When a thief steals twenty gold chains from the new jewelers in town. DS Lasser is given the task of tracking him down, ordinarily no big deal. Problem is while making his escape, the man sent an elderly woman crashing to the ground. When it transpires she is related to Callum Green the local drugs baron, Lasser knows he must find the thief before Green does.
However, as the plot unfolds, Green realises he has more pressing concerns; someone is trying to take over his business, someone who has an eye on the bigger prize.
Mr Plymouth has done this kind of work before. Charles Munroe is expanding his drugs empire, and Plymouth is responsible for the smooth transition into new more profitable areas.
As those closest to Green begin to die. Lasser finds himself trapped between the warring factions, trying to catch the guilty, whilst protecting the innocent. Though as winter grips, he realises that in this town, even the innocent have their own agenda.
Rob Roughley lives in the North West of England (God's coal bunker,the land of the wedding cake made by placing three meat pies on top of one another and whippets on lengths of string) He is the author of eight crime/thriller novels featuring DS Lasser. The novels are set between the run down streets of a northern town and the beautiful yet desolate west Pennine moors. If you love your crime fiction crammed with square jawed heroes driving flash cars and glorious women who shimmer with inner light, then the DS Lasser novels are not for you. However, if you prefer your characters to be flawed, with a sprinkling of dandruff and old acne scars,the plots to be laced with dark humour, then give them a try. 1 The Needle House 2 The Way that it Falls 3 Tethered to the Dead. 4 Twisted Coming soon: 5 More Equal than Others 6 Vanished Beneath 7 Riven 8 Bad Self
Robin Roughley. Book 2. THE WAY THAT IT FALLS. This is book 2 in the series featuring DS Lassers, and when a new jeweller in town is robbed of 20 gold chains it starts a war between the local gangs. Follow DS Lassers on a murder mystery, that will keep you hooked all the way to the end. Highly recommended read. 5* 31 July 2015.
I have found another writer that I really like and there are still nine more books to go. Its great to find a main character going about detecting and not having all the demons and hang ups that seem to dog the modern crime series.
For all the fans of English police/ detective novels this has to be a must be read item. It follows the investigation into the robbery of a jewelry store and death of an elderly woman, who was bulldozed aside, in the subsequent escape. You are then given a good look at the seedy narcotic and sexual traffic underbelly of a inner city in England. DS Lasser, as always, is doing his best to control the situation while ensuring justice prevails. The ending, while satisfactory, will leave you wondering who took the matter in hand?
This is the second book with this character, I have read and I thoroughly enjoyed both of them.
I have rated this book 4stars.
I obtained this book in Kindle format from Amazon. Thank you Frank For your Review
On a cold, Wintery day in Wigan, a thief steals some chains from a new jeweller’s shop, colliding with an old lady as he escapes. It’s all in a day’s work for DS Lasser, even if he’s off duty at the time. Only this is no ordinary day as events spiral out of control into a full blown battle.
Filled with deftly drawn and engaging characters – even when some of them are terrorising the local population and ripping up the streets – the story follows a number of strands, which slowly weave into a thrilling climax and resolution.
Robin Roughley takes the ordinary and turns it into a mesmerising, complex adventure that has time to take in police politics, personal relationships and the gritty underworld of crime and despair that lurk behind the veneer of our High Streets. And at its heart is DS Lasser, who remains committed to the job he loves despite the flaws in the system and the risks to his personal safety.
While there are so many good things I could say about this story, I’ll confine myself to Plymouth, who has to be one the best villains I’ve encountered in crime fiction. He deserves his own book.
In the meantime, enjoy this great story. I’m already looking forward to the next in the series.
I enjoy Robin Roughley's style of writing. DS Lasser is an old fashioned kind of policeman...not afraid to break a few rules. Drugs and violence and the whole underworld of crime and turf wars. The exploitation of young women and the sadness and despair in their lives. A good read. Ready for the next one....
You can't beat british crime well that's what I think and this is British crime at its best DS lasser a down to earth copper doing his job and getting into plenty of nail biting situations and murders along the way .There is also a character called Plymouth who I'm sure will pop up in future books can't wait to start book three
Another 5 star read from this author, the characters are amazing and I loved the ongoing development of Lasser and co. This author is rapidly becoming one of my favourites
Nearly gave up on this about a quarter of the book but so glad I didn't. A very good read and almost 5 stars. This is turning into an excellent series.
Since I'm getting into the way the author tells stories in this series, I've got more time to notice other stuff. In the e-book version the chapters are edited in an unfavorable manner. That threw me off a lot. Some chapters and the end of the book ended very abruptly. That could have also been solved better in my opinion. I also agree with people who say that there are odd sentences and grammar structures here and there. So, even though the mysteries are super exciting, they are undermined in a way better editing could have solved easily. And what also bothered me was the obsession with cigarettes. Every smoker sounded like "Cigarettes are disgusting. Why am I doing this to my body?" I can't imagine that everyone perceives unhealthy habits the same way. Like the first book the second one leaves me thinking more about cigarettes than I would like to.
For all the fans of English police/ detective novels this has to be a must be read item. It follows the investigation into the robbery of a jewelry store and death of an elderly woman, who was bulldozed aside, in the subsequent escape. You are then given a good look at the seedy narcotic and sexual traffic underbelly of a inner city in England. DS Lasser, as always, is doing his best to control the situation while ensuring justice prevails. The ending, while satisfactory, will leave you wondering who took the matter in hand?
This is the second book with this character, I have read and I thoroughly enjoyed both of them.
I have rated this book 4stars.
I obtained this book in Kindle format from Amazon.
I didn’t enjoy this one as much as the first book in the series, this was partly because the audio version of book 1 was much more fun. I like DS Lasser but it was the storyline which influenced my enjoyment. It was gritty, with unsavory characters and set in the seedy part of town. I can never get too enthusiastic about this setting or gangster theme. There were a number of unsuccessful chases on foot, several broken noses and probably thousand’s of cigarettes smoked. Why the author feels we need to know every time anyone lights up mystifies me a bit. I I’ll stick with this series as I like the writing and characters and just hope we don’t have many drug dealer/prostitute settings. PS the writing could lose the C word too
DS Lasser is back and investigating the death of an elderly woman after a jewelry shop raid. Unfortunately she happens to be the grandmother of a local drug baron and before long half the North west underworld are involved as family feuds, grudges and plain old violence for fun takes over. Ironically the police involvement is comparatively minimal as the underworld seems intent of killing each other off but it's a cracking, pacey and gripping read with Lasser always seemingly a step behind where he needs to be. Despite being the second in the series it reads well as a standalone with very few references to the first book. Highly recommended!!
Another action-packed read by Robin Roughly. Two drug barons, one trying to usurp the other. Lasser investigates the fall out from their disputes. Roughly's introduction of a new character, Mr. Plymouth, a sociopath who can't abide foul language had me smiling through the tension. I recommend The Way That It Falls to anyone who enjoys police procedural crime series.
A good read but overly long - otherwise a five star.
The story was compelling but peppered with irrelevant material that added nothing to the plot. E.G. A full description of the contents of a food dispenser from which the hungry detective was to select something to eat. Unnecessary.
I like the lead character and some of the others are interesting. Definitely a series to follow.
When Shaun Miller deliberately pushes 85 year old Charlotte Green while being chased by DS Lasser he sets off a chain of events that can only result in pain. Beacuse unfortunately for hime she is grandmother to local drugs baron Callum Green. A police procedural which although an interesting read the swearing did become too much
This series could be great, but it is seriously undermined by the lack of editing. PLEASE invest in someone who at least knows what a comma is and how to use it.
Dam good story of drug gang warfare and police trying to control this and mistake killing a grandma of a prominent gang leader . Lasser has his work cut out and doesn't help with a corrupt police officer and there's the mysterious Plymouth ! Brilliant read well onto the next
My first Lasser book. Interesting. Great story, characters I don't hate, wonderful atmosphere, complex and thoughtful mystery. However...I really had a hard time with "crazy comma-dom" (where commas were interspersed as if the keyboard were thinking for itself, rambling almost..oh my) and the "waiter-come-door attendant" and "the cafe-come-gift shop" type of errors had me putting the book down quite often. But the story kept bringing me back. I became deeply interested in the details and so I settled down and just enjoyed the story. Totally worth it. Getting another in the series now, because...well, a good story-teller is a gift to readers everywhere. And I think this author has a big dose of this gift.
An"innocent" theft hits a drug cartel in more ways than one. A very tangled web of criminals and those they involve in their lies and deceits. A page turner of a book that makes you think how the other half live.. or not. The ones caught up in innocence, the ones just there for the power and the money that chaos and misery of drugs can bring. A book that you have to think a little as the web is spread to sort who is who, which is good for the grey matter! Still an easy, enjoyable read from a brilliant author. Now on to the next one...
There was a good story, not a remarkable one, which earned it a star. The other star was for daring to write a detective series based in Wigan.
But, the product was appalling. It desperately needed copy-editing before publication. It was amateurish in its presentation and unsophisticated in its writing.
Dialogue sometimes I thought was used to pad it out, and there was a failure to create any sense of tension. The characters were lacking any sense of life off the page and there was little to encourage me to read any other in the series... Schoolboy stuff.