Firewatching (Detective Sergeant Adam Tyler, #1)

by Russ Thomas

'Clever and compulsive' LOUISE CANDLISH 
'A fantastic read' JAMES DELARGY
'I loved it' LEE CHILD
'It's everything you could want from a crime novel' SARAH WARD
'A bold and brilliant new voice in crime fiction' KATE RHODES

A WATERSTONES THRILLER OF THE MONTH
_____________________________ 

One wrong move will ignite the city . . .

A body is found bricked into a wall of the Old Vicarage. From the state of the hands, it's clear the dead man was buried alive. When the man is connected to an old missing person's case, Detective Sergeant Adam Tyler is called.

After an 'incident', Tyler needs this case to go well in order to prove himself and get his career back on track. But he soon discovers that he has a connection to the case that hopelessly compromises him. He makes the snap decision not to tell his superiors, certain that he is the only one that can solve the crime. Now Tyler must move carefully to find out the truth, without destroying the case or himself.

Meanwhile, someone in the city knows exactly what happened to the body. Someone who is watching Tyler closely. Someone with an unhealthy obsession with fire . . .

A taut investigative thriller bursting with character and tension, introducing an enigmatic, fresh lead detective unlike any you have met before. Perfect for fans of Adrian McKinty, Tana French, Steve Cavanagh and Sharon Bolton.

DS Adam Tyler will return in NIGHTHAWKING, the unmissable new thriller from highly-acclaimed author, Russ Thomas - available to order now. 

PRAISE FOR FIREWATCHING

'Taut, intelligent and fast moving, Thomas tells his story with admirable skill' DAILY MAIL 
'An intriguing start to a new series, introducing a pleasingly misanthropic new hero with the requisite traumatic past' OBSERVER
'A gripping new British gay crime thriller that kept us guessing right up to its incendiary climax . . . We couldn't put it down' ATTITUDE 
'Totally absorbed me' CASS GREEN
'A cracking read with a terrific new detective lead. Red hot debut for 2020' SARAH HILARY
'DS Adam Tyler navigates a complex cast of villains and victims in a cold case that suddenly turns very, very hot' LOUISE CANDLISH 

• ISBN10: 1471180948
• ISBN13: 9781471180941
• Publish Date: 20 February 2020
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: GB
• Imprint: Simon & Schuster Ltd
• Format: eBook (EPUB)
• Pages: 400
• Language: English

Reviews

[Leah]

This was an absolutely fabulous novel. Having seen it recommended on Twitter by The Portal Bookshop, I treated myself to a copy. I started reading it and wasn't sure I would stick with it, as I'm having a hard time reading at the moment, but I actually finished this in less than a week. Three days if you dont count the breaks in between.

This is a fab new series featuring DS Adam Tyler, the black sheep of his department, for numerous reasons; some his fault, some nothing to do with him, who gets the chance to investigate a cold case when a businessman who went missing years ago turns up dead in his house. It's actually a lot more complicated than that, with about three or four separate stories coming together to culminate in one fantastic, explosive ending. (Literally and figuratively)

This was a fantastic introduction into what I hope will be a many-book series. I like Adam Tyler, you can root for him and he's genuinely not a bad bloke, he's thoroughly human and makes mistakes and poor choices, but he's damn good at his job. I also liked the team around it, Doggett is fascinating, especially that last chapter which hints at a decent back story to come in future books. Sergeant Rabbani was another likeable character and I'm interested to see her career progression as the books follow on.

Firewatching was a fantastic novel. Every time I picked it up, it was with reluctance that i had to put it back down, and i devoured a good 75% of it in one day, Russ Thomas is fantastic at telling a story; the pacing was perfect and I loved all the little strands, seeing them come together to form a pretty incredible conclusion. I cant wait for the next DI Adam Tyler book, I'll be pre-ordering it as soon as it's physically possible.