Nathan Burrows

Blind Justice, a legal thriller set in the city of Norwich in England, is the debut novel by Nathan Burrows. It is the first-person narrative by the protagonist, Gareth Dawson, of what led to his life sentence for murder and what follows it.

Gareth is a small-time thief who mends his ways on meeting the beautiful Jennifer, with whom he plans to spend his life. But his plans go awry as Jennifer is killed in a supposed accident involving her ex-boyfriend and, a few months later, Gareth himself is convicted for the murder of the ex-boyfriend, which he hasn’t committed. A few months into the life sentence, he is approached by Paul Dewar, a lawyer who is confident that he can prove Gareth’s innocence. The rest of the novel is the account of the thrilling retrial that may or may not exonerate Gareth.

The author has written a well-paced, well-plotted story that is quite engaging from start to finish. The main characters are realistic and relatable for the most part and deserve the reader’s care as to what happens to them. The narrative flows seamlessly through the flashback detailing Gareth’s love story to his conviction and the court-room drama that follows. The author has a fine way of describing emotions with simple words that find the mark.

Unfortunately, all the good work the author has done has been undone to a great extent by the poor editing. I came across several grammatical errors, in addition to slipups in character names at some places. I also found discrepancies in the statements of time during the courtroom scenes. And, there were some contradictions in the sequences that could have been caught and corrected, had the book been edited properly.

To summarise, Blind Justice is a fast-moving legal thriller with a good plot and great characters that is let down by the lack of decent editing. My rating of it is 3 out of 5 stars, hugely influenced by the bad editing.

I received an advance review copy for free, through booksirens, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.… (mais)

As a non-meat eater and much to the chagrin of my family and friends, I have always referred to sausages as being made of hooves and @rseholes and containing no meat at all, so I was really intrigued when I read the synopsis of The Butcher by Nathan Burrows. It had me at 'She thought it was pork. She was wrong.' That has to be the best strapline ever!

In a not too distant future, The Butcher is set in Norwich post-Brexit where we Brits can barely afford to eat as everything is so expensive. The local butcher, Frank Pinch, and his farmer brother, Tom, are struggling to make a living until the pair stumble upon a recipe for some prize winning sausages. Suddenly Frank goes from having half-empty shelves to having a queue out of the door; news of his amazing sausages spreads far and wide and he even gets a visit from a red-headed celebrity. Frank and Tom also get a less welcome visit from recently qualified Food Standards Agency inspector, Emily. Will they pass the inspection or will Emily find out what is really in Frank's sausages?

The humour is very dark and dry which had me laughing along as I read; I was over three quarters of the way through and just thinking that it wasn't laugh out loud funny when I had a huge laugh out loud moment and had to share what I was laughing at. As much as it is funny, it's actually a very thought-provoking book as you can never really know exactly what you're eating and it always surprises me when people eat pies simply labelled as 'meat'. What kind of meat is it? Cow? Horse? Cat? Man?

With the most unlikely serial killers you will ever come across, The Butcher contains more humour than there is meat in a sausage to make a unique comedy crime novel. If you have a sense of humour, you will LOVE this book; I can't wait to read book 2, The Baker, especially after the little teaser in the back of The Butcher. I think this is going to be a brilliant trilogy.

I chose to read an ARC and this is my honest and unbiased opinion.… (mais)

Finding Milly by Nathan Burrows

What would you be willing to do to find your missing child? What steps would you take? How far would you be willing to go? Jimmy Tucker is on a mission to find his daughter and has limited time to do so. How he goes about the search, who helps him and what he finds out make for an intense and ultimately rather dark read.

What I liked:
* Jimmy: a good man who was dealt more than one hard blow.
* Gareth: another good man who helps Jimmy out.
* Charlotte, Laura, Charlotte and Dave: there to help Jimmy when he needed them
* The bartender and the men that Jimmy worked with
* The conclusion…

What I did not like:
* The wickedness and greed of the bad guys in this book.
* That Jimmy’s diagnosis was a death sentence

Did I enjoy this book? Yes
Would I read more by this author? Yes

Thank you to the author who gave me a copy of his book through BOTBS Publicity – This is my honest review.

5 Stars… (mais)