Deadly Crimes (DCI Sophie Allen, #2) by Michael Hambling

Deadly Crimes (DCI Sophie Allen, #2) Reviews

• 
  Linda Strong

  Detective Sophie Allen is investigating a human trafficking/prostitution ring run by a gang that's been active for some time. A young man's body is found on the roof of a famous landmark. His tongue is missing .. is this a message for others?
  
  On the personal side of things, Sophie's father's body is found at the bottom of mine shaft. She never knew him, he was killed before he knew he was about to become a father. For all these years, she's resented the man she thought just bailed on her mother. Now she's coming to grips with newly found grandparents.
  
  The mystery is what these two events have in common.
  
  DCI Allen is brilliant at her job. She has a background in law and criminal psychology. She's strong and determined and wants justice for the victims and closure for their families. DS Barry Marsh is quietly dedicated and is the perfect partner for Sophie.
  
  Although this is the second in this series, it does well as a stand-alone. As always I would recommend reading DARK CRIMES first.
  
  The book is well-written, characters are likeable. There are tons of suspects to keep an eye on. I look forward to seeing more adventures for Sophie in the future.
  
  Many thanks to the author / Joffe Books / NetGalley who provided a digital copy in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.
• 
  Kathy

  This is rather a different brand of DCI, our Sophie Allen, so these books have interest in that element alone. There were some pretty bad characters in this book who had been getting away with trafficking women for some years and murdering some along the way without notice. The hunt begins in earnest when a body turns up on top of a stone landmark/ Sophie and her team are hot on their trail, just missing them at more than one location as Sophie takes one young Romanian girl who escaped back to her own home.
  And then there are all the connections as a member of this gang turns out to be the one who murdered Sophie's father she had never known. Yup, a whole lot of very emotional stuff not usually found in police procedurals.
• 
  Carla

  Detective Inspector Sophie Allen is head of the Violent Crime Unit in the English County of Dorset. In the second book of the series Sophie faces a tough challenge finding out who murdered the young man whose body was found on top of Agglestone, a local landmark with is tongue cut out. When a young woman is found to have escaped from human traffickers, they are able to tie the death to the ring, but finding them is another matter. We also find out more about Sophie's family when the body of her father is found and she meets her grandparents that she did not know.
  
  This was an interesting and well written story, which I liked better than the first in this series. There are two crimes being investigated that have occurred two decades apart and throughout the story, it becomes apparent that they are linked. With bodies being discovered throughout the area, time is ticking before more young women may be killed. This is a police procedural with a flawed main character. Her past comes to a head in this story. We meet her family in this book and they are a rather staid bunch in my opinion. The villians in this book have great personalities, they are vicious people, yet are loved by others. The police that Sophie works with are all smart, yet sometimes stumble upon clues and information. I loved the interaction between Sophie and Barry, her Detective Sergeant, both are so different yet they seemingly have the perfect working partnership. Once again I listened to this book and I am not sure about this series. I have the next two ready to go on audio, so will go ahead and listen to them and see if this is a series I plan to continue with or not. I enjoyed the audio more this book as I had gotten used to the narrator.
• 
  CD {Boulder Blvd}

  3.5 Stars
  
  I've been having a love affair with British crime novels this past year and now I'm including Michael Hambling in the authors I've following. I haven't read the other books featuring DCI Sophie Allen, but Deadly Crimes worked well as a stand-alone.
  
  There are two crime plots in this book, a 40 year old murder and a current time frame human trafficking case. DCI Sophie is in charge of the human trafficking case and for personal reasons is monitoring the 40 year old murder. The victim was her father she never met. As clues to the perpetrators are uncovered by her team, similar names start to come up in both cases. The plot of these two cases, how the police unraveled the clues and the criminals they have in common is really good.
  
  There are a lot of characters is this book and there was a time or two were I thought I would need a cheat sheet to help sort through them. Most of them were well fleshed out, but some felt like they needed more development.
  
  I think anyone who enjoys British mysteries and crime stories will enjoy this one.
  
  Thanks to NetGalley, Joffe Books and Michael Hambling for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
• 
  David Stimpson

  2nd Book in the DCI Sophie Allen Series and Now I get Her .. A Really Good Story
• 
  Pat

  That was quite a dark book. A brutally murdered body found on top of a local landmark rock leads DCI Sophie Allen and her team into a dark web of human trafficking, torture, abuse and criminal pond scum.
  
  At the same time an 'old' body recovered from a disused mine shaft causes Sophie great personal distress as the body turns out to be her father, who died before she was even born. The discovery causes Sophie to re-evaluate everything she though she knew about her background.
  
  As she vows to uncover the circumstances of her father's death and investigates this as well as the human trafficking network it almost cripples her emotionally. The characters in this series have now really come to life. I really liked the ending. I thought I knew who the mysterious masked woman was but, now I'm not so sure.
• 
  Valerie Campbell Ackroyd

  Didn't actually finish this book. The language was grim, the storyline is grim, and the writing just didn't make up for the grimness.
• 
  Pia

  I'm definitely in a minority here. After reading many reviews, I'm still not convinced it's an amazing book, although I did find it easy to read and enjoyable.
  
  My issues are the same as in book 1: the story is good, well crafted and delivered, but the writing feels choppy and too colloquial, simple.
  
  There's two stories going on: The "mystery" part which starts with the body of a man lying on a local landmark and then we have Sophie's life history, which is based on another mystery and gives us a better insight into her character, which is something I do like in a book.
  
  I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
• 
  Gill Chivas

  Loved this book and I could hardly put it down! I’m so looking forward to reading the rest of the series and what a bargain! The whole set of 8 books for 99p!!
• 
  Maialen Lopez Alvarez

  Segunda de las novelas de la colección de la inspectora Sophie Allen.
  En este caso se enfrentará a un caso de extorsión de mujeres traídas de Rumania a las que someten a prostitución y malos tratos. Además del caso que deberán resolver, se entremezclará una cuestión familiar oculta por el paso de muchos años.
  
  Al igual que la primera una novela que se lee muy fácil y engancha nada más empezar!
• 
  Lynda Kelly

  I was trudging my way through this, it seemed. I said after reading his first book that I hoped this one would be tidier but it isn't and in the end I'd had enough. It was boring me a little and there's nothing I can really put my finger on aside from the mistakes but I just wasn't looking forward to reopening it each time I did. I happened across one mistake too many and gave in but that was at 51% so I'd given it more than a fair crack by then. Even Sophie seemed a little too insipid in this story.
  He missed out a lot of apostrophes again and when I hit vets practice it was the proverbial straw. In the prologue 1969 was mentioned yet later on we learn it was 1968. A rubbish mistake. ords were missing in some sentences (..held a Monday evening) yet peculiarly added in others (as the small group of left the room)...
  Informed was used instead of uniformed, he used capitals weirdly yet again, I had no idea why Sophie was baffled by police being in a place at one point when she knew they were arriving by boat and she'd only just asked someone to speak to them. All in all it was too scrappy by half and I won't bother with anymore of this series.
• 
  Elizabeth

  Detective Sophie Allen faces her toughest challenge in a gripping new mystery by best-selling author Michael Hambling
  A young man’s mutilated body is found on top of the Agglestone, a well-known local landmark on Studland Heath
  It seems that he was involved in a human trafficking and prostitution gang. But why is DCI Sophie Allen keeping something back from her team? Is it linked to the extraordinary discovery of her own father's body at the bottom of a disused mineshaft, more than forty years after he disappeared?
  
  my rating: 5 stars
  I loved it, loved everything about it, and will be picking up a copy when I can. loved the main the character, this had me hooked from the start of the book and had me pulled in to the ever end of it. with that said I would love to say thinks to NetGalley for give me a chance at founding a new series to get in to .
• 
  CL

  Detective Sophie Allen and her partner DS Barry Marsh are investigating a human trafficking ring that’s being run by career criminals. Now a young man’s body has been found on a roof top and his tongue is missing and it appears he was involved in the human trafficing. Then Sophie’s father’s body is discovered and she has to rethink her ideas of who he was. She had always thought he had abandoned her and now it seems that may not be the case. This was a great read and I will read the other stories about this character. I would like to thank the Publisher and Net Galley for the chance to read this ARC.
• 
  Samantha Curtis

  Another brilliant book. 2nd book of the Sophie Allen series and it just gets better and better.
  
  I have really attached to Sophie. What a brilliant character.
  
  This book is hard to read. Not because the book is bad cus it's not. It's hard to read cus this sort of thing happens in real life and sickens me that people can do this to women or men.
  
  Trafficking is a big problem in some countries and then selling them on the street to even raping them themselves is beyond me. From rape to murder what could be worse.
  
  I'm really loving this series and can't wait to read the next.
• 
  Adele

  Whilst I enjoyed the story, I actually had an issue with the characters, specifically the main one & her family. The cadence of the dialogue was really jarring and off putting, everything was just so formal. The main story was really interesting and the policing side of it was meticulous but I don't think I will be continuing with this series as I cannot seem to connect with the main character.
• 
  Robert Crouch

  In the second book in the series, detective Sophie Allen investigates two crimes, separated by a gap of 40 years. The first concerns a man, brutally murdered and left at a local landmark. Is it an example to warn others? The links to human trafficking seem to suggest it is and Sophie’s soon on the trail of the gang.
  
  The second murder is more personal, solving a 40 year old mystery. Or does it?
  
  The two murders, and the impact on Sophie, make for a complex and draining investigation that twists and turns with every discovery she makes. There’s joy mixed in with the pain, but her search for the truth is relentless, leading to anxiety among those who know her best.
  
  It’s an intricate plot that’s pulls you along, dragging you deeper into the personal lives of Sophie and those close to her, as you’re propelled towards a surprising but deftly handled climax that provides a solution but leaves a question or two unanswered.
  
  Full marks to the author for weaving an enjoyable and entertaining web that delivers on every level. Sophie Allen become one of my favourite detectives in the space of two books and I’m looking forward to reading the next novel in the series.
  
  Description
  
  A young man’s mutilated body is found on top of the Agglestone, a well-known local landmark on Studland Heath.
  
  It seems that he was involved in a human trafficking and prostitution gang. But why is DCI Sophie Allen keeping something back from her team? Is it linked to the extraordinary discovery of her own father’s body at the bottom of a disused mineshaft, more than forty years after he disappeared?
  
  Discover an intricately crafted mystery that will have you gripped from start to finish.
• 
  Ted Tayler

  "Tense, grim thriller"
  
  Down and dirty in Dorset. Not something I thought I would hear myself say. Sophie Allen is up to her neck in it once more, and the body count is impressive. Of course, some are past, some are present. and some touch closer to home. This is an excellent instalment in the series. It develops the Allen character from your basic female cop in a standard police procedural into a fully-fledged crime-buster you want to read about more and more. The crimes aren't pretty, but they ring true, sadly, with what's happening across the country these days. I know people questioned whether the countryside ever really matched the idyllic descriptions of a Miss Marple novel; but it's frightening to see how far we've fallen into the cess-pit. Books such as this can only help to highlight what needs to be done.
• 
  Marsha

  I really enjoyed this book, but I have to question how realistic it is. Maybe it's just because I live in the US and not rural England, but I have trouble imagining the amount of personnel that was dedicated to the one crime. On the other hand, it was really nice to see how much work is actually involved in tracking down the whole situation! Of course, the connectedness of all of the crimes is somewhat unrealistic, too, but then again – based in rural England, not in metropolitan US. But I truly enjoyed seeing everything that had to happen in order for arrests to happen and stick. Wonderful book!
• 
  Tony Hisgett

  This was an interesting and complex story with perhaps a few too many coincidences, but once started I didn’t put the book down until I had finished.
  
  I found some of the early dialogue a bit disjointed, but this improved when the story got going. Also with this type of book, I find it quite interesting to get a glimpse of the criminals mind, but I don’t really want to dwell on their actions and especially the suffering of their victims. At times I thought there was a bit too much of the criminals.
  
• 
  Mr Mark Hawksford

  Deadly crimes
  
  This is the second book in the series I have read. The first I read sometime ago and enjoyed and I am not sure why I left it so long to read this second book. This grabs you from page 1 and doesn’t let go. The plot has Sophie investigating a murder, trafficking but also picks up an historic investigation, which is very personal to Sophie. A 5 out of 5 from me. This book can be read as a stand-alone, you don’t need to read the first in the series, if you don’t want.
• 
  Danielle Rose-West

  The subject matter for this story is a grim one. Human trafficking is a horrible reality of our modern world. I think the author did a good job of balancing reality with fiction and not making it so bad it would be impossible to read.
  I liked the personal story of Sophie. It helped shape her character in my mind. It was so interesting and emotional to read. Great book.
• 
  Anita

  Another great read in the Sophie Allen series. #2. Trigger alert regarding sex trafficking. Sophie and colleagues go into some dark territory for this book . The reader as well learns more about Sophie’s past and her personality that I think will connect further into the other books in series. I’ll read more in this series.
• 
  John

  Enjoy reading about the investigation process including the diverse cast of characters including one incredible dog. Sophie goes off the rails a bit but don't we all have those moments. The crimes tend to be a tad gruesome.
• 
  Janet Hollman

  What a Story
  
  My goodness what a tale of twists and turns . Stories within stories within stories. Bodies popping up everywhere, you get whisked along in this tale. It's like an express train only stopping at a station to dig up another body. A brilliant read.