Killers – Shaun Jeffrey

This book was brought to my attention by the author Shaun Jeffrey, and who then kindly sent me a review copy. Killers is the second novel in the Prosper Snow series of books by this up and coming British author. Jeffrey’s books seem to all take the theme of crime, murder, and horror which Jeffrey says is due to his childhood home being situated in a grave yard. To find out more why not pop over to his website. You may have like me noticed the cover is quite gory, and yes I don’t usually go for this kind of crime, but when I received this review request I had not long finished reading two of Dan Wells’ gory paranormal series and thought why not give this a go too! The first novel following Prosper Snow was The Kult which I haven’t read however I was assured by Jeffrey that Killers would be fine as a stand alone read.

Prosper Snow as a policeman is no stranger to murder, however it seems to be more than that for Prosper, almost like death is following him as those around him seem to come to sticky ends too. The notion has caused many of the force to be wary of him if not downright scared to work with him. This next instalment of Prosper’s life starts with the discovering of a body which has not just been viciously killed but also mutilated in the process. Things become more sinister though when ten minutes into the investigation Prosper and his partner find themself taken off the case by a shadowy figure from a secret branch of MI5. But then a string of victims turn up and just as before Prosper finds himself taken off the cases. Soon Prosper comes to realise that the only way he is going to be able to investigate these brutal murders is to join the team of the shadowy figure, but is the investigation the real reason he joins, or is it because their shadowy leader keeps hinting that he knows something about Prosper’s own shadowy past?

Being completely honest I was a little bit dubious about reading this book, yes I know I accepted it, but at the time I had just finished reading some of Dan Wells’ books. Some time has relapsed since then and now, and in the adjoining time I have only read cosy crime so you can maybe understand why I was dubious. Fortunately there was no need to be! Killers was yes of course gory and brutal, but it was also cleverly written, well paced, and quite addictive once I got into it. I actually surprised myself how quickly I read it. I can’t say I really liked Prosper Snow as a person as he is someone who often crosses the line between the law and the criminals he’s meant to be apprehending, but that does make him an interesting character. Plus of course there is his shadowy past (which if I had read The Kult I would know for definite) however the snippets of information that were fed all the way through this book just added to the mystery for me.  Not that I didn’t already love the mystery of a secret law fighting agency, escaped prisoners, and a horrific government experiment all of which goes on without the general public knowing anything. The only negative for me was near the end where there was a scene involving booby traps (if you’ve read this book you’ll know what scene I mean) that for me went on a bit too long and that in my opinion got a little far-fetched. The actual finale though made up for it.

Killers was a fast paced murder thriller, I highly recommend it to bookworms who like their murder mystery with a good dollop of gore.

See Also:

• I Am Not A Serial Killer – Dan Wells
• Mr Monster – Dan Wells
• Child 44 – Tom Rob Smith
• The Secret Speech – Tom Rob Smith