**Blog Tour** #SuspendedRetribution by Rob Ashman @RobAshmanAuthor @Bloodhoundbook

Today I’m thrilled to be on the blog tour for Suspended Retribution by Rob Ashman. If you love a crime thriller that’s dark, intense and gruesome in parts then look no further.  Before I share my review here’s the book description.

 

Alex Jarrod is a war veteran. When a flesh-eating parasite destroys his face, he returns from Afghanistan with a head full of nightmares. His world crumbles around him until he realises there is work to be done. Another war to fight.

DI Rosalind Kray has her hopes pinned on becoming the new DCI after tracking down another serial killer, but those in charge have other ideas.

After a small-time crook is killed in a hit and run and a serial burglar is brutally murdered, Kray suspects a vigilante is at work. But her bosses disregard her theory – until they discover a third victim.

Once again Kray finds herself on the trail of a serial killer but this one is different. This one lives in his own private war zone.

With her bosses on her heels Kray has her work cut out and the body count is rising. 

But he’s not going to stop until the mission is complete … and Kray’s not going to stop until she finds him.

Any one who follows my blog will know I’m a huge crime thriller lover, not the Cosy Murder mystery garden variety type but the dark, gritty ones, the type that keep you awake at night (make of that what you will). So I always look forward to reading a book by Rob Ashman, this is an author whose fertile imagination allows him to create  interesting characters and the most shocking and original story lines. Suspended Retribution is the third instalment in the DI Rosalind Kray series, I raved about the first two books in the series but this book is the icing on the proverbial cake, what a fabulous and deeply disturbing read this one turned out to be.

In Suspended Retribution we see a different side to DI Rosalind Kray both in her personal and work life, at times she’s ballsy, confident and reckless but behind the facade is a woman tormented by grief and self doubt which help to make her a relatable protagonist in my opinion. Rob Ashman has an incredible knack of creating the most twisted killers who carry out the most terrible crimes and you have every reason to loathe them but then he gives you their back story and before you know it they get under your skin. I couldn’t help feeling some empathy for Alex Jarrod a war veteran turned killer (not a spoiler as in the book description), but as to the “why” Alex went from being a soldier who protected people to a killer, you will just have to read the book. Although I would never think killing someone was right there was a tiny part of me that couldn’t help thinking the victims were getting their very own kind of “karma”. 

The crimes are vividly described  enabling the reader  to form all to real mental images of the victims and the crime scenes, luckily  for me I’m not squeamish but there were a couple of times I actually grimaced at the authors descriptions. In a nut shell Suspended Retribution made for a disconcerting read but also one that was nigh on impossible to put down. This crime series is one that’s  going from strength to strength the plots are imaginative, the characters are brilliantly depicted, it’s a series that excites me as you are never sure which direction the next book will take.  Would I recommend this book? Most definitely,  in fact I would recommend the book, the series, or any of Rob Ashman’s books. 

• Print Length: 278 pages
• Publisher: Bloodhound Books (September 12, 2018)

Buying links:    Amazon UK 🇬🇧       Amazon US 🇺🇸

Rob is married to Karen with two grown up daughters. He is originally from South Wales and after moving around with work settled in North Lincolnshire where he’s spent the last twenty-two years.

Like all good welsh valley boys Rob worked for the National Coal Board after leaving school at sixteen and went to University at the tender age of twenty-three when the pit closures began to bite. Since then he’s worked in a variety of manufacturing and consulting roles both in the UK and abroad.

It took Rob twenty-four years to write his first book. He only became serious about writing it when his dad got cancer. It was an aggressive illness and Rob gave up work for three months to look after him and his mum. Writing Those That Remain became his coping mechanism. After he wrote the book his family encouraged him to continue, so not being one for half measures, Rob got himself made redundant, went self-employed so he could devote more time to writing and four years later the Mechanic Trilogy is the result.

When he is not writing, Rob is a frustrated chef with a liking for beer and prosecco, and is known for occasional outbreaks of dancing.

Rob published the Mechanic Trilogy with Bloodhound Books in 2017 and will be releasing three new books during 2018. These are titled: Faceless, This Little Piggy and Suspended Retribution.

LINKS:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Rob-Ashman-Author-1428800800468097/

Website: http://robashman.com/

Twitter: @RobAshmanAuthor