2.5 stars, rounded up. About half as good as The Force by Don Winslow. Dirty cops, sleazy politicians, drug dealers. Depressing and violent. Felt like I needed a shower to wash away the filth when I finished the book. Did not find the characters interesting. ( )

A remarkable debut thriller.
Looking forward to the Next Book in what looks like a promising series.
Highly recommended this book for anyone interested in good old detective thrillers. ( )

I had “Sirens” on my “maybe” list for a long time. It seemed to get a number of positive critical reviews and readers were also generous in their awarding of stars. Finally, I read another positive comment in an article on crime fiction, and that tipped the balance for me. Mistake. “Sirens” is very noir, very, very noir. It’s filled with so many characters, none of whom you’d want to invite home for dinner. Everything, everybody is gloomy, including past, present, and future. I should have stopped half way through, and I’m kicking myself that I didn’t. (Read the first chapter and more if possible before buying - a 1000 words is worth a picture)

Eventually a narrator explains the case. A number of times, sometimes his analysis is off a bit here and there. So, several pages later you are treated to an amended, slightly more accurate picture of events. But I was long past caring. It’s mostly about drugs, in England. Much of the dialog is in that confusing cop-speak that we are supposed to understand via 25 years of “Law and Order”. I just felt numb when it was over. Glad to be done with it.

The author certainly displayed some writing skills, on occasion anyway. His lengthy description of a funeral/burial service was spot on, very well done. But so what? The rest of the book was a crushing downer, too many young girls reaching an early dismal end. No heroes here. ( )

This is the 1st of the Aidan Waits novels.
Set in Manchester his is an undercover.
A top Politicians daughter Isabelle has runaway from home and is mixing with some dodgy characters and also she is taking drugs and collecting the money from other dealers.

Waits befriends her and a few of the main characters in the gang.

She ends up dead and so do some other Youths they have took a dodgy batch of Heroin. Waits finds a few cryptic clues along the way.

Waits is convinced there is more to this and uncovers that it was the Senior Police Liasion officer who was abusing Isabelle for years and that's why she ran.

Quite an ok book there was a few very over the top unbelievable characters though throughout this book. ( )

Competent and propulsive Manchester noir. Femmes fatales, a missing daughter, drug kingpins engaged in a gang war, a shady politician and other recycled tropes swirl around a disgraced policeman who may or may not be undercover. There's nothing startling or original here, but it's solidly executed and I liked it. ( )