if i should die – matthew frank

If I Should Die

I received a review copy of this book in return for an honest review.

Joseph Stark isn’t your average Trainee Detective. As the Met investigation team’s newest and youngest member, he expects the going to be tough – but he’s used to that. An Afghan veteran, he has been left severely injured by an attack that killed his comrades.

Of course, his new colleagues don’t know the full story, and Stark isn’t about to start confiding in them – he wants them to accept him on his own merit.

His first investigation concerns a gang that seem to have been viciously attacking homeless people, apparently without motive. But when one victim fights back, and the attack results in murder, Stark’s team are called in.

On the gritty streets of South London, Stark realises that the truth may strike a little closer to home than he would have wished.

This is Matthew Frank’s debut novel, and billed as ‘Joesph Stark #1’ on Goodreads, I am assuming that this is planned to be the first in a series featuring the broken young detective.

It’s a good introduction. If a little repetitive at times. That was one of my very few criticisms – Stark’s thoughts went over and over the same things quite a lot. But in reality, they definitely would have done. On the plus side, it made him feel extremely real, and I completely ‘got’ his motivations, but on the flip side of that, it doesn’t really make great reading.

It took a little while for me to get into a book. That might be because I felt wrong-footed. I was expecting a ‘stabby thriller catchy killer’ book, and the opening scene is of a soldier (Stark) being ambushed. there was nothing wrong with it, I just hadn’t been expecting it, and I’m a bit of a girl when it comes to ‘war stuff’ – I’m not that moved by it. (NB: I’m not saying that girls don’t like war books full stop).

There were some great little twists and turns that hadn’t been entirely obvious throughout the book, and I really enjoyed the ‘unexpected’ ending.

The characters were extremely well written. I loved the banter between Stark and his new boss Fran, and I absolutely love her boss, Groombridge. He’s just SO cool 🙂

Great debut! It will be interesting to see if the series manages to develop seeing as so much seems to have been resolved in Stark’s psyche within this first book – what other surprises can he possibly be holding out?

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