#Blog Tour #Book review of Whatever It Takes (DCI Jane Birchfield) #Police Procedural @rararesources

Thank you to Rachel from Rachel's Random Resources for inviting me to participate in the blog tour for Whatever It Takes, the second instalment in Heaton Wilson's series of police procedurals featuring DCI Jane Birchfield.

Whatever It Takes

DCI Jane Birchfield is facing a series of personal challenges: a rocky relationship with her partner, her mum hardly talks to her; and her boss and mentor is critically ill, which means she is having to cover his post as well as her own. Then she has to take charge of the toughest of murder investigations.
Jamie Castleton is found dead, seemingly frozen in position at a computer in a grubby internet cafe in the Manchester suburb of Ashbridge. Enquiries reveal he was a self employed tech consultant and a computer expert, so what was he doing in there?

The more Jane and her team dig under the surface, the more the evidence points to one of Manchester's biggest companies, Greaves, and its super-wealthy boss, Graeme Hargreaves. This leads Jane into a sordid underworld, and a surprise twist in the investigation forces her to face up to an event in her own past, that she has kept buried for 25 years.

Slowly, but surely, the net tightens around the suspects, but can she stay objective, and can she keep herself, her team, and her relationship, together, and bring the killer to justice? For Jane it has become a personal crusade, but in this race against time there is far more at stake than she ever imagined.

Purchase Link - https://linktr.ee/heaton

My thoughts:
Whatever it Takes is the second instalment in DCI Jane Birchfield series and I'm really gladto have discovered yet another great series of police procedurals to follow. The book can be read as a standalone as the author provides enough background to fill the new reader in.

We get thrown into action from the word Go.  A young man is murdered by an injection of a lethal substance that causes immediate paralysis. When the police are called to the scene of crime, an unremarkable Internet cafe in Manchester, they are not even sure if they are dealing with a murder case. But Jamie Castleton was young, healthy, and had alhis life ahead of him. His mother tells the police that Jamie's behaviour recently changed and she suspected he got himself into trouble. DCI Jane Birchfield promises to leave no stone unturned and find the murderer 'whatever it takes'. The internet cafe, where Jamie lost his life, belongs to a big and successful company that has recently been hit by hacking rumours. This has already affected the share price and caused significant damage. What had Jamie been working on when he was killed and could it have cost him his life?

Overseeing this particular investigation isn't easy for Jane. She had to step in to cover her  mentor's job, while Charles Aston is slowly fading away in a hospice, and this is obviously putting Jane under a lot of  emotional strain. At the same time her relationship with Allan has hit a rough patch and she has to take a long and hard look at where her life is going. Jane is an extremely complex character who has a lot of things on her plate and is dealing not only with a vast range of her own emotions, but also takes care of people in her team.

The plot was tight and slowly, but solidly built, with a few surprising developments. The book was well-paced and really engaging- one of those police procedurals where you can't predict where the case is going to take you, but have to work it out together with the team.

Whatever It Takes does indeed have it all- excellent writing, interesting characters, an intriguing case which turns out to be really dark. Can't wait to read the next book in the series!

Thank you to Rachel from Rachel's Random Resources, thepublsher and the author for the review copy provided in exchange for an honest opinion.

Author Bio 

I have been a newspaper journalist, a postman, a public relations officer, a consultant, an actor, a director, a playwright. And I have always kept writing.
I always felt I could write a novel. And I did! The first book in my crime fiction series featuring DCI Jane Birchfield, Every Reason, came out in 2016.  Whatever It Takes was published in 2021; and the third book (which follows on where Whatever It Takes ends) is nearing completion.
I'm from Manchester but now live on the Isle of Wight, where the sea is never far away. It's the perfect place to be creative, and to walk the dogs.

Social Media Links –  @kkevvin
http://facebook.com/heatonwilson

Thank you for reading thepost! If you like police procedurals as much as I do, be sure to check this one out. If you haven't read the first book in the series, you can find more about it here:
Goodreads (Every Reason: DCI Jane Birchfield)

Have a great Friday and a wonderful weekend!