The Common Enemy

DCI Warren Jones, Book 4

By: Paul Gitsham

Narrated by: Malk Williams

Length: 11 hrs and 51 mins

Publisher's summary

How do you catch a man’s killer when everyone wanted him dead?

In Middlesbury, a rally is being held by the British Allegiance Party – a far-right group protesting against the opening of a new Mosque.

When the crowd disperses, a body is found in an alleyway. Tommy Meegan, the loud-mouthed leader of the group, has been stabbed through the heart.

Across town, a Muslim community centre catches fire in a clear act of arson, leaving a small child in a critical condition. And the tension which has been building in the town for years boils over.

DCI Warren Jones knows he can’t afford to take sides – and must solve both cases before further acts of violent revenge take place. But, in a town at war with itself, and investigating the brutal killing of one of the country’s most-hated men, where does he begin?

The DCI Warren Jones series

1 The Last Straw

2 No Smoke Without Fire

Blood is Thicker than Water (Novella)

3 Silent as the Grave

A Case Gone Cold (Novella)

4 The Common Enemy

A Deadly Lesson (Novella)

5 Forgive Me Father

At First Glance (Novella)

6 A Price to Pay

7 Out of Sight

8 Time to Kill

9 Web of Lies

©2018 Paul Gitsham (P)2018 HarperCollins Publishers

Excellent Mystery

This book is a police procedural. It has a lot of twists and turns. The ending completely surprised me.

It deals with some unpleasant topics like racism and extremism. However, the author handled it with respect and wrote a very intense and interesting novel.

Better and better!

Paul Gitsham just gets better and better in DCI Warren Jones series. The plot is woven beautifully with suspense and depth of characterization. The theme of racial and religious tensions is timely .

Human Interest and Whodunit

Paul Gitsham's DCI Warren Jones series provides a whodunit, a police procedural, and very real, human, and sympathetic characters. This novel employs a backdrop of current events, but much of the tragedy is brought on by much more common place human emotions. In this novel, DCI Jones has to deal with a far right wing hate group, demonstrations, and family jealousies. He must solve the murder of a leader of a white nationalist group before the funeral to derail the likelihood of a violent demonstration. On the personal front, he suffers a loss.

I'm looking forward to the next adventures of DCI Jones and his unit.

Interesting premise spoiled.

I liked the previous books in this series. I wish I could say the same for this book.

Many of the characters seemed wooden. I did not engage and didn't care what happened to them. Most of these characters were on the police officer staff. Problems and outcomes you could see coming a mile away. Very annoying, it was like there is some sort of checklist...

Police staff crippled by budget cuts........................Check!
Self-serving politician attacking PD........................Check!
Media enflaming situation.........................................Check!
Young hardworking officer.........................................Check!
Inspector's marriage suffers due to long hours....Check!

The characters surrounding the actual crime were great. I liked or disliked them, and was engaged with their stories. The subject matter was timely. There were interesting twists up to the end.

Even so, this book seemed to drag on forever for me, it was a real chore to make it to the end. I think this will be my last DCI Warren Jones book.

This book has good reviews, so I know I'm in the minority here.

Very, very Disappointing

I have read the first three installments in this series, and enjoyed them. This one had clear hints that a favorite character was going to be killed gratuitously at the end. I skipped to the end, and sure enough, that happened. The dead policeman had been plumped for promotion, children, and more. It was ridiculous, as if the author's editor had suggested that he add more violence to help sales of an already violent series.

Not my favorite

I like this author - and while character development is more surface than depth - I like his writing.

That said - this one isn’t that good (sorry). I won’t do any spoilers here - the book topic was so heavily laden it got bogged down quite a bit. I kept waiting for it get better - but it just didn’t. Had there been any real side stories going on I think it would of been a lot better.

Hate to give an ugly review - sorry Paul!!