What do you think?
Rate this book
Charlie Yates #3
Cold Desert Sky
BRAND NEW, Exactly same ISBN as listed, Please double check ISBN carefully before ordering.
- GenresCrime
368 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2018
8 people are currently reading
81 people want to read
About the author
Rod Reynolds
11 books53 followersRod Reynolds was born in London and, after a successful career in advertising, working as a media buyer, he decided to get serious about writing. He recently completed City University's two-year Crime Writing Masters course and THE DARK INSIDE is his first novel. He lives in London with his wife and daughter.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
July 2, 2018
I read this so long ago now that I’ve forgotten all about it and can only remember it was kind of good. Possibly.
I jest of course because Cold Desert Sky like the previous Charlie Yates novels was a thing of beauty. I don’t think it’s any secret that the author and I have become good friends since my initial reaction to the first book, The Dark Inside, but rather than that giving him an advantage when it comes to my reviews actually the exact opposite is true. I am unforgiving and expect much higher standards from the authors I know well so it’s handy that Cold Desert Sky is of the highest quality.
First of all it is definitely my favourite of them. The sense of time and place is hauntingly beautiful and descriptively pitch perfect. The amalgamation of fact and fiction is seamless, clever and highly addictive. We have the mob, the FBI, two missing girls and Charlie -obsessive and determined to find the truth. But how far will he go and what price will he pay?
That is the hook and then off we go on an extraordinarily compelling, genuinely absorbing and totally immersive piece of storytelling that will stay with you long after you turn the final page. The ending to Cold Desert Sky is simply brilliant, edge of the seat time and like the rest beautifully crafted. Huge brownie points for that one.
I loved every moment of it. It was in my top ten reads of 2017 and later this week it will be out there for you all and I highly HIGHLY recommend you give it a go. I mean Bugsy Siegal. Las Vegas. Mystery and mayhem. Plus that Cold Desert Sky. What more really can you ask for?
Pitch perfect noir indeed. A hugely talented writer and an excellent excellent book.
I jest of course because Cold Desert Sky like the previous Charlie Yates novels was a thing of beauty. I don’t think it’s any secret that the author and I have become good friends since my initial reaction to the first book, The Dark Inside, but rather than that giving him an advantage when it comes to my reviews actually the exact opposite is true. I am unforgiving and expect much higher standards from the authors I know well so it’s handy that Cold Desert Sky is of the highest quality.
First of all it is definitely my favourite of them. The sense of time and place is hauntingly beautiful and descriptively pitch perfect. The amalgamation of fact and fiction is seamless, clever and highly addictive. We have the mob, the FBI, two missing girls and Charlie -obsessive and determined to find the truth. But how far will he go and what price will he pay?
That is the hook and then off we go on an extraordinarily compelling, genuinely absorbing and totally immersive piece of storytelling that will stay with you long after you turn the final page. The ending to Cold Desert Sky is simply brilliant, edge of the seat time and like the rest beautifully crafted. Huge brownie points for that one.
I loved every moment of it. It was in my top ten reads of 2017 and later this week it will be out there for you all and I highly HIGHLY recommend you give it a go. I mean Bugsy Siegal. Las Vegas. Mystery and mayhem. Plus that Cold Desert Sky. What more really can you ask for?
Pitch perfect noir indeed. A hugely talented writer and an excellent excellent book.
Read
November 11, 2020Rod Reynolds doing what he does best with another excellent American noir novel. Great series!
July 2, 2018
Visit the locations in the novel
Cold Desert Sky is one top class novel. It has everything you need from a gangster themed thriller but it’s so much more than that. Inspired by the infamous mobster boss Bugsy Siegel, who you might have only heard of in legend, this is as close as you’ll get to the action without jumping in a time travel machine with the risk of getting shot or worse.
It’s gritty writing, kick ass dialogue and scene setting so authentic you can smell the cheap aftershave and the stench of the cigarettes as you move from one dodgy bar to the next. I’ve loved Charlie Yates from the first two books and I honestly say I think I love this one the best. It’s fast from the word go and the pace never lets up. The characters come alive off the page, larger than life, each with a story to tell. I would say fleshed out but it feels wrong for a novel with mobsters and undesirables squatting on every page.
From the bright lights and a search for two missing girls to an investigation and trail which leads Charlie to the searing hot Nevada desert and the city of sin, this needs, no deserves to be a movie. It’s cinematic in scope, gritty in dialogue and purely golden entertainment.
Nice to see that flickering lights of the Flamingo hotel the same as the title Cold Dessert Sky on the cover. This needs to play a starring role on your bookshelf.
July 9, 2019
Let’s just start by saying that I’m a huge fan of Rod Reynolds’ books and have been eagerly awaiting this, the third book featuring reporter Charlie Yates who we last saw in Black Night Falling. Charlie is now back in LA on the case of missing starlets Nancy Hill and Julie Desjardins. He’s obsessed with tracking down the two women, but quickly falls foul of his old nemesis Bugsy Siegel who gives him an ultimatum that he really can’t refuse.
Or can he?
Rod Reynolds proved with his first two books that he has a deft hand at conjuring up small-town Americana on the page. Here he turns that hand to the larger canvas of 40s Los Angeles and Las Vegas and again we’re sucked into the murky underworld of the mob. Reynolds has a real gift for place and atmosphere, and you almost feel that should you be dropped into Yates’ world, you could find your way around. Not that the California of Charlie Yates is somewhere you’d particularly want to be, not with someone as connected as Benjamin ‘Bugsy’ Siegel on the loose…
Cold Desert Sky has it all – a proper Noir feel, great characters and a splendid plot that draws us across the state line to Nevada and into the early days of Las Vegas, just starting on its way to becoming the neon-soaked casino city we know today.
Reynolds’ books just keep getting better and, and they were pretty darn good to start off with. I can’t wait to see what he has in store for poor old Charlie Yates next…
Hugely recommended.
Or can he?
Rod Reynolds proved with his first two books that he has a deft hand at conjuring up small-town Americana on the page. Here he turns that hand to the larger canvas of 40s Los Angeles and Las Vegas and again we’re sucked into the murky underworld of the mob. Reynolds has a real gift for place and atmosphere, and you almost feel that should you be dropped into Yates’ world, you could find your way around. Not that the California of Charlie Yates is somewhere you’d particularly want to be, not with someone as connected as Benjamin ‘Bugsy’ Siegel on the loose…
Cold Desert Sky has it all – a proper Noir feel, great characters and a splendid plot that draws us across the state line to Nevada and into the early days of Las Vegas, just starting on its way to becoming the neon-soaked casino city we know today.
Reynolds’ books just keep getting better and, and they were pretty darn good to start off with. I can’t wait to see what he has in store for poor old Charlie Yates next…
Hugely recommended.
February 23, 2020
Cold Desert Sky
When the first three pages of the book are taken up with glowing reviews from the likes of 'New Zealand Listener', 'Liz Loves Books' and 'Off The Shelf' you know the publisher panicked when they got the manuscript, soliciting reviews far and wide. And the sales figures below are real, with this title lucky to sell ONE book a week.
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,904,841 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
#683152 in Literature & Fiction (Kindle Store)
#87457 in Crime Thrillers (Books)
#29612 in Crime Fiction (Kindle Store)
If only it were as described: "It’s gritty writing, kick ass dialogue and scene setting so authentic you can smell the cheap aftershave. . ."
But it's not.
It doesn't hold a candle to the masterful captivating style or plots of Raymond Chandler, Elmore Leonard or even (God forbid) Bernard Barton's 'Adultery-in-Suburbia'. Worse still, the 'hero', sometime journalist Charlie Yates is a loser the reader quickly dismisses as a dope.
When the first three pages of the book are taken up with glowing reviews from the likes of 'New Zealand Listener', 'Liz Loves Books' and 'Off The Shelf' you know the publisher panicked when they got the manuscript, soliciting reviews far and wide. And the sales figures below are real, with this title lucky to sell ONE book a week.
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,904,841 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
#683152 in Literature & Fiction (Kindle Store)
#87457 in Crime Thrillers (Books)
#29612 in Crime Fiction (Kindle Store)
If only it were as described: "It’s gritty writing, kick ass dialogue and scene setting so authentic you can smell the cheap aftershave. . ."
But it's not.
It doesn't hold a candle to the masterful captivating style or plots of Raymond Chandler, Elmore Leonard or even (God forbid) Bernard Barton's 'Adultery-in-Suburbia'. Worse still, the 'hero', sometime journalist Charlie Yates is a loser the reader quickly dismisses as a dope.
August 17, 2019
I struggled with this. I love noir crime as much as the next man but if you are going to ape chandler or Hammett give the hero some basic street smarts. Perhaps unkindly the hero runs into one bad situation to the other with no other strategy than eventually at some stage the evil doers will be so tired of beating me they will just expire. Wore everyone down.
July 28, 2018
Charlie Yates is back and it feels like it has been too long since we last spent any time together. Reuniting with characters I love to read about never grows old – picking up a book and slipping back into their world is such a treat.
Charlie’s world is 1950’s America and once again I find myself marvelling at the way Rod Reynolds can make a time and place which I have never visited seem so realistic. So much of what I love about these stories is based in the way I feel I become part of the telling…sucked into the world of Yates and his wife Lizzy.
In Cold Desert Sky the world is not a happy place for Charlie and Lizzy. They are facing constant jeopardy as Yates has upset Benjamin (Bugsy) Siegel. A gangster who will let no man stand in the way of his business plans – certainly not a hack from a second rate newspaper. Much of this book carries the feeling that Charlie is one wrong question away from a bullet to the head.
He is doggedly chasing down two missing girls. Wanna-be actresses who have vanished but leave a the suspicion that they may have been prepared to go one step further than most to secure a role in the movies.
Charlie finds himself at the mercy of Siegel, to protect his family he will be expected to perform ‘services’ for the gangster. He hates the position he finds himself in and his turmoil is brilliantly compelling to read.
I ploughed through Cold Desert Sky in 2 days, a great start to my holidays. Rod Reynolds is building a cracking series and I urge everyone to find out for themselves why I keenly look forward to each new book.
Charlie’s world is 1950’s America and once again I find myself marvelling at the way Rod Reynolds can make a time and place which I have never visited seem so realistic. So much of what I love about these stories is based in the way I feel I become part of the telling…sucked into the world of Yates and his wife Lizzy.
In Cold Desert Sky the world is not a happy place for Charlie and Lizzy. They are facing constant jeopardy as Yates has upset Benjamin (Bugsy) Siegel. A gangster who will let no man stand in the way of his business plans – certainly not a hack from a second rate newspaper. Much of this book carries the feeling that Charlie is one wrong question away from a bullet to the head.
He is doggedly chasing down two missing girls. Wanna-be actresses who have vanished but leave a the suspicion that they may have been prepared to go one step further than most to secure a role in the movies.
Charlie finds himself at the mercy of Siegel, to protect his family he will be expected to perform ‘services’ for the gangster. He hates the position he finds himself in and his turmoil is brilliantly compelling to read.
I ploughed through Cold Desert Sky in 2 days, a great start to my holidays. Rod Reynolds is building a cracking series and I urge everyone to find out for themselves why I keenly look forward to each new book.
January 24, 2019
Another thriller which languished for far too long on my tbr pile. I loved the first two Charlie Yates novels and should have known that Rod Reynolds wouldn't disappoint with this third outing for the late 1940s reporter with a streak of stubborn morality and a reckless disregard for his own safety. Terrific pace, intricate plotting and a wonderful sense of time and place all lift this above the average offering in this genre. If you haven't yet discovered him, I'd strongly recommend that you put that right asap.
Quality.
Quality.
July 8, 2020
Reynolds is as good as anyone in literary crime fiction currently at revealing the morally grey area where the genre’s most interesting protagonists and antagonists operate. It was a wise decision to involve the Lizzie more in Charlie’s pursuit of the truth as he tangles repeatedly with Bugsy, Moe and Colt in Los Angeles and Vegas, whose seedy side is portrayed brilliantly even at an early period in the city’s gaudy Mob history. I am hoping we get to see the pair again soon.
December 27, 2019
This felt like a little bit of a departure from what I am used to reading. It is "Late 1946 and Charlie Yates and his wife Lizzie have returned to Los Angeles, trying to stay anonymous in the city of angels"
I didnt read the previous 2 installments in the Charlie Yates series as this plot had grabbed my attention - I dont think you need to read the previous two as the author catches you up easily throughout.
Charlie is an investigative reporter from LA and takes on a case about 2 missing home-town girls who have gone missing quite recently and one of the girls' mother is quite worried. Charlie starts to dig around for information about the missing girls and stumbles in to somewhat of a hornet's nest really with Ben Siegel involved. Siegel is a big old crime boss with his hand in all the wrong types of industries - so Charlie is up against it right from the off.
The book carries itself along - not really a thriller as such but at a pace that still keeps the interest.
I enjoyed it but wouldnt be inclined to go back and read others in the series.
I didnt read the previous 2 installments in the Charlie Yates series as this plot had grabbed my attention - I dont think you need to read the previous two as the author catches you up easily throughout.
Charlie is an investigative reporter from LA and takes on a case about 2 missing home-town girls who have gone missing quite recently and one of the girls' mother is quite worried. Charlie starts to dig around for information about the missing girls and stumbles in to somewhat of a hornet's nest really with Ben Siegel involved. Siegel is a big old crime boss with his hand in all the wrong types of industries - so Charlie is up against it right from the off.
The book carries itself along - not really a thriller as such but at a pace that still keeps the interest.
I enjoyed it but wouldnt be inclined to go back and read others in the series.
January 29, 2019
Sadly it seems that Rod Reynolds is a 'one hit wonder' as neither of the two follow ups to 2015's impressive 'The Dark Inside' have lived up to those heights. 'Cold Desert Sky' limps along with an uninteresting plot, flat characters and scant action. Reynolds also has the audacity to take breathtaking liberties with real life events and characters that are too unbelievable for words. At one point there is a contract taken out on main character Charlie Yates' life, I seriously wished I could take him out myself just to put him out of his misery! Lizzie is reduced to a simpering support role, using her charms whenever Reynolds thinks a dumb male character needs a bit of hoodwinking. The constant references to characters and situations in the two previous books stretched my memory as to what happened back then, I can only assume this would be mega confusing for the first time reader. A truly bad sign was when I completely stopped reading at one point because it was too painful to go on. Based on this effort Reynolds will never be in the top league of crime writers which is a shame as the Charlie Yates series started off with much promise. I doubt I will be joining Charlie for any further instalments of this rapidly declining series. Not recommended.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews