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Everyone has their price.Forced to grapple with the price of justice, DS Jamie Johansson receives a tip on a case that she can’t ignore.A young pregnant woman has been shot dead.One bullet to the back. Left to bleed out. She has no ID, no name. No witnesses have come forward. No family has claimed her body. And there’s no sign of the father.The case is stalled with no leads, and the owner of the apartment block where she was shot is hiding behind a team of solicitors. The detectives working the murder have nowhere to turn and want to wash their hands of it before they cross the wrong person.But Jamie doesn’t shy away from a case. No matter whose cage it rattles. And as she begins to close in on the animals responsible, she comes to see how brutal they really are. And when cornered, how quickly they’ll bite back…Fresh Meat is the thrilling follow-up to Bare Skin, and sees Jamie pitted against the most dangerous criminals she’s faced yet. Book 2 in the DI Jamie Johansson prequels.

350 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 31, 2020

136 people are currently reading
226 people want to read

About the author

Morgan Greene

37 books326 followers
Morgan Greene grew up in Wales, and works a copywriter, editor, and author. Morgan studied Creative Writing and English Literature at Swansea University with a focus on narrative structure and theory, and published the first crime novel in the Jamie Johansson series in 2020. Since its release, the series has gone on to reach bestseller status, with Detective Jamie Johansson quickly becoming a reader favourite.

The series blends classic Scandi-noir elements with modern and cinematic thriller writing to create a unique style that adds to the emerging Brit-noir genre. Jamie has many novels ahead of her, but Morgan is also working on a variety of other projects across crime, thriller, and mystery and plans to publish plenty more in 2022 and beyond.

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Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews
Profile Image for Matt.
4,824 reviews13.1k followers
October 24, 2020
Having devoured the opening novel in this series, I was eager to get back to it, particularly because Morgan Green left things so wide open with a cliffhanger. This second book is just as good, using another gritty story and spicing it up with strong character development. A dual plot line that keeps DS Jamie Johansson busier than she could imagine helps to propel the piece forward. I was highly impressed with the novel and hope others will take the time to read the series to date. Recommended to those who love a good police procedural where the action never takes a breather.

While the partner pairing of Detective Sergeants Jamie Johansson and Paul Roper is the talk of the London Metropolitan Police, the oddity has been diluted somewhat. DS Johansson is young, lithe, and health conscious, while DS Roper smokes like a chimney, but has curbed his love of drink. The age gap is also quite significant, but somehow they make it work and find a form symbiosis. After a somewhat rocky start in the first novel, they have found their stride and the ever-present sobriety of them both appears to be one factor.

After letting serial killer and illegal organ donor, Elliot Day, slip through their fingers, Johansson and Roper have tried to earn some credibility back. When postcards from around the world begin turning up in Johansson’s personal mailbox, she is curious. Is Day simply mocking her as he galavants all over, killing Interpol agents at will? When Day begins offering Johansson clues as to where she might find some local criminals, she undertakes the missions with much success, but keeps the news from her partner and the police brass.

A postcard arrives with a vague description of a victim, one that Johansson cannot pass up. She discovers the Jane Doe, a young Asian woman who was pregnant and shot in the back. After reading some of the preliminary reports, Johansson convinces Roper that they ought to work the case. However, it’s been assigned to a senior pair of homicide detectives and they have no way of explaining how they came to know of it. Working her magic, Johansson convinces the senior detectives to let her in on the case, though she is to take no credit for anything and must keep it from her superiors. She’s in and ready to ruffle a few feathers.

After learning a little more about the victim, based on a tattoo located on her wrist, Johansson enters the world of underground Chinese casinos. It would seem the victim worked at one called Jade Circle and was used to service clients when requested. Asking too many questions leaves Roper in the hospital and Johansson on the wrong side of the beat down, though she refuses to stand down, wanting to give the victim the justice she deserves. When Johansson discovers a name for the victim, Qiang, it gets the ball rolling and makes the investigation all the more real!

When Elliot Day re-emerges at Johnasson’s apartment, he shares some news that could put the Qiang case into better perspective. Jade Circle is surely much more difficult than it appears on the surface and surely must be stopped. Human trafficking and the abyss that emerges with it will impact Johansson greatly, but she cannot relent, needing to make a difference as only she knows how. Qiang may only be a single woman, but there are so many others who need saving, if only to justify keeping Elliot on the lam and defying every rule the Met has for DS Jamie Johansson. This is where the action picks up and the case gets even more dangerous, with Elliot lurking in the shadows as well.

Morgan Greene is a natural storyteller and lures the reader in with great writing alongside some well-developed characters. Both novels served to keep me pushing ahead and reading well into the night, so as to finish and learn a little more about what was to come!

DS Jamie Johansson is a wonderful protagonist yet again, as her character continues to blossom throughout the story. With a little more backstory about her father, a detective in Sweden before he took his own life, keeps the reader eager to learn more. While she is a young detective, Johansson has the passion her father instilled in her, though she is still fairly wet behind the ears when it comes to certain aspects of policing. When she’s not in the middle of a case, Johansson uses her personal time to burn a little energy with mixed-martial arts, something Greene explores in breakaway moments of the narrative.

The cast of secondary characters remained intriguing for me. Greene develops his supporting cast effectively in this police procedural, mixing people from all walks of life to complement our protagonist. Some are one-offs, which is to be expected, while there are a few who returned for this second adventure. I hope to see more of these characters as the series moves forward, seemingly with at least two more books.

This was a great follow-up novel and Morgan Greene is surely an author worth noting, as his confidence builds. The piece gains momentum throughout with great action and a well-paced set of cases. Exploring more of the darker underbelly of London, Greene offers his readers a piece they will not soon forget. Longer chapters pull the reader in with much plot development, alongside a few teasers to keep the reader forging ahead. There is still a lot to go in the series, as Elliot Day remains on the loose and Johansson cannot simply let that leave her memory. Two more books await the reader, according to the author’s note, which will surely make for some wonderful reading in the coming months.

Kudos, Mr. Greene, for another stellar piece. Keep them coming and let Jamie find her wings!

Love/hate the review? An ever-growing collection of others appears at:
http://pecheyponderings.wordpress.com/

A Book for All Seasons, a different sort of Book Challenge: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/...
Profile Image for Pat.
2,310 reviews501 followers
October 22, 2020
Fresh Meat is the sequel to Bare Skin which I recently reviewed. The title of this one is a little more apt! I thought the start of the book was not so good. DS Jamie Johansson of the London Met is getting postcards from a criminal that slipped through her fingers in the previous book. She hands these over to her boss DCI Smith. But when the cards start giving her tips about forthcoming crimes or criminals she feels that she should be doing something to stop them. So instead of handing these postcards over she phones in anonymous tips to the police, and hides the cards. She knows she’s treading a thin line with this behaviour. That’s the bit I didn’t like so much, her behaviour and the dialogue in the first little bit of the book were quite unprofessional.

Anyhoo, she gets another tip about a Jane Doe, Asian, pregnant and no other information. As she starts to look into this case she pokes her fingers into a dangerous hornet’s nest and she and Roper (because of course she ropes Roper into her scheme) get very badly stung. And this is where the book got really good and redeemed itself. Jamie knows she went off half-cocked and unprepared. She knows she can’t match the criminals in sheer strength and numbers so she will have to be smarter if she wants to put them away.

There is a lot of action in the second half. Jamie doesn’t give up, ever! Eventually, despite all his bluster, her boss, Smith, comes to the party. So it ended up being another 4 star read. The characters are seating to grow and to grow on me. Even Roper is slowly cleaning up his act and I think Jamie has learned a lesson about correct procedure. It will be interesting to see how they all go in the next instalment.
Profile Image for Kathi Defranc.
1,182 reviews497 followers
September 4, 2020
What an exciting, gritty follow-up to 'Bare Skin'!! This story is NOT a fairy tale,but the real, no holds barred story of Detectives on the force today, with tough jobs to do...Making them tough, authentic people, who feel just like you and I do, but have to be rough and follow their instincts in a world where one missed step could be your last...
The spit fire Detective Jamie Johansson is up against enemies who have a staggering amount of power, money, and insight into everything happening around them..Even what the cops are up to! In the investigation Jamie is beat badly..Her partner, Roper, is sliced with a knife..All with No suggestion that someone was following them..This case will Definitely NOT be Easy...
This author keeps her characters on the edge, feeling things that should make them turn away..But Not Detective Johansson, She is more determined than Ever to stop those causing death and evil to people in her district...But..Nothing Is EVER Easy...
A simply fabulous second book in an authentic story, straight from the streets cops deal with every day...I received an ARC from the author, who I thank for a realistic take on police officers' job every day, and I offer You my honest thoughts and feelings in this review!!
Profile Image for Cosmina.
131 reviews16 followers
March 20, 2024
I liked the first one more than this one. It was a little bit more interesting, I'd say . I'm reading all these books so I can get more familiar with Jamie so I can continue the series based in Sweden. I don't like the title very much, to be honest, and I really don't like her having " conversation" with her dead father all the time or POSSIBLE SPOILER that he is keeping in touch with the guy who she should arrest. On to the next one then. To see if it gets better.
Profile Image for Abigail.
58 reviews1 follower
October 25, 2020
Fresh Meat is the thrilling follow-up to Bare Skin and see’s Jamie putted against the most dangerous criminals she’s faced yet.

Everyone has their price.

Forced to grapple with the price of justice Jamie receives a tip on a case that she can’t ignore.

A young pregnant woman is gunned dead.
One shot to the back.
Left to bleed out.
She has no ID.
No witnesses have come forward.
No family to claim her body.
And there’s no sign of the father.

The case is stalled with no leads, and the owner of the apartment block where she was shot is hiding behind a team of solicitors. The detectives working the murder have no where to turn and want to wash their hands of it before they cross the wrong person.

But Jamie doesn’t shy away from a case. No matter whose cage it rattles. As she begins to close in on the animals responsible she comes to see how brutal they are and when cornered how quickly they’ll bite back...

What can I say about this book other than WOW!!!

After reading Morgan’s first book Bare Skin I could not wait for the release of this book. I found myself counting down to the release day. It was so much better than I expected it to be (and I’d set high expectations). I might even go as far as saying it was slightly better than the first instalment in the series.

Full of twists and turns I couldn’t put this book down. With the same likeable characters and links to the first book there were twists from page one that I did not expect.

Another great book from Morgan Greene and I can’t wait for book three in the series.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
63 reviews4 followers
September 9, 2020
I thoroughly enjoyed the first book in this series, Bare Skin and I was a little worried that the second would not quite live up to that high standard, but I certainly didn’t need to worry. This book was just as good if not slightly better. The main characters that I loved from the first book were fleshed out even more, becoming more likeable and realistic, I was completely with them and rooting for their success. Morgan Greene is, in my opinion, an excellent author. Her books have such gripping storylines with so much believability. I was totally hooked throughout and loved all the twists and turns. I have read so very many detective/police procedural novels and I can honestly say that these two stories by Morgan Greene are two of my favourites. If you enjoy brilliant characters, descriptive writing, realistic storylines and lots of excitement you definitely need to read both Bare Skin and Fresh Meat. I received this book as an ARC from the author and I am so grateful that I did, I just hope there’s lots more to come and I will certainly be buying the next instalment.
351 reviews1 follower
June 30, 2025
A step up from the first book, with Jamie grappling with the nature of justice, and the price she is willing to pay in order to get the real scum of the street behind bars - but then the man she is chasing, the killer who got away last time, could be the worst of the lot.

I connected to the supporting characters a lot more this time around. Cake, Roper, even Smith, they all felt like more real, engaging characters. I actually cared what happened to Roper, whereas before he had felt a little flat. This was a grim, gritty, dark world and although it still didn't feel like London, it was a great crime thriller.

I need to read the next one right now, because I have to know how this ends. I was sort of expecting the cat and mouse play between Jamie and you-know-who to be a bit of a larger part of the story, but after reading the author's note, I understand why it isn't.
9 reviews
September 6, 2020
A Great News Detective Series

This new series is fantastic. Morgan Greene has created a great character in DS Jamie Johansson. The first in the series, Bare Skin keeps you guessing and had a twist i didn’t expect. The 2nd in the series Fresh Meat, picks up where the 1st ended and further develops the primary & secondary characters. These books are a bit dark, and in a way, a nice change from some of the police procedural pablum that’s out there. These are really well written, and i can’t wait until the 3rd book comes out. Give this series a try. I’ve read about 100 UK based detective books this year, these 2 are in the top 10. Try Bare Skin, you’ll be happy you did and that you have a new series to get hooked on!
6 reviews
April 8, 2022
not sure about these…

Started reading this series in the middle (spoiler alert!) with the book that sees Jamie returning to Sweden which was good so started reading the Met Police books. But not sure. They feel American- do members of the Met address one another and introduce themselves as ‘Detective’? I thought they always used rank. Maybe in the Swedish based book I assumed this was the norm in Sweden. Sorry but it kept jarring and although it was all set in London felt like I was reading an American crime thriller. Which I frequently do and enjoy. Just not right for this story and location. Also way too much blood and guts for me. Just my preference.
Profile Image for Tony da Napoli.
569 reviews16 followers
July 19, 2021
After reading the first, I decided to try this. My personal opinion remains that while I think the crimes and procedures and solutions are done very well, I cannot warm the the main protagonist, Jamie. I feel too many contradictions in what she says, what is said about her, and how she behaves and performs. I also do not like the ghost-advisor over her shoulder approach. I hope that makes sense.
In any case, I was loaned an ebook of the trilogy - so will squeeze in #3 and see if I change my opinion.
1 review
May 18, 2021
Fresh Meat

I have enjoyed Bare skin and Fresh Meat. At times.I have skipped parts as they went on for too long. Jamie's narrative with her father's is annoying at times. The relationship she has with Ropper and Cake are interesting and says more about her than the characters. The plots are well though through and the research thorough. I look forward to reading more of this author as I think he is one to watch.

Profile Image for Lindy Protzek.
53 reviews2 followers
August 14, 2023
So on my second Jamie book and still struggling with that lack of a solid team dynamic but loving the storylines and although I truly like Jamie this "Lone Ranger" thing is not for me although the anxiety it causes is part of the excitement I guess . She needs to not be working with a serial killer in my opinion even though I see the pull Elliot has on her! I hope in the next book she can be the cop and lock him up and move forward....I guess we'll see. On to Idle Hands. :)
321 reviews4 followers
April 5, 2024
Tenacious and Maverick Detective

This was a good follow-up/continuation of Bare Skin. I mostly enjoyed the book and it certainly had its moments of tension.

Jamie Johansson is a quandary to me. Do I like her? Or not? The tenaciousness is a definite strength, and she is unorthodox in many ways that make her such an interesting character but her maverick tendencies can be more then annoying and unfathomable.
Profile Image for Claire Scottish.
68 reviews1 follower
November 13, 2021
Jamie is a refreshing change from all the male detectives out there and there is also something different and kind of more intelligent about Morgan Greene's books. Shades of Ian Rankin definitely and also Thomas Harris. The kindle spelling is a bit off sometimes but I didn't let that spoil my enjoyment of the book. I am racing through these and looking forward to reading more...
17 reviews
December 11, 2020
Follow up after reading book one

Thoroughly enjoyed book one and the second book hooked me even more. The relationships between the characters are so interesting and believable and quite complex. Like how her father invades her thoughts with advice. Looking forward to book three.
1 review
October 20, 2021
Brilliant series

Well written with believable characters. Had me gripped from page 1. I am enjoying following Jamie as her career takes her into the murky underworld of London. Can't wait to read book 3.
Profile Image for Alma Mason.
22 reviews
January 24, 2022
Fresh meat

Wasn't sure what to expect from the title, but another great insight into our heroine and how she developed her tradecraft. A bit more about her personal relationships outside of work means we are getting a much clearer picture of DS Jamie Johansson.
Profile Image for Andrea Wetton.
100 reviews6 followers
September 16, 2020
Go get 'em

Wonderful to catch up with Jamie again.

Unexpected twists in the story

Looking forward to her next case and her future
Profile Image for Susan.
346 reviews5 followers
May 27, 2021
I have this book by Morgan Greene brilliant brilliant book and Author would definitely recommend to other avid readers like me
Profile Image for Julie Hall.
1 review
July 21, 2021
Great read

Great read hard to put down.good twist at the end better than the 1st book so looking forward to the next installment
Profile Image for Stacey Louise.
158 reviews1 follower
November 28, 2021
I love how in this second novel, the character of DS Jamie Johansson really develops! There's twists and turns at every corner and I couldn't put it down!
53 reviews
January 8, 2022
Brilliant read, already onto the next in the trilogy. Recommend to those who love a good thriller.
2 reviews
May 16, 2022
Getting better

My second book in the series and I love the developing Jamie and am really looking forward to reading the next book.
11 reviews
September 28, 2022
I really like this series. The twists are really good and I can’t wait to find out how she catches Eliot and gets out of trouble for lying to Smith. 🤣 so I’ll be reading away! 👍
Profile Image for Nicholas Turner.
Author 2 books
May 12, 2023
Another very good book in the Jamie Johansson series, developing the main character from the first book with an interesting story about the darker side of the UK.
Profile Image for Hannah.
319 reviews2 followers
August 23, 2023
Fast pace with always something going on.

Jamie is a force to be reckoned with.

4 stars
Profile Image for Esther Martin.
63 reviews1 follower
February 7, 2024
As always an amazing read

I am completely obsessed with this writer, the main character, and these intricate plots. Getting ready to dive into the next book!
427 reviews2 followers
January 10, 2025
Really good, fast pace, lots of action, great plot, really good read. Love the way Jamie kicks butt and dear old Roper watching her back. Also love the character Cake at the boxing gym
Profile Image for Jenny.
201 reviews1 follower
December 2, 2025
I'm really enjoying these books. Fast paced and full of action. My only gripe is the constant references to her fitness and fighting skills as it's a bit repetitive. 4.5*
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