Susan Wilkins

The Mourner – A Brilliant Second Book

Susan Wilkins has followed up her brilliant 2014 debut thriller The Informant with a second book that is pure class, The Mourner. It could also be said that this ties up all the loose ends from the Informant, rounds out a few characters and looses none of its grit. The Mourner is even better than The Informant which was a knock out thriller! Susan Wilkins has brought all her skill as a screenwriter to write a slick fast paced thriller where you do not know what will happen over the 500 pages.

The Mourner picks up where The Informant left off; Kaz Phelps is in the witness protection scheme living up in Glasgow with a new identity and enjoying life as an art student. Her psychotic brother, Joey, is banged up in a Category A prison with no prospect of ever seeing the outside world again but still a major threat to those who have crossed him.

Helen Warner is now a Member of Parliament and very much the rising star of the Labour Party still with her partner Julia. Nicci Armstrong is now outside the Met and working for a private security firm, paralysed by drink and the recent tragic event of her life she is in danger of crashing. Her life restarts with the investigation that will take her in to the dark heart of corruption, the secret services and the Metropolitan Police.

When Kaz receives the news that her lawyer and sometime lover Helen Warner has committed suicide she rushes back to London as she does not believe that the truth is being told. At the same time Julia, Helen’s partner is advised to approach Simon Blake Associates to investigate the death further as the Police’s hands are tied.

All the characters that Wilkins has created jump right off the page and get under your skin as if they are human with all the traits, their successes and failures. You can identify the struggles of each character and she uses different chapters to put that perspective across something that she does brilliantly. So you are able to feel the ruthlessness of the criminals, the obsessive love that bubbles below the surface leaving the question of who is untouched by corruption.

The Mourner leaves you gasping for breath as all the loose ends get tied up and the questions the plot asks are answered decisively. It would be interesting to see if some of the characters can be developed any further or this was their swan song. What I am looking forward to is the continued writing of Susan Wilkins and I look forward to her next book but on current form The Mourner I cannot recommend highly enough, it is intoxicating.… (mehr)

The Informant – Stunning Debut

The Informant is the stunning debut crime thriller from by Susan Wilkins a former screenwriter for British TV, who has brought her experience from screenwriting to bear on this excellent thriller. This debut crime thriller hits all the cliches you can think of from mind blowing psychological crime thriller and a page turner. Susan Wikins takes you through all the twists and turns and leaves you mind blown at the end wanting more hoping you can get to the follow up as quickly as possible.

Kaz Phelps has served six years and has just been released on licence after a brutal armed robbery that went wrong which included covering for her little brother Joey. Kaz is leaving prison a reformed character with a love of art and wanting to be an art student but she recognised the biggest obstacle to this new life would be her own family. At least one difference for her now is that her father Terry, is now wheelchair bound and no longer the bullying con he was when she went inside the family firm now being run by Joey, who is keen to get Kaz involved.

DS Nicci Armstrong is leading the hunt to put one of London’s biggest villians in prison everyone in the Met wants to see Joey Phelps in prison. Every time they get close they cannot prove anything against him, they know he has killed one police officer and there are other bodies to his name but with no evidence. Joey Phelps controls the drugs trade in Essex and is slowly taking over large parts of London, and the police are unable to find the evidence to secure a conviction. They need some help an informer but nobody is that stupid as they know they will wind up dead.

Kaz’s little brother Joey is a cold and very calculating psychopath who loves his big sister and wants to involve her in the family business. He knows he can trust her because not once did she grass him up even though she was under pressure from the Police. Kaz can see no wrong in Joey, that he is doing a good job and wants to go legit, she loves him and remembers how she used to try and protect him from their father.

Through out the book we see a darker side to Joey Phelps a side that Kaz does not see or does not want to see. Joey has even promised to stop the violence for her so that she can be part of the ‘firm’ and take it ligit. We can see all the pyschological games that Joey plays to get his way but will Kaz be able to see that before it is too late?

This is not your usual crime thriller where we see police procedure from beginning to end, even if we do know who the bad guys are from the start. The characters are well developed and reflect their life experiences, so Kaz Phelps’ hard life is reflected as is her vulnerablity and her misguided faith in her brother. We are able to see the complex family relationships between Kaz, Joey and their family and even more so when their cousin Sean is released from prison also on licence. Throw in to the mix that the police are determined to try and get Kaz to inform against Joey, but they forget the unwritten rule of never grassing on your family even when you are going straight.

The complexity of all the relationships between the Phelps’ family and with all those they interact with can only end in a car crash of events. Who will be left standing at the end is one of the biggest questions, along with what will Kaz do and will she become the art student she so much desires to be.

There is some serious stuff in this thriller all of which are believable especially in both the criminal and police worlds of today in London. This is a well researched well written thriller that adds up to being an absolutely stunning debut.… (mehr)