstood manhunk who's had to be imported from a different district because Galena, with her minimal interest in human rights of anyone but herself, has driven all the others away. Easter has his own mysterious background as a vet from the middle east.

Galena is a recurring character in other books based in fen-land, all of which Joffe Books marks with inane subtitles such as "a gripping crime thriller full of twists" or "a gripping crime thriller with a huge twist". My recommendation is either write better or use more original tropes. But avoiding both I suppose demands overselling on the cover.

[Lynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you like police procedurals that take place in Britain, you probably will like this book. DI Nikki Galena is given a new sergeant to work with. DI Nikki even though she is a good inspector has ticked off the top brass. She goes off the rails at times. It is last chance for her new sergeant too.

There is murder, robberies, missing girls, and crimes being committed by people wearing repulsive masks. Nikki is the lead person. Her team is unique with specials skill. The location is the fens in Lincolnshire county in England. I am eager to read the 2nd book in the series. I think fans of Jane Casey might like this series.

[CL · Rating 5 out of 5]

I could not put this book down and read it in one setting. DI Nikki Galena is out of control. She lives in a down and out apartment and her single goal is to take down as many drug dealers as she can and in any way she can. No one wants to partner with her for that reason. She's about to be censored for her behavior when her boss asks her to take on a partner, DS Joseph Easter, and gives her a month to turn herself around even though he knows she is a good detective. A girl goes missing from the local university and as a favor the Dean asks the disappearance be investigated on the down low because this is a exemplary student and he does not want to alarm anyone if she has just decided to act out. Then the local crime boss who has a history with DI Galena asks for her assistance in locating his niece, 2 girls in less than a week is not a coincidence and Nikki and her new partner start to uncover details that may link these disappearances and the local "mask wars" that have erupted where all the young thugs are wearing identical masks. As Nikki and Joseph get to know each other the beginnings of a great partnership may just develop after all. Great Read!! Cannot wait for the next book. I would like to thank the Publisher and Net Galley for the chance to read this ARC.

[Jean · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author has written a detective story with just enough difference to make it an interesting read.
Our protagonist is Nikki Galena, a hard driving female Detective Inspector. Galena is focused on avenging her daughter who is in a permanent vegetative state in a hospital after she was a victim of crime. Galena is being forced to work with Detective Sergeant Joseph Easter, whose reputation is as questionable as hers. Galena heads a team investigating the disappearance of a young girl. The story takes an unexpected turn toward the end.

The book is well written and the plot twists and turns as the suspense builds. The characters are complex and our hero is a strong tough character. I enjoy books with strong women heroes. The story takes place on the Lincolnshire Fens in England. I did not know what a Fen was until reading this book.

Henrietta Meire does a good job narrating the book. Meire is an actress, author, voice over artist and audiobook narrator.

[Maddie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Why haven't I read this before?! It's been on my tbr forever and now I know I've been seriously missing out. It's brilliant. Finished it in one sitting and that doesn't happen often.
Joy Ellis writes beautifully. The plot is complex. The case twisted and brutal. The characters are well developed and feel so real, so human.
DI Nikki Galena is a divisive character but I really like her. As we go through the story, we get to know her better and she really is a great lead. I like the addition of DS Easter to her team. He brings certain dynamic to the squad that allows us to see Galena in a different light.
What a brilliant start to DI Nikki Galena series. I absolutely loved it and can't wait to read the next book.

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Something about this book that brought a smile to my face.
The first in the Detective Nikki Galena series and I'll definitely be dipping in to others.
Totally believable as not too far-fetched. I liked the relationship between main investigators and found the storyline flowed well. Snippets into past lives of the detectives set the background without being too intrusive on the main theme of the book.
The only thing I didn't like was the awful book cover! 😂

[Dennis Mews · Rating 2 out of 5]

I just couldn't get into these characters. A very aggressive and sweary protagonist is not my thing. I lived in the Fens for a few years and hoped to rekindle my affection for the place but this story was no help. The wide vistas, the lonely roads, the smell of strawberries, the homely folks - none of these seemed present in this story as I'd hoped they might be.

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first book in the series featuring D.I. Nikki Galena and set in the East Anglian fens.
Nikki is a driven character and is determined to wage war against drug dealers following an incident which has left her daughter in a coma - and she doesn't take prisoners, leading to several complaints about her methods and a team of colleagues who don't want to work with her.
Nikki's superintendent, at his wit's end, brings in a detective sergeant from another station to work with Nikki and try to soften her abrasiveness. D.S. Joseph Easter is referred to as 'the preacher' in the police rumour mill so Nikki's initial view of him is tainted by that. But she soon comes to realise that they work well as a team - and they have their work cut out for them! Gangs of youths perpetrating minor crime throughout the town, a missing university student and then the kidnapping and murder of the daughter of the local crime boss of the Carborough Estate stretch the police to their limits - and Nikki and Joseph are forced to team up with the crime boss to try to solve these ongoing cases....
An excellent first book in the series. I have read other books by this author, which I have also enjoyed, so was expecting great things from this one - and I got them! Great characters and setting and complicated crime stories for the team to solve whilst at the same time getting an insight into their various back-stories made for an entertaining and gripping read. Good job I have several more of this series waiting to be read - 9/10.

[Sushi (寿司) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Un tre che è più un due e mezzo. Cominciamo con il titolo. Il titolo originale Mask Wars è perfetto e infatti il tema principale è questa guerra delle maschere dove Crime on the Fens è ancora meglio visto che in realtà quella è solo una facciata ma il titolo italiano è dieci piccoli indizi che per me non ci sta a dire niente oltre all'associazione Dieci piccoli indizi e Dieci piccoli Indiani che potrebbe attirare ma è tutt'altra cosa questo libro. Se volete qualcosa alla Dieci piccoli Indiani vi invito a leggere L'ospite indesiderato di Shari Lapena.
Forse sarà il fatto che sto leggendo più ebook e thriller in questo periodo di quarantena e non ho apprezzato questo libro. Non lo so. So solo che non mi ha preso. Anche perchè vengo dal bellissimo, per me, L'ospite indesiderato.
Poi ci sono gli stacchi assenti che miracolosamente si fanno vedere al capitolo 23 (ma giusto uno da non sprecarci) di 35. A volte questo crea casino e devo rileggere il passaggio per capire che la scena è staccata. Spero sia un errore italiano perchè se è così in originale mi spiace ma devo ulteriormente togliere una stella al voto.
Per finire stroncherò il personaggio di Nikki Galena. Ma possibile che tutti in Inghilterra abbiano un cactus tra le mutante e il culo in polizia? Ci sono gli stronzi simpatici come Kim Stone che ho adorato dal primo volume, ci sono quelli stronzi che si redimono al secondo volume come Erika Foster e poi c'è chi è peggio di Erika, Nikki Galena. Un odio fin dalla prima pagina. Qui sarà dura redimerla. Preferisco Joseph anche se ci rimane quasi secco.

Per finire vorrei porre un occhio sull'introduzione della trama :
**Avvincente come La ragazza scomparsa
Scioccante come La donna di ghiaccio
Un grande thriller**
Se dovete scegliere tra questo e quello di Bryndza, cioè Erika Foster, allora scegliete Bryndza. Come vi ho detto Erika è già più sopportabile nel secondo.

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dear Reader,

Oh,the joy of discovering a new series!!! This is the second book of the series that I’ve had the pleasure of reading and I must say what a delight to see the origins of these wonderful human,three dimensional characters.

We are introduced to DI Nikki Galena,an outwardly tough,resilient cop,whose reputation is such that it is difficult to find fellow officers willing to work with her.
Yes,Nikki has a tendency to bend the rules and has her own unique hands way of dealing with what she regards the low life scum peddling drugs.

New to the area is one Joe Easter with a much different techniques,perspective and a background mired in mystery.

I loved this book,how the team members helped and how the various threads were woven into a satisfying and compelling read. Onto book two to discover more! 😊

[Kelly · Rating 1 out of 5]

Really surprised this book has such a high rating. There is no hard-boiled detective cliche too overused for this book: The damaged detective, can't keep a partner, has the highest solve rate of the department, but uses "unconventional" (read roughing up) methods, in trouble with the higher-ups, blah, blah, blah. Maybe I wasn't in the mood. Suffered through about half the book before I gave up.

[Kevin · Rating 3 out of 5]

3*

Cliché laden which didn't help the rating, the narrator appeared to be uninterested in regards to the narration of the book which hasn't helped.

The storyline could be one gang warfare from London planted in Lincolnshire. The characters didn't seem to be believable and I didn't get a feeling of investment in the characters.

I have read worse but not sure I will go to the next in the series.

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5
This is Ellis’ first book and it’s as Pink (Leigh) would say it’s “Honda civic reliable”. I listened to it and didn’t really jibe with the narrator so it may have been a better read than listen.

However I didn’t put it down! I really connected with the characters by the end of the book.

(I miss Richard Armitage as Ellis’ narrator. He’s so much better at it but since the lead is female that wouldn’t work here lol)

[L.G. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rating: 3 stars

I've finished all of the published books in another series written by Joy Ellis--Jackman and Evans (10 books)--and really enjoyed them. So, I picked up this first book in another of this author's series and will continue with the rest of the DI Nikki Galena books.

SUMMARY-The town is being terrorized by gangs of violent thugs, all wearing identical hideous masks. Then a talented young female student goes missing on the marsh and Nikki and Joseph find themselves joining forces with a master criminal in their efforts to save her. They need to look behind the masks, but when they do, they find something more sinister and deadly than they ever expected.

[Elaine Tomasso · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would like to thank Netgalley and Joffe Books for a review copy of Crime On The Fens, the first in a series of police procedurals set in the Licolnshire Fen town of Greenborough.

We meet DI Nikki Galena, the protagonist, at a difficult time in her professional life. Her single minded, one woman crusade against the town's drug dealers and the methods she uses to get them has alienated almost everyone she works with. She is on a final warning - clean up her act or she will no longer be working in Greenborough and to add insult to injury she has to work for a month with Sergeant Joseph "Holy Joe" Easter. There isn't much going on crime wise apart from her crusade and the appearance of grotesque rubber masks which are giving the youth of the notorious Carborough Estate anonymity to commit petty crime when a student goes missing from the local art college. Kerry is a dedicated, A+ student and her disappearance is out of character. Nikki launches an immediate search just as the mask situation escalates and people from Nikki's past begin to reappear.

I thoroughly enjoyed Crime On The Fens. It is not a particularly long novel but it had me gripped from start to finish and I read it in one sitting. The plotting is clever and has plenty of twists and turns, maybe not extremely realistic, but absorbing and plausible. I also liked the natural way Nikki and Joe come to appreciate each other's strengths and weaknesses and forge a strong working relationship. Ms Ellis does a very good job of revealing their pasts in a timely manner, no information overload, just enough to whet the appetite.

Both Nikki Galena and Joe Easter have sorrow in their lives but they make the best of it and are extremely likeable characters. Nikki is feisty and determined to get justice for the victims of crime. Joe is equally passionate about justice but much more of a people person so they form an effective team. It is the working relationship between these two characters which makes the novel.

I am glad to have got in at the start of this series and look forward to reading more about Nikki and Joe so I have no hesitation in recommending Crime On The Fens as a good read.

[Books 'n' All Promotions · Rating 5 out of 5]

Book 1 in the Nikki Galena series

I began reading this series with Buried on the Fens so I can confirm it work well as stand alone. It has always been in my plans to go back to the beginning and I am thrilled that I have finally found a gap in my reading commitments to do this.

Nikki Galena is star of the show. A feisty woman who has a lot of pain in her life which has caused her to hate drugs with a passion. At the beginning she is very much a one woman band and has had several partners running for the hills. She is forced to work with Joseph Easter a man who is good where she is bad. Is it a match made in heaven or hell? I couldn't wait to find out.

2 young women disappear one is a dedicated student and the other the daughter of a criminal. Not just any criminal though, one that is 'friends' with Nikki Galena. The Police are working with the underworld to find these women in a story that has humour, tears and lots of edge-of-your-seat thrills and spills.

This is an excellent book in which we watch characters grow and develop as the team works together to untangle the web of lies.

I expect nothing less from Joy Ellis than a story that takes the reader on a roller coaster ride of emotions which keeps the pages turning all the way to the end. Brilliant read