The Crooked Beat : Nick Quantrill
When Joe Geraghty's brother Niall finds himself in financial trouble, it's only natural that he turns to the private investigator for help. But when it relates to a missing consignment of smuggled cigarettes, it's not so easily sorted.
A consignment of smuggled cigarettes have gone missing and as Joe is drawn into the murky world of local and international criminals around the busy port of Hull, Geraghty knows the only way to save his brother is to take on the debt himself.
As Joe attempts to find a way out of the situation, it becomes clear that the secrets and conspiracies he uncovers are buried deeply in the past and that the people he's investigating are willing to do whatever it takes to keep them that way.
As the pressure mounts we see Geraghty’s relationships with those closest to him start to unravel but Geraghty can't let his family down and when the past crashes into the present Joe is in until the bitter end.
The Crooked Beat is the third urban thriller from Hull based writer ,Nick Quantrill, featuring private detective Joe Geraghty.
All 3 Books are published by Fahrenheit Press.
- Broken Dreams
- The Late Greats
- The Crooked Beat
Praise for Nick Quantrill
Author Nick Quantrill weaves an intoxicating web of secrets and lies using concise uncluttered sentences. Once again the city of Hull in East Yorkshire is fully realised adding further depth and substance to the novel. The Crooked Beat actually surpasses the previous novels in the series, showing a writer gaining in confidence and ability. This is a gritty crime mystery novel from a very talented author.
This is the best book by far in the excellent Joe Geraghty series and Quantrill's writing and story-telling gets better and better. As he steps in to help his brother, Joe is once again taken into the gritty Hull underworld but right until the last few pages you still don't know what is really going to be the outcome.
You can't help but love Geraghty for his tenacity and determination to get to the bottom of everything he does. The book twists and turns involving so many characters but Nick's writing just flows through it all. Bring on the next one please.
The power of Nick Quantrill's writing lies not in telling the reader what is happening, but in setting a scene and allowing the reader to become embroiled in its dynamics - a so-called hard man out of his depth when faced with implacable foreign criminals; the poignant interaction of Geraghty and an old lady, both knowing her missing son has been murdered but neither wanting to name the reality; a policeman living with a view of himself that can no longer paper over the cracks. This thought-provoking novel is based among real streets; the characters may be fictional, but the people they portray are very real indeed. If Nick Quantrill maintains the quality of his work he will doubtless become The Next Big Name in Noir Crime. Pick it up. You won't put it down.
Nick Quantrill succeeds in bringing to life the downbeat feel of the streets of Hull in this excellent novel. Very much like the city itself, his protagonist, Joe Geraghty, is attempting to build a new future from the remains of a problematic recent past. Geraghty is continually being pulled back by the past however, particularly when his brother and nephew become embroiled in the smuggling and subsequent theft of a consignment of cigarettes. Geraghty fights hard to protect his family from the worst excesses of local mobster, George Sutherland, uncovering past crimes and dark secrets in the process. The tension throughout the book is palpable, as is Geraghty’s fear-fuelled determination to keep his family safe. The fact that he does not have all the answers and blunders into a few knocks along the way makes his plight all the more realistic, less sure of ultimate success. The prose, dialogue and settings are all deeply evocative of a cold world, where humanity struggles to overcome the worst excesses of human nature, but more importantly, they make for a thrilling read. Great stuff.
Joe Geraghty has become a favourite literary character of mine. In this third (and best) novel his story grows. Nothing is as simple as it seems and the tension gradually cranks up - you begin to fear for the characters, not for their lives so much as their peace of mind. Nick is a tremendous talent and has made the city of Hull, a place I know well, a character in itself.