“Danny Lancaster has been missing since the fishing boat exploded.
Police are closing their inquiry but Wanda Lovejoy continues her campaign to find the truth.
An evil man kept alive by machines nurses a corrosive hate. As drugs and disease pull his dying mind apart he throws his crime empire into a scorched earth quest to find one man.
If Danny Lancaster isn’t dead he soon will be!”
Happy weekend bookish friends and welcome to damppebbles. Once again, I am handing the reins of the blog over to my guest reviewer (my husband, Ryan) who is going to share his thoughts on the sixth book in Bill Todd’s Danny Lancaster series, Godlefe’s Cuckoo, with you.
So without further ado, here’s Ryan’s review:
OK I admit I skipped a book. Book 4 to Book 6 doesn’t sound the worst crime, does it? I mean what could go wrong, how much backstory, character development, death and destruction could I really have missed?
Well, before I tell you too much I must say I have written this review before the review for book 5 in the series has been published. But the strange answer appears to be zero. In fact the book appears to directly follow on from Rock Hard, with Danny struggling to come to terms with his body and mind after the fishing boat explosion.
The book is intriguing from multiple angles. Firstly there is the struggle that Danny is going through. Where will it take him and will he still be the damaged but ultimately good character we have loved throughout the series? Then there is the second element; the enemy. Who knows when they will give up looking for him.
Donald Rumsfeld made headlines with his “known knowns and known unknowns” speech and this book turned my mind to that often. For instance, if an enemy wants you dead and doesn’t know if you are dead or not, when do they stop? In the case of Danny’s enemies in this book the answer is clear – “when there is proof”. Reading this book as a standalone you may feel the enemies push too hard, and are prepared to go to extreme lengths. But in the context of the series it feels a natural extension.
The same can be said for Danny’s allies. Will they support someone they don’t know is alive? Will they? Well, you’ll have to read the book to find out!
I enjoyed Godlefe’s Cuckoo. Once again it was a good read for relaxing into and letting the action and suspense play out. The characters by book 6 are becoming well formed but there were good new additions, in his ‘rescuers’, further development of Wanda and of course the ever baffled police.
Well written, fast moving and characters you can like or loathe. This is the perfect read for those that don’t want gritty reality forced down their kindle each morning. The title confused me at first but as you read the book you understand the historical relevance. A great read from Bill Todd and I look forward to reading more.
Ryan chose to read and review a free copy of Godlefe’s Cuckoo. The above review is his own unbiased opinion.
Godlefe’s Cuckoo by Bill Todd was published in the UK by DLE Fiction on 15th March 2018 and is available in paperback and ebook formats (please note, some of the following links are affiliate links which mean I receive a small percentage of the purchase price at no extra cost to you): | amazon.co.uk | amazon.com | Goodreads |
Bill is a journalist and travel writer who has visited more than 40 countries from the white wastes of Arctic Finland to the ancient deserts of Namibia. He loves a good wilderness. He received the Ed Lacy travel award in 2007.
Bill has written six crime thrillers featuring soldier-turned-investigator Danny Lancaster and was startled and delighted to be voted one of the 100 best crime authors in the WH Smith readers’ poll in 2015. He’s also written three short factual military histories. He lives to write although keyboard time has been cut lately with the arrival of grandson Theo.
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