A Long Shadow

Antonia Conti #1

by David Beckler

In this dystopian vision of London, public safety is in private hands—and nobody is beyond the reach of the ‘law’.

The constant threat of terrorism has left London under round-the-clock surveillance and in the tightening grip of privatised security firms. Journalist Antonia Conti suspects one such organisation—GRM—not only of being behind several women’s disappearances, but of financing the widespread violence it claims to fight.

When a gang of hitmen use rampant state surveillance to track Antonia down, she narrowly escapes with her life. But then one of them turns up dead—covered in her DNA—and Antonia finds herself the prime suspect in his murder.

DS Russell Chapman needs to bring her in. But evidence that Antonia has been framed quickly stacks up and when a personal grudge between her and GRM’s shadowy head of security is revealed, he begins an uncomfortable partnership with her.

Together, the pair delve beneath the surface of the corporate machine and soon find themselves embroiled in a dark and violent underworld even they had barely dared imagine. Will they find the evidence to bring GRM down? And can they keep Antonia’s name off the list of missing women?

Genres: Thriller, Fiction, Dystopia, Crime, Audiobook, Mystery Thriller

411 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2022

Reviews

[SVETLANA · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Long Shadow by David Beckler is set in a dystopian London where security measures are very severe and as soon as private companies become involved in this, things are going out of hand and are escalating at a dangerous speed.

The main character Antonia Conti is a journalist who goes undercover to expose a private company GRM which is behind several women’s disappearances and is financing the widespread violence it claims to fight.

Together with DS Russell Chapman Antonia tries to expose the dark part of GRM and survive in the fight for their own lives.

I gave 3 stars to this book because it contains too much violence. Antonia herself sometimes looks completely stupid and causes many deaths not only of her enemies but her friends too. She is a strong fighter that is practising boxing, but sometimes it is unreal for a human being after a near-death experience to kill a few strong males in a few minutes.
I like fighting heroes in books, but they should look more real than this.

[Janet · Rating 5 out of 5]

Buckle up readers, you are in for a seriously fast paced, action packed, high octane ride. Absolutely fantastic thriller which has everything I look for in a great read. I can’t tell you how many times I held my breath!

Set in a dystopian version of London in the near future. Antonia Conti is a reporter, working undercover at GRM; a company which has its fingers in many pies. Antonia believes they are paying someone in the government to favour their contracts. They carry out contracts for certain jobs which have been outsourced to private companies, such as security and surveillance; including operating the CCTV system around the roads and streets.

When Antonia is attacked on her way home late one night, her attackers don’t know she is one kick ass woman, proficient in boxing, and can look after herself. When her attacker is found dead, and evidence puts her at the scene, she is called in for questioning. DS Chapman doesn’t believe she is guilty although he feels she is hiding something.

Conti and Campbell later team up, making an incredible partnership, to try to get to the bottom of what GRM are involved in and get enough evidence to bring the company down. It is personal for Conti as her friend is one of the girls who worked for GRM but disappeared. Terrorism. Corruption. Murder. Missing girls. This book has it all and much more.

I’m lucky to have book 2 in the series - A Stolen Memory - which was released in January and I can’t wait to find out what is next for Conti. Look out for my review coming very soon!

[Eric Cousineau · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a rush, an auspicious debut novel in this series! The author has delivered a fast paced and deliciously wicked tale. The characters are well rounded and come across as believable, whether you love them or hate them. This provocative, somewhat dark and twisted story grabs you from the first page and keeps you guessing until the very end! It was so captivating and exciting that I simply couldn't put it down. I look forward to reading future installments in this series.

Thank you to NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book. I am voluntarily leaving an honest review.

[Kirstin · Rating 1 out of 5]

I honestly thought I would love this when I started it, but 5 days later I was only at 36% (I am used to devouring good books & don’t like to waste my time if I’m not that into it)… so I gave up!

There was a lot going on, none of which is explained very well .. it’s almost as though this is the second book in a series rather than the first… I realised I didn’t really care what was happening in the end

[Mr Stuart Leavitt · Rating 2 out of 5]

Unfortunately, I thought this writing was far too elaborate and had too many plot lines. It could have been reduced by 40% at least by cutting out unnecessary descriptions of feelings and sensations and by reducing the number of plots. There is a naivety to the writing but I am sure with the author’s level of imagination, better books will follow.

[B H SLACK · Rating 3 out of 5]

not my kind of book. It should have been, murder and mayhem abound, but I think that was the problem, too much going on for my aged brain to keep up with. The book deals with corruption at the highest level, murders by the handful, security services in the pay of villains, illegal and lethal cage fights, illegal immigration, an undercover reporter who has her own scarred history and a cop who is in more trouble than he should be. I did actually enjoy the last quarter, but it certainly wasn't a book that I picked up and just couldn't put down.

[Carolyn Valdez · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a new to me author, and I will definitely be looking for more of his works. I thoroughly enjoyed reading the story and cannot wait to read more in this series. If you enjoy action and suspense and fast paced reading, you will enjoy this story.


I received a complimentary copy of this book and am voluntarily leaving a review.

[Becky · Rating 2 out of 5]

The story definitely got better as it went on but there were just two many incidences of the plot driving the characters behaviour rather than vice versa. Too many times the plot demanded the characters didn’t share information when it would have made far more sense for them to do so and too many times when they were ‘coincidentally’ interrupted. But there was a good story and some good writing.

[David Stimpson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Oh Dear

A Dystopian vision of London .Yep OK .That's Different and I Started to enjoy it .then Oh Dear .Pain and Suffering..more pain and Suffering but grit your teeth and fight on .for Me the unbelievable steel of the characters ruined it .sorry

[Neil Moulding · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF...ground it out to 78% but gave up. More focus on plot, less on continuous sequences of chases, fights and miraculous escapes...

[Prismseven · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Long Shadow

I was a lucky winner of this story in a Goodreads giveaway. The story was interesting but a little slow at the beginning. Once the crime started to unfold the story became intriguing. Nice overall read.

[Prof Thomas D Wilson · Rating 1 out of 5]

Dreadful

I had to force myself to even skim through this tedious tale. I has far too many plot lines and seems to have been written mainly to gain brownie points as feminist - and its not even convincing at that. I certainly won't be looking for any more in this planned series.

[Andrea Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book drew me in quickly and almost didnt let go. From the outset you feel as unsure as both Antonia and Russell do his because of his demotion and her because of her undercover work. The author is careful with reveals and Cliffhangers galore as each encounter with violence occurs. Not sure how dystopian this was it felt very much the here and now.

[Terry · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this full on thriller with a likeable main character, Antonia, a journalist who goes undercover at a suspect company and puts herself at risk. Action-packed from start fo finish.

[Mr Mark Hawksford · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Long Shadow -

I believe this was one of my first read books and I’m glad I chose it. The book is fast paced with loads of action throughout. It’s one of those that has you reading faster and not wanting to put it down. It’s quite a long book but I didn’t lose interest at any stage. I look forward to the second in the series in January 2023. 5 out of 5 from me.

[Teresa Collins · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm giving you fair warning; when you start reading this book you won't be able to stop. So don't start until you have an open block of time. And it's one of those where you find yourself saying, just one more chapter. But you know you're lying. There was so much going on it was making my head spin. There is action galore and I found myself wondering how many times the "good guys" could get captured by the "bad guys" and still get away. Obviously a lot!
I found the book to be a bit concerning when taken and applied to our current political/social situation. I can almost see it happening, and that's frightening, at least for me. People with power want more power and want to control those they consider lesser.
So will I read the other books in the Antonia Conti series? You bet I will and anything else Mr. Beckler writes. I'm adding him to my favorites list.
I received a review copy from the author via Netgalley and this is my honest opinion.

[Joe Stamber · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Long Shadow is marketed as a dystopian thriller. It's not dystopian in the way that 1984 is, with an all-seeing, all-powerful Big Brother; apart from the dodgy private firms controlling security, the dystopian tag could easily be forgotten. It's really a little guys v big bad guys thriller, with a feisty investigative journalist and disgraced cop teaming up to challenge the corruption. I would describe the writing as workmanlike, which isn't a bad thing here; it gets the job done in a plain style that doesn't interfere with the story. On the whole, I enjoyed this fast-paced thriller, although it doesn't really offer anything new to the genre, and has a couple of issues. We are led to believe that the two main characters are smart and streetwise, but then they lapse into stupidity in order to get themselves into trouble and move the plot forward. This makes it difficult to identify with them and ultimately to care about them. In places, David Beckler splits chapters into a series of short scenes, clearly a device to increase the pace, but instead, jumping about every couple of pages breaks up the story too much and makes it feel disjointed. The conversation at the end when the cop explains how everything pans out to the journalist is a bit ho-hum. However, I don't think Beckler's intention was to create a literary masterpiece, it was to produce an entertaining thriller, which he has. My rating is 7/10, rounded down to 3 stars as I don't feel it's the stuff of 4 stars.

[Shelley · Rating 2 out of 5]

I only made it through 54% of the book and I'm not finishing it. It's too much work to force myself to read more. It has way too many things going on and jumps around too much. It needs to stay on one plotline longer before changing. It doesn't tell enough about some things and too much about others. It was hard to follow at times. I thin this could be a really good book if someone would go in and redo it. I normally read books in just a few days but I have had this one going longer and I dread the thought of reading it because it just takes too much out of me and too much focus. It wasn't enjoyable. I bought this book because I received the second book free and saw on the reviews for that book that I really needed to read the first one to understand the second one.

UPDATE: I finally finished the book. It wasn't a great ending...it went in another direction with a whole new storyline for the end. It's all over the place. It's like the author had ideas for multiple books but not enough for a whole book so he threw them all in one book.

[Claire Thomas · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to like it but it just wasn’t good enough. Some of Antonia’s behaviour just didn’t make sense. The feelings felt forced eg when she and Chapman would get mad at each other over mistakes. I also have to be honest - I’d really love if a main female character didn’t have to have sexual violence in their past to justify why they’re now “bad a*s”. I didn’t care for any of the characters. When a key person dies, I just don’t care. There’s too many subplots and too many side characters to follow. It also has plot holes galore. Some of the reasons for things happening aren’t clear. All in all, just not a great read and won’t be following up with any others in the series, unfortunately.

[Janice · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not my cup of tea

Lots of characters and plenty of action but like too many action-packed books the character development and plot development suffered in the telling. A good editor might have suggested better character descriptions as each main character ‘appears’ rather than having that info dribble out over many chapters; would have given each character more substance and, for the reader, a better understanding of the motivation for each. In general, too much fighting and death for my taste; I prefer unraveling a mystery and putting the pieces together.

[Keren]

Honestly, I'm pretty bored, which is weird because so much is happening in this book. Maybe too much, if that's possible. The characters are fairly well developed--like, I can tell you a lot about them already--but some of their internal thoughts, dialogue with others, and actions seem forced and unrealistic. I'm not interested in finishing, so I will not give a star rating. DNF'ing at 30% right now. It's just not for me, at least right now. I'm dragging my feet to even pick it up.

[Val Carter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Too long, a bit confusing with different storylines and ultimately, I didn’t care about the main characters. However, I appreciate that many would find the book exciting as the chapters tended to end on a cliffhanger, although I ended up being irritated by this.
Not a bad read as I decided I needed to know how things ended but I was glad when I’d finished

[Brian · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not a very good book

The story was poor and relied on violence to carry it through the various stage. I also thought it was poorly written,

[Tim Gray · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyable, but occasionally a little over done.

[Stace · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Long Shadow is the first book in the Antonia Conti series. The series features its titled character, Journalist Antonia Conti, who is living in a dystopian London.

In this first outing Antonia is working undercover as a cleaner at Reed-Mayhew, a GRM security partners head office, investigating the company and their possible fraudulent activities in keeping control of the security contract for London alongside her investigation into numerous disappearances of women she believes have been kidnapped, possibly murdered by the company.

The book jumps right into the thick of the action from the opening page when Antonia is nearly killed by a group of men and narrowly gets away, though not without a few bruises.

However, she is soon investigated about the event when a body turns up in a lake where she was attacked along with Antonia’s backpack, and another turns up not long after covered in her DNA. DS Chapman and Constable Sanchez have been given the cases and are hot on Antonia’s tail.

I love a book that wastes no time getting to the action and A Long Shadow certainly doesn’t. Antonia is a strong-headed, determined woman who doesn’t take being told what to do, or no lightly. She is very capable of handling herself, which the bad guys and the police soon discover.

The plot moves along at a fast pace and it feels like the action never stops leaving you on edge throughout. The characters are believable and easy to like – Okay, DS Chapman does take a little bit of time to like but he soon won me over.

I found A Long Shadow hard to put down. I was gripped by the goings-on and eager to know whether GRM were the culprits behind the missing women, plus their dodgy dealings in keeping their security contract with the government.

The story may be set in a dystopian world, but scarily enough this is a world you could actually believe could happen, and not too much in the distant future either. If you love thrillers that grab you from the first page and don’t let you go until the last, this is the book to pick up. I’m now about to start the second in the series, A Stolen Memory, right away.

[Jackiesreadingcorner · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked this book up late afternoon on Friday and whizzed through it, a great fast paced novel that holds the readers attention throughout. Maybe it could have been made shorter at almost 500 pages but i was gripped.

The story is told my the main character Antonia Conti/Patience Okoye the second being her undercover name whilst working as a cleaner for GRM. Set in the future London, GRM are a private security company, Antonia is convinced they are involved In the disappearance of several women, but she also believes they are financing some of the widespread violence that they claim has been stopped.

Antonia is a journalist, she is determined to find out where the women are disappearing to. But who is after Antonia when she is on her way home one night a group of men are waiting for her can she escape.

Detective sergeant Russel Chapman was a DI until he was demoted and now has to tow the line. Which is not always easy, with a lot of incidents disappearing. He brings Patience Oyoke in to question her about an incident the night before where someone had been found dead. Patience holds her own in the interview but believes she may have killed one of the men who had attacked her the night before despite her seeing he was still alive when she left. Chapmen and his partner Sanchez think there is something off with Patience but they let her go. It’s only later her DNA has been found on a crime scene. But was it really her DNA.

I really enjoyed this read, learning of Antonia’s back story, and when she is then working with Chapman as they try together to stop women disappearing. There is a lot of non stop action, fast paced, you have no idea where they are going next. I was surprised they were still standing at the end. I found this adrenalin fuelled read entertaining and engrossing. I can’t wait to see more of what Antonia finds and hopefully with Detective Chapman.

If you enjoy a fast paced read then this is for you I couldn’t believe how quick the pages were turning.

I would like to thank the publishers for my gifted copy of this book, all thoughts and opinions are my own and not influenced in any way.

[Stephen Clynes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Antonia Conti is a reporter working undercover to expose a private company acting outside the law and maybe behind the disappearance of some women.

This conspiracy novel is set in London in the near future and explores the potential of problems when security services are outsourced to private companies who could work alongside existing state services.

The start of this novel sounded good to me, the possibility of corruption, perverting the course of justice and a private company making big profits by fixing everything in their favour.

However, there was plenty of action but it was the violent and chase the bad guys kind. There was a plot but it was not very big and centres on a long shadow cast by one of the characters. All the usual concerns of privacy and security take their part in this novel. Mobile phones, tracking, CCTV, computer systems etc - the usual trade in modern day conspiracy novels.

There was some interesting chemistry that developed between Antonia and DS Russell Chapman when they chose to work together to bring down the bad guys. But because I found the plot shallow, I was losing interest in the story as it became filled with lots of chasing, running and fighting. It did provide speculation about how our society could change in the future which is food for thought. I did like the old suspicion that terrorist attacks may have been planned and executed by private companies, who then can provide “paid for” solutions and ongoing services.

I think A Long Shadow is an OKAY 3 star read but nothing to write home about. Chase, run and fight does not make a good interesting novel for me.

[Sue Wallace · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Long Shadow by David Beckler.
1 (An Antonia Conti Thriller.
The constant threat of terrorism has left London under round-the-clock surveillance and in the tightening grip of privatised security firms. Journalist Antonia Conti suspects one such organisation—GRM—not only of being behind several women’s disappearances, but of financing the widespread violence it claims to fight. When a gang of hitmen use rampant state surveillance to track Antonia down, she narrowly escapes with her life. But then one of them turns up dead—covered in her DNA—and Antonia finds herself the prime suspect in his murder. DS Russell Chapman needs to bring her in. But evidence that Antonia has been framed quickly stacks up and when a personal grudge between her and GRM’s shadowy head of security is revealed, he begins an uncomfortable partnership with her. Together, the pair delve beneath the surface of the corporate machine and soon find themselves embroiled in a dark and violent underworld even they had barely dared imagine. Will they find the evidence to bring GRM down? And can they keep Antonia’s name off the list of missing women?
A really good read with good characters. Fast paced. Lots of action. 4*.

[Claire · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received a free copy of this book on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
The plot synopsis for the book as above is really balanced and I don't want to give away any spoilers so forgive me for no further synposis.
This book is really well written and conceived. I read it without reading any of the hype or blurb. The first chapter captured my attention and I was convinced I was reading a book set in modern day UK/USA. It was therefore a surprise to me in Chapter 2 to realise I was in a dystopian London - but a good surprise as I was already hooked. The surveliance elements of the society are scary but only because it is one future we face. The plot was therefore relatable but thrillingly written.
Antonia is a really captivating main character and I can't wait further works featuring her as there is so much back story to cover. The supporting characters are also given proper backgrounds and I can see this becoming a universe rather than a linear character series.
Thank you David for the copy I enjoyed it.

[BooksandBacon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Working undercover, reporter Antonia Conti aims to expose a private company possibly involved in the disappearance of women. Featuring a future London backdrop, this series possesses all the qualities of a remarkable franchise. The story effortlessly incorporates numerous timely themes while maintaining a compelling and suspenseful narrative.

The world building is superb, creating a sense of plausibility with its intelligent and realistic settings and technology. This was such a gripping read that it made me question the plausibility of this world actually becoming real.

A Long Shadow combines everything I adore in an action thriller. The plot is fast paced, the setting creates a strong atmosphere, and the characters are well-developed, leaving a lasting impact.

Many thanks to @AmazonPub @netgalley for the chance to review it.