There are some series that become so special for you that the characters feel like old friends. The Max Wolfe series by Tony Parsons is one of them for me. Now, it has been a while since I read the previous book in the series, but it didn't take me long to get back into the life of Max and his daughter Scout and of course their dog Sam.

READ THE REST OF THE REVIEW OVER AT FRESH FICTION!
( )

My first Tony Parsons experience was The Slaughter Man, and I became a fan within a couple of Kindle taps. I wasted no time diving into this, and all it did was increase my insatiability for this author.

DC Max Wolfe is on the trail of human traffickers this time, when a refrigerated truck containing twelve young dead women is found abandoned in Chinatown in London. But there are thirteen passports in the driver's cab. Where is the driver, and where is the missing woman? It's essential to find the latter for her safety, the former to hold him accountable and provide intel on the head of the organisation. It's an unpleasant, gritty insight into the harsh, brutal and evil world of human trafficking. But, oh my, Parsons is a master at getting you totally addicted. Pick this up and you won't be able to put it down. Well told, well characterised, well everything.

But I am going to have a little nitpick. Few us…actually, I don't think any of us, constantly refer to our car by make and model. I don't park my Mazda MX5, or drive my Jaguar V8 575PS or get into my Ferrari GTC4Lusso. I get in my car, I drive to the shops, I park the car. The constant reference to the 'BMX X5' did start to get my goat. It's a car, incredibly useful to get from A to B…I really don't care if the lovely DC Wolfe drives a jelly mould.

That aside, Parsons is my find of the year. My blog is going to be awash with reviews of his books. ( )

This is the 4th instalment of Max Wolfes adventures.
A lorry of dead girls is found in Chinatown London.
Max and his fellow detectives are quick to solve this case and catch the evil perpetrators before they do it again.

He speaks to some of his old contacts, leads him to a lap dancing club on the M25.
The lap dancing club is run by the Grandson of an old Gangster called Warboys.
The lap club is burnt to the ground.
A few other people are killed in the investigation including one of Max's colleagues.
It turns out it was one of the Warboys who ran old folks homes was smuggling the girls into the UK to work as nurses.

OK book this. ( )

For some reason I appear to be reading the DC Max Wolfe series in reverse order, not that this really makes any difference to my enjoyment of this first class creation by our very own home bred author Tony Parsons. What sets this crime series equal to and often above the everyday police procedural is the warmth and humanity that the author instils in Max Wolfe retaining so much of the charm from Parsons earlier books (Man and Boy, Man and Wife) Make no mistake Wolfe is a no nonsense operator with an unbreakable exterior yet at the same time shielding a gentle man possessing a deep understanding of the human psyche. Just observe this paragraph when Max is deep in concentration about his dead parents...."But I saw them both after they died, and the spark that had made them the man and woman they were had gone to some other place or dissolved from the Universe. I had no idea but their souls had flown".....

One early cold February morning in Chinatown central London a refrigerated lorry is discovered abandoned it's owner having taken flight. Discovered inside are the frozen remains of 12 women together with 13 passports. So the race is on to locate the identity of the only live witness to this senseless massacre. This story will take Max Wolfe into the core and past of London's criminal fraternity, and in so doing he will discover the senseless barbaric migration of a poor unsuspecting people making the journey to England for the start of what they hope is a new rich fulfilling life. They will ultimately discover that they are merely merchandise or goods to be traded effectively sold into the slavery of prostitution by evil men whose true intent is exploitation and greed...."Human Trafficking, Smuggling and Slavery, the CPS will call it. Enough to put someone away for fourteen years."....

The author is an expert at retaining the reader's attention with his tight descriptive prose using the colourful vibrant beating heart of London as his stage..."It was very cold and I was tired. I wanted to be under the same roof as my daughter and my dog. I wanted to be away from the liars and the desperate"...."a woman who had successfully carved a career from the desires of men".... Whatever the outcome there was never going to be a happy fix or a solution to the question of illegal immigration. DC Max Wolfe as a dogged investigator hunting out the evil but ultimately what he accomplishes is merely a sticking plaster over an open wound..."Of the twelve women we discovered on that freezing morning, only Hana Novak was ever identified and claimed. I felt we had failed them all and everyone who loved them"........

Many thanks to the good people at netgalley and the publisher Random House UK, Cornerstone Arrow for a gratis copy in exchange for an honest review and that is what I have written......in a word Brilliant! ( )

Als die Polizei zu einem verlassenen LKW im Londoner Chinatown gerufen wird, können sie nur noch den Tot von elf jungen Frauen feststellen. Eine einzige hat die Fahrt in dem Kühltransporter überlebt, aber die Chancen für Hana sind ebenfalls schlecht und nur wenige Stunden später erliegt auch sie den Erfrierungen. Detective Max Wolfe muss ermitteln und kommt schnell einer Bande von Menschenschmugglern auf die Spur. Offenbar wurden die Frauen illegal ins Land gebracht, um in Bordellen zu arbeiten und die Wünsche der Freier zu erfüllen. Die Handlanger sind schnell ausgemacht, aber an die Hintermänner zu kommen wird ein gefährliches Unterfangen, das den Ermittlern alles abverlangt.

Band 4 um den alleinerziehenden Londoner Ermittler kann nahtlos an die Vorgänger anknüpfen und überzeugt einmal mehr mit einem starken Protagonisten, der erfreulicherweise so gar nicht die gängigen Klischees bedient, und einer ebenso komplexen wie sauber gelösten Geschichte.

Tony Parsons greift ein aktuelles Thema auf: der Wunsch vieler junger Menschen, insbesondere junger Frauen, in Westeuropa ein besseres Leben zu finden. Unter falschen Versprechungen vertrauen sie sich skrupellosen Schmugglern an, denen das einzelne Menschenleben egal ist, da nur das Geld zählt, das sie mit der Ware machen können. Dass der Traum von ehrlicher und guter Arbeit sich selten erfüllt und oftmals zum Alptraum in Prostitution und ähnlichem wird, ist hinlänglich bekannt. Wie verzweifelt die illegalen Einwanderer sind, dass sie ihr Leben riskieren und wie prekär ihre Lage ist, sofern sie die Reise überhaupt überstehen, wird an vielen Stellen des Krimis deutlich. Dass sie aber nur kleine Rädchen in einem großen Gebilde sind, kann man sich denken und so kommt es auch hier, dass der Anlass der Ermittlungen in immer neue Richtungen führt und so manch unerwartete Überraschung zu bieten hat.

Für mich war einmal mehr die Figur von Max Wolfe am stärksten. Schon die Anlage als alleinerziehender Vater, der permanent zwischen Tochter und Beruf zerrissen ist und sich Vorwürfe macht, das Kind zu vernachlässigen – ein sehr modernes Bild, das man in Krimis selten findet. Seine Sensibilität gegenüber den Kollegen ist ebenfalls bemerkenswert, vor allem, weil sie authentisch und nicht kitschig wirkt. Ein insgesamt stimmiger und runder Krimi, der mit soliden Figuren und guter Story punkten kann und auf effekthascheriger Cliffhanger und übertriebene Spannungsmomente verzichtet. ( )