Death in Blitz City: The brilliant WWII crime thriller from the author of Stasi Child

by David Young

The brand new 2022 historical crime thriller from the award-winning author of STASI CHILD.*** 'A tense, smartly plotted new police procedural' - DAILY MAIL ***1942. HULL, EAST YORKSHIRE - It is the most heavily bombed city outside of London, but for the sake of national morale the Hull Blitz is kept top secret. Newly posted Detective Chief Inspector Ambrose Swift cannot believe the devastation he finds. But for Swift and his deputies - Sergeant Jim 'Little' Weighton and Women's Police Auxiliary Kathleen Carver - it's murder, not the war, that looms large. When a series of sadistic killings is blamed on locally-stationed American GIs, Swift soon discovers not all is what it seems. The stench of racism and corruption goes to the very top. But finding the real killer will prove just as dangerous as the falling bombs. Because powerful forces cannot let the war effort be undermined - not even by the truth . . .___________________________________Praise for David - The Times'Thrilling' - William Ryan'Masterful' - Daily Express'Fast-paced' - The Sun'Superb. Reminded me of Robert Harris at his best' - Mason Cross'Up there with Martin Cruz Smith and the other greats of the field' - Abir Mukherjee

386 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 7, 2022

About the author

David Young was born near Hull and – after dropping out of a Bristol University science degree - studied Humanities at Bristol Polytechnic specialising in Modern History. Temporary jobs cleaning ferry toilets and driving a butcher's van were followed by a career in journalism with provincial newspapers, a London news agency, and the BBC’s international newsrooms where he led news teams for the World Service radio and World TV.

David was a student on the inaugural Crime Thriller MA at City University – winning the course prize in 2014 for his debut novel Stasi Child – and now writes full-time in his garden shed. In his spare time, he’s a keen supporter of Hull City AFC.

Stasi Child is the first of three books in the Oberleutnant Karin Müller series – set in 1970s communist East Germany – bought by the UK arm of Swedish publisher Bonnier by former Quercus CEO Mark Smith. It reached the top 5 bestsellers on Amazon Kindle, was number one bestseller in Amazon’s Historical Fiction chart, and has been optioned for TV by Euston Films (Minder, The Sweeney etc). Translation rights have so far been sold to France.

Reviews

[Beachcomber · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. A stand-alone detective story set in Hull during WW2, a city which also had heavy bombing that wasn’t as widely reported. Swift is a one armed detective, having lost his other arm at the Somme, and he works with his deputy who is a bare knuckle fighter - together, they pull in a Carver, a female auxiliary from the records department, letting her get experience of front line policing. Overall an interesting story and characters, featuring the black soldiers and white officers from the US Army who were stationed there during the war.

My only slight niggle was that sometimes Swift was a little inconsistent in personality - sometimes very calm and rational, other times snapping at Weighton or others. And the whole teasing at his backstory having followed him up to Hull then peters out without much explanation. Finally - his horse is grey, not white. They don’t have white horses… anyone with even a passing interest in horses would know this. Especially a former cavalry officer like Swift.

I received a free ARC copy of this via NetGalley and the publishers in return for an unbiased review. Apologies for the delay in providing this.

[Chris Baker · Rating 5 out of 5]

A good yarn,

An excellent read learnt about Hull during the second world war, didn't know that it was so heavily bombed. Usual pompous chief .com and a bolshie detective. Decent story. Looking forward to reading a follow up

[MS S M CROOK · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just as good as the Stasi stories

I've loved reading the novels set in Berlin and was disappointed when they stopped. However, this is a good tale too and I hope there'll be many more. Would make a good film.

[Tabish Khan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a pacy crime thriller set in Hull during the Blitz, where a detective has to investigate murders relating to the race, American soldiers from a local base, and a deep conspiracy. It's a page turner that kept me engaged to the end.

[Don Teale · Rating 2 out of 5]

I thought I had discovered the author of the Foyles War, but actually no. In fact although very similar in cast and story line, not nearly as good.
An easy read though, but a little 2-Dimensional.

[A Whiteley · Rating 3 out of 5]

On read

This is an easy read but nowhere near as good as the stasi series

The best parts are the descriptions of East Yorkshire in wartime

[Alexander Smith · Rating 1 out of 5]

The author thanks his 'sensitivity reader' at the end of the novel. I think this explains the preposterous 21st-century reactions of the leading characters to things no-one of the time would have batted an eyelid at! If an author HAS to set his novel in the past, then he should be prepared to portray it as it actually WAS- with all its sexism, racism and homophobia intact. To pretend our ancestors-at least, our white, heterosexual, male ancestors-were even AWARE of their bigotry is to do a grave injustice to all those who suffered from it- whether because of their sex or sexuality, or their race or nationality. And also, the scene where one of our heroes refers to a woman he's interviewing (the woman has two children) as 'Mrs.' and she corrects him with a smile, 'Miss, actually.' Whereupon the police officers carry on without turning a hair. OH COME ON! This is set in 1941, for God's Sake; a woman having children 'out of wedlock' would be regarded as a scandal. And how did she manage to keep her children; babies born to unwed mothers were automatically put up for adoption by the authorities.