Body Breaker

DI Avison Fluke, Book 2

By: M. W. Craven

Narrated by: John Banks

Length: 10 hrs and 12 mins

Publisher's summary

The second dark and twisted thriller in the Avison Fluke series by M. W. Craven, the acclaimed author of The Puppet Show.

Investigating how a severed hand ends up on the third green of a Cumbrian golf course is not how Detective Inspector Avison Fluke has planned to spend his Saturday. So when a secret protection unit from London swoops in quoting national security, he's secretly pleased.

But trouble is never far away. A young woman arrives at his lakeside cabin with a cryptic message: a code known to only a handful of people and it forces Fluke back into the investigation he's only just been barred from.

In a case that will change his life forever, Fluke immerses himself in a world of New Age travellers, corrupt cops and domestic extremists. Before long he's alienated his entire team, has been arrested under the Terrorism Act - and has made a pact with the Devil himself. But a voice has called out to him from beyond the grave. And Fluke is only getting started...

©2017 M. W. Craven (P)2017 Hachette Audio UK

Critic reviews

"This is high quality crime writing." (A. A. Dhand)

Another fantastic book

4.5 Stars 🌟

This was the second book in the Avison Fluke series and while the case that the book revolves around is still awesome, I felt like this book dealt more with the effect that it had on our protagonist DI Fluke. He is sent on quite the roller coaster ride in this book.

In the first book, we learn that DI Fluke has been through the ringer lately. He has had some major health scares and his job has not been on the sturdiest ground. In this case, he gets a case - a body found dismembered on a public golf course - and as he is just getting started on it, it gets taken away by a group higher up the political food chain.

While bothered by it because of the actions of the jerk in charge, he was okay with it because after all - it was their case to begin with. But, everything changes when he discovers WHO the body actually was.

This case was full of twists and turns. There were several times when I thought to myself, "could so and so be guilty? Or innocent?" "could it be him/her?" And those answers changed a couple of times during the course of the book. I LOVE it when a book can do that for me.

So - another winner for Mr. Craven. He has quickly become an "auto buy" for me and I will be eagerly awaiting whatever the next book will be - whether is starts, Washington Poe, Ben Koenig or Avison Fluke.

This is not your standard anti-hero cop story

It’s very twisty like the first in the series. Most novels like this have a damaged hero: a traumatic event turns the hero into a bitter alcoholic who deals with/his daemon’s while being a brilliant investigator or spy or former military guy. Or there’s a conspiracy that will take down the government. Those are good stories, but as an audiobook addict since 1995, those plots get tiresome. This isn’t that. Well done.