Book review: A Good Day to Die - Simon Kernick

Title: A Good Day to Die

Author: Simon Kernick

FICTION

Genre: Thriller

Ranking: 8.0 out of 10.0

Buy: Yes

Borrow: Yes

Amazon link: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B003JTHFRA/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1

Summary:  Ex-detective Dennis Milne's best friend has been brutally executed, and Milne wants to know who did it - and why; and to seek revenge.

However, London is a dangerous place for a man like Milne. Because although his former colleagues don't know he's back in town, it soon becomes clear other people do. And that they'll stop at nothing to get him out of the way.

From the relaxed beaches of the Philippines to the mean streets of London, a hunt for justice becomes a terrifying struggle for survival.

Main review: 

When Dennis Milne - now living under an assumed identity in the Philippines- learns that his old friend and police colleague Malik has been gunned down in a restaurant, he decides to go back to the city he once called home and bring the murderer to justice. 

Milne arrives in a pre-Christmas London that is cold and hostile. But he is no longer a policeman; no longer charged with keeping the peace and upholding the law. Although his old friends at the King's Cross police station do not know that he is back in town, it soon becomes clear that his arrival has been expected by men who are after his blood. 

Hungry for revenge and determined to uphold his own very rough brand of justice, Milne searches for the person behind his friend's demise, involving the help of a crime reporter interested in the same set of crimes - and leaves a trail of death and destruction more wide-reaching than even he could have expected. 

The climax is somewhat unexpected but nonetheless logical and not contrived. That's the power of Kernick's writing.

Further reading suggestion: The Witness - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Witness-Simon-Kernick/dp/0099579154/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1476360972&sr=1-1-spell