FLESH AND BLOOD

The collapse of an undercover operation to bring down one of Brighton’s biggest drugs barons floods the streets with dangerously pure heroin and sets off a brutal turf war between rival dealers.

At the eye of the storm is DS Minter, a cop with a troubled past and an awkward relationship with his fellow officers, somehow he must find a way to bring the violence to an end whilst struggling against possible corruption amongst his colleagues.

The first in a projected series featuring DS Minter Flesh and Blood is a high octane thriller that grabs the reader from first page to last. Peterson writes with the assurance of a bestseller in waiting, piling up the pressure from one scene to the next and providing a narrative that is never less than gripping and builds to a truly brutal conclusion.

Brighton, a city the late Keith Waterhouse described as looking like it was helping the police with their inquiries, is the perfect setting. A place where hedonism and despair; glamour and grime exist in uncomfortably close proximity. Peterson conjures up the mean streets of Brighton with an intensity that makes them comparable to those of Rankin’s Edinburgh or Chandler’s Los Angeles.

This is a superbly assured first outing for Minter and Peterson and if subsequent editions match the standard set here both could be set to become stars of the genre.