Bad Terms

by Alex Walters

[annieb123]

Originally posted on my blog Nonstop Reader.

Bad Terms is the third Annie Delamere police procedural by Alex Walters. Released 24th Feb 2022 by Canelo, it's 304 pages and is available in paperback and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately. 

This series had managed to fly under my radar for until this, the third book. I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of writing and plotting, and definitely will be on the lookout for future releases from this talented author. The story here is quite intricate and I needed to flip back in the book a couple times to check earlier developments; definitely a read which requires the reader's attention. It was slightly hampered for me as well, because I was reading it as a standalone. The main protagonist's mother was in the detective corps as an AC, and not always inside the boundaries, and that figures in this story as well. Although not strictly necessary, I would recommend picking up the earlier books in the series for the backstory. 

Although not at all derivative, in a lot of good ways, this style of this book reminded me of McGown's excellent Lloyd & Hill procedurals, with a dash of Booth's Cooper & Fry books. There are currently 3 books available in this series, making it a good candidate for a weekend binge read. 

Four stars. Definitely one for fans of British procedurals. 

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.