I am delighted to share my review today of The Monk by Tim Sullivan. This is part of the DS Cross series, I have not read them all but I am aware of the uniqueness of Cross and how he applies it to his work.

My huge thanks to Aries & Aria Fiction for granting my request to read this title via NetGalley.

Publication Date – 27th April 2023

To find a murderer, you need a motive . . .

THE DETECTIVE
DS George Cross has always wondered why his mother left him when he was a child. Now she is back in his life, he suddenly has answers. But this unexpected reunion is not anything he’s used to dealing with. When a disturbing case lands on his desk, he is almost thankful for the return to normality.

THE QUESTION
The body of a monk is found savagely beaten to death in a woodland near Bristol. Nothing is known about Brother Dominic’s past, which makes investigating difficult. How can Cross unpick a crime when they don’t know anything about the victim? And why would someone want to harm a monk?

THE PAST
Discovering who Brother Dominic once was only makes the picture more puzzling. He was a much-loved and respected friend, brother, son – he had no enemies. Or, at least, none that are obvious. But looking into his past reveals that he was a very wealthy man, that he sacrificed it all for his faith. For a man who has nothing, it seems strange that greed could be the motive for his murder. But greed is a sin after all . . .

Perfect for fans of M.W. Craven, Peter James and Joy Ellis, The Monk is part of the DS George Cross thriller series, which can be read in any order.

MY REVIEW

I have not read all the books in this series, but I have read one of them and found it an easy series to get into. I then seem to have missed a couple more and now come across this latest one. again another one that is easy to pick up given that it is a series. The character of DS George Cross was very easy to remember as he is socially awkward and has a very specific way of dealing with his life, those of people he knows and of the crimes he is investigating.

He is tenacious and it is this tenacity that has helped him navigate his way through tricky investigations before and will do so again this time as well. While he has always been able to look at crimes from the outside, this time he discovers a connection that makes one of his friendships a little strained.

Luckily for him, he has people around him who know how he works and he has built up a level of respect. He really is a character I like given his very literal understanding of everyday conversations, sarcasm, joking and general banter.

When the body of a monk is discovered it leads Cross and the team along a route that even surprises them. Everyone comes from somewhere and even a monk has a past, even one that has been left behind. As the team investigate there seems to be something more than first meets the eye.

Having different threads in this story the author is able to weave what would seem like a complex case. If I was to try to explain it, well it would be complex, but the way the author lays it out makes sense. Leads are followed, but not always successfully or with full understanding. Progress is slow and is hampered by not having knowledge of all the facts.

While this is a police procedural first and foremost, the author does bring in the out-of-hours or off-the-job aspect to his main characters. It is a chance to get to know more about Cross and what happened to his mum and dad when he was younger and they went their separate ways.

Being on the spectrum, Cross is shown to struggle with changes in his routines and these revelations do up skittle him. He is however a professional and is able to departmentalise so his focus is where it needs to be. Being a stickler for having every ‘I’ dotted and ‘T’ crossed he will always keep working at things that niggle him.

This is a fabulous story and as I mentioned this does not have to be read in order. It does mention this is the book blurb so I will be going back to read the previous ones I have missed. If you are a fan of crime, thriller and police procedural stories then this is one I would definitely recommend.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Tim Sullivan is an acclaimed screenwriter. He originally read English and Law at university – the latter forced on him by his Dad – but instead, he wriggled free of those parental ambitions and pursued his own, to make films. His writing credits include A HANDFUL OF DUST, starring Kristen Scott Thomas, WHERE ANGELS FEAR TO TREAD, starring Helen Mirren and Helena Bonham Carter, JACK AND SARAH (which he also directed) starring Richard E Grant, Judi Dench and Ian McKellen and LETTERS TO JULIET, with Amanda Seyfried. He is also a Television director whose credits include SHERLOCK HOLMES and COLD FEET and CORONATIONS STREET. He has written extensively in Hollywood in both live-action and animation, working with Ron Howard, Scott Rudin and Jeffrey Katzenberg on the fourth SHREK movie.

He has now embarked on a series of crime novels featuring the eccentric and socially-awkward, but brilliantly persistent DS George Cross.

He self-published the first two books and once they’d achieved over 200,000 downloads he came to the attention of Head of Zeus publishers. So thanks to all his readers for this success and their shared love of George.

The novels are set in Bristol in the southwest of England, Cross’ methods often infuriate his colleagues and superiors “not so much a thorn in my side as a pain in my arse,” according to his boss DCI Carson. But his conviction rate, thanks to his dogged persistence and attention to detail, is the best in the force. Tim has now written the first four in the series with The Patient being published on March 3rd 2022.

Tim feels confident in his claim that he is the only crime writer around who has also co-produced and written a My Little Pony movie for Hasbro. MY LITTLE PONY – A NEW GENERATION is now available on Netflix.

Tim lives in North London with his wife Rachel, the Emmy award-winning producer of THE BAREFOOT CONTESSA and PIONEER WOMAN. Their daughters live nearby.

For more stuff about Tim visit his website http://www.timsullivan.co.uk

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