City On Fire: My review

Jo Howe is back on the streets of Brighton for the third time. In City on Fire, Graham Bartlett really raises the sense of peril and uncertainty which Jo lives and works under. We find Jo’s Operation Eradicate which is centred on getting drug users into treatment and the dealers in prison, in direct battle with influential leaders in the city’s drug underworld out to disrupt Jo’s operation and crush her in all ways. Very quickly we see that every part of Jo’s life is under attack – her husband is targeted as a reporter, ultimately blackmailed to antagonise and unsettle Jo’s quest to help improve her local communities. 

 

I really enjoyed the range and scale of drama and chaos – there are deliberate road traffic collisions, there are fake identities, there are false allegations and, with Darren’s situation the corruption and pay offs go through every strand of society – the law courts, the prisons, the custody suites who want to keep their grip on money, power and controlled and uncontrolled drug supplies. I love that feeling that Jo, her relatives and her faithful colleagues really can’t trust anyone. I gulped down the plot as I really wanted to know whether Jo and her sidekicks would come out on top. I always find that with Graham’s writing – it keeps you gripped throughout, and each novel has had a distinct criminal focus, nodding to his extensive career.

 

City on Fire definitely felt gritty – more bloodshed, more tears, fatalities, and a real rollercoaster which keeps the zippy pace for the reader. Brighton as a location is very much rooted in the scenes depicted, there are regular road names and landmarks which gives you that immediate sense of place. 

 

I would definitely recommend City on Fire to readers out there whether you’ve read the previous two or are just starting to dive into Jo’s world this time around.

 

Congrats Graham on your third novel, excited to see what you write next!