What do you think?
Rate this book
Sam Dyke Investigation #6
The Secret Sharers
"I enjoy Lee Child, Robert Crais, Tess Gerritson. So I think Keith Dixon is up there with the greats." - Amazon Reviewer
"He said, 'Let's be clear: there are two things that I want to come out of this. First, I want to be sure I'm being followed. Secondly, I want to know by whom. Do we understand each other?'"
How difficult could this case be?
Private investigator Sam Dyke soon learns, however, that Frank Wallace, the client, hasn't revealed the whole truth. And in the world of secret intelligence in which Wallace has earned his living for the last forty years, it's probable the truth has rarely seen the light of day.
Dyke travels into London and out of his comfort zone, soon finding himself tangled in a web of deceit in which Government Intelligence services, mysterious blondes, private security firms and vintage Blues music are all bound together. Only he can clear a path through to find out what everyone really wants-and not just what they say they want.
Sam Dyke is a private investigator from a working-class environment who works amongst the wealthy and privileged of the Cheshire set-those whose morals and levels of discretion are offensive to him and go against his own values, forged in a strong family environment. The mysteries he unravels become personal crusades against entitlement, wealth and the abuse of power. Although he doesn't moralise, he gets angry when he sees people who lie, steal and murder to get their way. Like Philip Marlowe and Sam Spade he has a clear view of what the world is actually like, but he nevertheless wants evil-doers set straight and will do what he can to help.
The Strange Girl, the last Sam Dyke thriller, was described as 'diverting' by trade bible The Bookseller, with Sam Dyke being 'Crewe's answer to Philip Marlowe'. The Secret Sharers is the latest exciting instalment in this action-packed series.
"He said, 'Let's be clear: there are two things that I want to come out of this. First, I want to be sure I'm being followed. Secondly, I want to know by whom. Do we understand each other?'"
How difficult could this case be?
Private investigator Sam Dyke soon learns, however, that Frank Wallace, the client, hasn't revealed the whole truth. And in the world of secret intelligence in which Wallace has earned his living for the last forty years, it's probable the truth has rarely seen the light of day.
Dyke travels into London and out of his comfort zone, soon finding himself tangled in a web of deceit in which Government Intelligence services, mysterious blondes, private security firms and vintage Blues music are all bound together. Only he can clear a path through to find out what everyone really wants-and not just what they say they want.
Sam Dyke is a private investigator from a working-class environment who works amongst the wealthy and privileged of the Cheshire set-those whose morals and levels of discretion are offensive to him and go against his own values, forged in a strong family environment. The mysteries he unravels become personal crusades against entitlement, wealth and the abuse of power. Although he doesn't moralise, he gets angry when he sees people who lie, steal and murder to get their way. Like Philip Marlowe and Sam Spade he has a clear view of what the world is actually like, but he nevertheless wants evil-doers set straight and will do what he can to help.
The Strange Girl, the last Sam Dyke thriller, was described as 'diverting' by trade bible The Bookseller, with Sam Dyke being 'Crewe's answer to Philip Marlowe'. The Secret Sharers is the latest exciting instalment in this action-packed series.
310 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2015
4 people are currently reading
14 people want to read
About the author
Keith Dixon
91 books79 followersKeith Dixon was born in Yorkshire and grew up in the Midlands. He’s been writing since he was thirteen years old in a number of different genres: thriller, espionage, science fiction, literary. He’s the author of seven novels in the Sam Dyke Investigations series and two other non-crime works, as well as two collections of blog posts on the craft of writing. When he’s not writing he enjoys reading, learning the guitar, watching movies and binge-inhaling great TV series. He’s currently spending more time in France than is probably good for him.
Learn more about Keith by following him on Twitter @keithyd6, by reading his blog at www.cwconfidential.blogspot.com or connect with him on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/SamDykeInvest...
On his website you can download a couple of free books and find out more about the others: www.keithdixonnovels.com.
His Amazon page from which you can buy all the books is here: http://www.amazon.com/Keith-Dixon/e/B...
Learn more about Keith by following him on Twitter @keithyd6, by reading his blog at www.cwconfidential.blogspot.com or connect with him on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/SamDykeInvest...
On his website you can download a couple of free books and find out more about the others: www.keithdixonnovels.com.
His Amazon page from which you can buy all the books is here: http://www.amazon.com/Keith-Dixon/e/B...
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
August 20, 2016
The Whole series so far has been well worth reading the sixth in the series
leaves us begging for more and fortunately there is at least 3 more to go i think this one is the best so far
5 Stars
leaves us begging for more and fortunately there is at least 3 more to go i think this one is the best so far
5 Stars
May 25, 2015
This novel is the sixth in the Sam Dyke private eye series and shows the flexibility of the detective fiction form which can tell a good story and at the same time point toward wider societal issues. In this instance, the issue is the extent to which government agencies contract out services to private companies. In the book, the services being contracted out are security ones, both cyber and physical.
How does Sam Dyke, a low level private eye whose bread and butter comes from catching up with welfare cheats, rent-skippers, bad check passers, and the like, get involved in what for him is a high level operation? In fact, he's quite reluctant to get involved at all, but when an elderly pensioner shows up in his office and guarantees him a hefty chunk of cash to find out whose following him, Dyke succumbs to temptation and takes the case.
The back story is that Frank Wallace, a pensioner, retired from a private security firm, Shoemaker Systems, a year ago and is very upset with the direction the company is headed. His good friend and partner died, and his widow , a Greek-born woman named Jocasta, has taken over the firm. Wallace says the ethics of the organization now disturbs him - it essentially sells its services to the highest bidder and has no scruples about using information it has gathered against clients it used to work for. Wallace claims, in essence, that he's a whistle-blower who has been writing articles publicizing the company's conflicts of interest.
He suspects Shoemaker Systems is following and harassing him, trying to intimate and shut him up, and he wants Dyke to confirm this suspicion. Dyke is not entirely convinced that this old guy isn't paranoid, but as I said, the money leads him to tell Wallace he'll do what he can to get to the bottom of what's going on.
In the course of his investigation, he contacts Jocasta, the CEO of Shoemaker Systems, and is initially impressed by her competence and intelligence. She dismisses Wallace as a disgruntled former employee and scoffs at the notion that he has anything of importance to reveal. Besides, she points out, Shoemaker Systems would never be so amateurishly clumsy as to physically intimate someone, even if what Wallace says is true.
At this point, Wallace begins to act strangely, and Dyke faces a conundrum - who to believe? He sorts out the truth eventually, a matter of some complexity and at considerable danger to himself, and the reader follows along trying to work it for himself. The ending is very clever, one that the reader will only appreciate retrospectively. If the reader is a film buff, he'll recall Hitchcock's MacGuffin technique where a seemingly unimportant detail surfaces in a surprising way at the film's conclusion..
Sam's last words at the end of the novel are "Next time, I thought, I'm going to be a damn sight more careful where I put my trust. It hurts too much when you get it wrong." True on a personal level, but there are wider implications as well - who do governments trust, and who trusts them? The real life Edward Snowden case hovers in the background of this satisfying latest Sam Dyke adventure.
How does Sam Dyke, a low level private eye whose bread and butter comes from catching up with welfare cheats, rent-skippers, bad check passers, and the like, get involved in what for him is a high level operation? In fact, he's quite reluctant to get involved at all, but when an elderly pensioner shows up in his office and guarantees him a hefty chunk of cash to find out whose following him, Dyke succumbs to temptation and takes the case.
The back story is that Frank Wallace, a pensioner, retired from a private security firm, Shoemaker Systems, a year ago and is very upset with the direction the company is headed. His good friend and partner died, and his widow , a Greek-born woman named Jocasta, has taken over the firm. Wallace says the ethics of the organization now disturbs him - it essentially sells its services to the highest bidder and has no scruples about using information it has gathered against clients it used to work for. Wallace claims, in essence, that he's a whistle-blower who has been writing articles publicizing the company's conflicts of interest.
He suspects Shoemaker Systems is following and harassing him, trying to intimate and shut him up, and he wants Dyke to confirm this suspicion. Dyke is not entirely convinced that this old guy isn't paranoid, but as I said, the money leads him to tell Wallace he'll do what he can to get to the bottom of what's going on.
In the course of his investigation, he contacts Jocasta, the CEO of Shoemaker Systems, and is initially impressed by her competence and intelligence. She dismisses Wallace as a disgruntled former employee and scoffs at the notion that he has anything of importance to reveal. Besides, she points out, Shoemaker Systems would never be so amateurishly clumsy as to physically intimate someone, even if what Wallace says is true.
At this point, Wallace begins to act strangely, and Dyke faces a conundrum - who to believe? He sorts out the truth eventually, a matter of some complexity and at considerable danger to himself, and the reader follows along trying to work it for himself. The ending is very clever, one that the reader will only appreciate retrospectively. If the reader is a film buff, he'll recall Hitchcock's MacGuffin technique where a seemingly unimportant detail surfaces in a surprising way at the film's conclusion..
Sam's last words at the end of the novel are "Next time, I thought, I'm going to be a damn sight more careful where I put my trust. It hurts too much when you get it wrong." True on a personal level, but there are wider implications as well - who do governments trust, and who trusts them? The real life Edward Snowden case hovers in the background of this satisfying latest Sam Dyke adventure.
July 9, 2016
This has been a great year for reading for me. One of the highlights was discovering author Keith Dixon’s Sam Dyke Private Investigator series. I’ve read several of these now and they just keep getting better. I’ve now found my favourite: ‘The Secret Sharers’. Brilliant!
In previous reviews I’ve mentioned Dixon’s eye for detail that places readers in the locations he describes, his knack of defining some very nasty but highly believable characters, especially the villains, and his fast-paced, complex storylines. In ‘The Secret Sharers’ there’s all that and more. One thing I didn’t mention in my reviews was the humour running like a thread of gold throughout the books. Dykes one-liners and the author’s use of his POV to comment on situations and people are often filled with ‘grin-moments’ on my part. However, in this novel, the humour seems to stand out far more. It added another dimension to a superb storyline with enough twists to cause dizzy spells.
An Outstanding and highly entertaining read and Highly Recommended!
In previous reviews I’ve mentioned Dixon’s eye for detail that places readers in the locations he describes, his knack of defining some very nasty but highly believable characters, especially the villains, and his fast-paced, complex storylines. In ‘The Secret Sharers’ there’s all that and more. One thing I didn’t mention in my reviews was the humour running like a thread of gold throughout the books. Dykes one-liners and the author’s use of his POV to comment on situations and people are often filled with ‘grin-moments’ on my part. However, in this novel, the humour seems to stand out far more. It added another dimension to a superb storyline with enough twists to cause dizzy spells.
An Outstanding and highly entertaining read and Highly Recommended!
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews