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Detective Brook Deelman Mystery #3
Look Down: A Jonboy File
Kosovo. 2004. When five years of fragile peace collapses, a Royal Military Police investigator is sent to explore the unrest. The fact-finding mission should be straightforward, but Corporal ‘Jonboy’ Davies soon senses something else going on beneath the surface. Something that has got one of his UN overseers very twitchy about what he might find.
Assisted by interpreter Anna and a team of Gurkhas, the Redcap must decide how much he is willing to risk. For the truth will be lurking in the darkest of places – both of a war-torn land and the human psyche.
And its repercussions will stretch all the way to the present…
Assisted by interpreter Anna and a team of Gurkhas, the Redcap must decide how much he is willing to risk. For the truth will be lurking in the darkest of places – both of a war-torn land and the human psyche.
And its repercussions will stretch all the way to the present…
140 pages, Kindle Edition
First published December 22, 2020
27 people are currently reading
27 people want to read
About the author
Ed Church
5 books7 followersEd Church learned about writing as a journalist, then about solving complex cases as a detective in London. After leaving the police, he began writing the dual-timeline mystery “Non-Suspicious”, introducing DC Brook Deelman. Released in 2020, it was soon followed by more titles in the same series – a place where justice can be messy and murky, but always has a long memory.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
February 23, 2022
In 2004 a Royal Military police officer Corporal 'Jonboy' Davies is sent to Kosovo to determine the amount of unrest. But he believes that something is wrong.
An interesting well-written story.
An interesting well-written story.
May 18, 2021
Rich, authentic, storytelling
Sometimes I’m wary when an author wants to do an offshoot of a secondary character – I wonder if they are just biding time while the main act waits in the green room. I have been waiting patiently, or not, for the next Brook Deelman book, and so it took me a bit of time before I cracked open this book, featuring another character from the series, Jonboy. I realized pretty quick that I was a knucklehead for waiting – barely a chapter in I was swept up in the story and the world that Church so skillfully creates. Not sure if he has any military background, but Church’s drawing of a Redcap, Jonboy, in the middle of Kosovo during a very tense time is as authentic here as the U.K. police world he created in the Deelman novels.
More importantly, the characters are also authentic, like Anna the translator – the relationship between her and Jonboy being one of many strengths in the novella. I feel like Church must be a monster researcher, as he has that rare ability to steep a story in verisimilitude, and yet it never feels forced or an info dump. It’s the Hemingway iceberg theory working on all cylinders here, and it allows me to travel with the characters in both their inner and outer journeys.
Without getting all academic about it, it’s a hell of a good story, and the ending points to an exciting integration with the other Deelman books. After reading the bonus section of his new novel, I was like, dammit Church… hurry up and finish that thing! (The wife, also a fan, says the same.)
Sometimes I’m wary when an author wants to do an offshoot of a secondary character – I wonder if they are just biding time while the main act waits in the green room. I have been waiting patiently, or not, for the next Brook Deelman book, and so it took me a bit of time before I cracked open this book, featuring another character from the series, Jonboy. I realized pretty quick that I was a knucklehead for waiting – barely a chapter in I was swept up in the story and the world that Church so skillfully creates. Not sure if he has any military background, but Church’s drawing of a Redcap, Jonboy, in the middle of Kosovo during a very tense time is as authentic here as the U.K. police world he created in the Deelman novels.
More importantly, the characters are also authentic, like Anna the translator – the relationship between her and Jonboy being one of many strengths in the novella. I feel like Church must be a monster researcher, as he has that rare ability to steep a story in verisimilitude, and yet it never feels forced or an info dump. It’s the Hemingway iceberg theory working on all cylinders here, and it allows me to travel with the characters in both their inner and outer journeys.
Without getting all academic about it, it’s a hell of a good story, and the ending points to an exciting integration with the other Deelman books. After reading the bonus section of his new novel, I was like, dammit Church… hurry up and finish that thing! (The wife, also a fan, says the same.)
June 2, 2021
A good read, but fizzled at the end for me. Suddenly, The Tourist appeared. I was aware of him from a previous novel, but still felt like I had missed something.
September 12, 2021
Short & very sweet!
Church transports you from favourite familiar comfortable arm chair to deepest darkest war torn Kosovo. Another web of intrigue & suspense. Great page Turner. Can’t wait for his next book.
Church transports you from favourite familiar comfortable arm chair to deepest darkest war torn Kosovo. Another web of intrigue & suspense. Great page Turner. Can’t wait for his next book.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews