I’m delighted to be taking part in the blog tour for The Autumn Tree today. My review is written with thanks to Tony Forder for inviting me on the tour and for my copy of the book.

Blurb:

DI Bliss returns in another stunning crime thriller.

When dark desires have no limitations, anything is fair game.

After a young woman is found strangled to death, Bliss is called to the scene. When he learns that one of his business cards was found among the victim’s clothing, and he is told what was written on the back of it, Bliss is immediately troubled. The card was one of five he handed out to trafficked young women he and his team had previously rescued from a shipping container.

When he sees the victim, Bliss realises she was not one of those saved that day. So whose card does she have? And why? And is it connected to her murder?

The murder investigation proves to be more complex and challenging than the team could possibly have imagined. But just as they think they have it figured out, they learn that depravity has no boundaries…

Review:

I am a huge fan of Forder’s writing and this series so I was delighted to be back with Bliss and his team. Following a demotion, Bliss is no longer the boss and this gives the team a different dynamic which was interesting to explore. It was great to see Bishop come out of his shell a little more. I also enjoyed the humour between the team and there were times I was laughing out loud! The events of The Autumn Tree do follow on from the previous books so I would definitely recommend reading the series in order. 

The Autumn Tree is focused on the exploitation within the sex trade and it is testament to Forder’s skills that this topic is handled with great care and sensitivity. It’s very thoroughly researched and brings to light some aspects of the subject of which I was not previously aware. The case brings out a side of Bliss that we don’t see very often so it was interesting to see how the case affected him emotionally. 

It is difficult for the team to find breakthroughs in this case (as I imagine is true for many real life cases) so it does take a while for the investigation to build momentum. I was impressed that despite this, the pace of the novel does not suffer and there is always something to keep the reader on their toes. The plot is quite complex and this did keep me engaged the whole way through as I was eager to see how it would all come together.

The Autumn Tree is available from Amazon.

You can follow the rest of the blog tour here: