I enjoyed this book, I did feel it was a bit of a shame I hadn't realised it was part of a series and read that one first, as some of the story refers back to it and so you can't get a complete feel for the characters. Having said that, the background wasn't needed to understand the story which was well written, gritty and engaging.

This really is a story for our times not only dealing with gang culture but also the problems of crime for communities plus issues relating to undercover policing. At times this book made me angry and then terribly sad. Despite this, I did enjoy the book especially the various characters; some you dislike and some you feel such sympathy for. There's also the dynamic between Kate and Kieran (who I didn't personally like!) which adds to the tension. A very interesting and enjoyable book which was that bit different.

4.5 stars, rounded up.
Oops, I appear to have committed the most heinous crime of diving in mid-series. Oh well, I don't think it marred my enjoyment of this book at all though so I think I've got away with it. I am intending to restore balance to my world and have already purchased the previous two books to sneak in sometime.
This book hit the ground running for me and didn't let up until the very end. We start with a stabbing which turns out fatal and then, as more and more layers of this crime is uncovered, we see that actually, this incident is the very small tip of a very big iceberg with multiple interconnected crimes and perpetrators. And, as these crimes vastly differ in nature, different police departments are all vying for information, all keeping things close to their chest and actually not really playing nice with each other, almost as if they aren't even on the same side at all. After all, the investigation into death of a single person from a knife wound can't possibly be able to undermine a two year investigation into much more far reaching crimes... That was the bit that piqued my interest the most in this book. Especially when the author added the extra bit of relationship intrigue between two of the opposing Police factions! What also scared me a little was that the story being told felt so real. With knife crime and gang warfare on the up, especially in London, this book does reflect that culture very well.
Characterisation was excellent and each person came across as completely real. There are a lot of emotions flying round in the book, from the young boy mourning his friend and regretting what he is all caught up in, to the single mother juggling home and work, I was well able to connect to the majority along the way and this made for a better read for me.
Plot development was also good and the pacing fitted the action all the way. There was enough character development included to progress them towards their next outing without being too intrusive to the story - basically what you'd expect from a series book.
All in all a cracking read that I do not hesitate to recommend to lovers of police procedurals, especially those that want a little something extra than the norm. My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

A modern murder detective novel set around gang-killings, this is quite topical for present day society.
The story is told from the viewpoint of the main Detective who inevitably has to battle her own private problems whilst solving the murder. Of course we should dislike the victim's friend, Ryan, as he walks from the scene and is involved with undesirable gang leaders, but London tells this in such a way as to also make us feel that perhaps he isn't such a bad person underneath and it is only circumstances that make him what he is.
The twists this contains keep the reader engaged and the ending is perhaps not quite the expected easy conclusion you hope for.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atlantic Books Corvus for this copy in exchange for an honest review.

A very well paced and engaging crime novel. I hadn't read the first two in the series but I don't think that this affected my reading experience too much. This is a gripping, funny and at times heartfelt read which is bound to be enjoyed by many.

Not the sweeney and the gangs of the 1960’s but a story of London now! A totally different concept of gang warfare relevant to the apparent craze of owning a knife. A frighteningly realistic look at modern crime today. A very good read, full of suspense.

This was a tense, gritty read, full of realistic details of policing and gang life. It’s the third in a series and although you don’t need to have read the first two books to enjoy it, I would now like to read them to fill in some of the back stories of the police officers. It’s a contemporary novel, very well-written, and sheds light on situations that we’re reading about in the papers almost daily now, sadly. The last quarter of the book is unbearably tense! Definitely worth reading.

What a great book! The story is about a gang stabbing and the aftermath. Well written and definitely a page turner. Highly recommended.

I found this too dark, too depressing and too “real” to be enjoyable. It’s well written and the author does a good job at portraying the hopelessly depressing nature of life for some young men (in particular) in our inner cities.

Not for me but will be for many

What a very dark and grim tale of wasted young lives. Unfortunately it is an all too familiar situation and painted a very frustrating picture which seems impossible to solve. It is well written with very believable characters but I found it very depressing and feel pity for people trying to live their day to day lives amongst this unending dangerous backdrop.

Two gangs rule the streets around Gallowstree Lane and this gritty page turner details their rivalry and criminal activities. It’s not for the faint hearted as right from the very beginning murder is on the agenda. Matters quickly escalate and so the turf war begins – the older, more experienced leader of one gang in direct dispute with the young pretender, leader of the rivals. They will stop at nothing to assure their ranking, and so the tit for tat crime continues until an absolutely horrifying and shocking conclusion sees an end to it. It’s like a runaway train cascading to an inevitable shockingly brutal pile up. It’s compelling, realistic and full of details about gang ethics, respect and the way of life in London gangland. In short, I loved it.
Where there are gangsters, there are police squads doing their very best to monitor their activity and protect the innocent bystanders. It is when the murder enquiry steps on the toes of a covert operation which has taken two years of hard graft to ALMOST bring to fruition, that the troubles turn nasty. The covert team are merely days away from a successful conclusion and concessions have to be made and compromise rules the pathway to mutual success. It’s a very fraught and stressful time and lives are put at risk, but it is all in a days’ work. It must be done, it must be dealt with.
This excellent crime novel is full of attitude and a total revelation about gang culture and hierarchy. It is meticulously researched and totally believable and realistic. The storytelling is sharp, the plot development incisive and tight and the characters are beautifully crafted and developed. It touched all of my senses. I could smell the fear, my skin prickled with worry and anticipation and the London cityscape opened up before my eyes. I lived with the gangs and the police and wondered how everything would end. I worried for some of the characters and felt triumph when some nasty goings on were thwarted. I was truly captivated.
I received a copy of this superb novel through my membership of NetGalley and from publisher Corvus in return for an honest review. There wasn’t a thing that I didn’t like about this novel and I am so grateful for my copy. It’s a thrill a minute crime suspense novel that I highly recommend. This author has talent by the cartload.

This is a gritty crime procedural novel that’s investigating the murder of a teenage boy with gang connections. The chapters alternate in perspective, so we can see the incidents through the eyes of the boy’s best friend and police officers at different levels of the hierarchy in the investigation. This gives a much wider view of knife crime and how it affects different people, especially the teenagers at the bottom of the totem pole.

Between you and me, I didn’t particularly like any of the police officers in this book. They’re all cold, self-serving and surprisingly callous given that a child has been killed out on the street. I found myself sympathising completely with Ryan, the victim’s best mate as you could really feel how little the authorities cared for the situation.

The pacing of this novel was quite slow to start off with, with plenty of the mundane and kinda depressing details about the personal lives of the investigating officers. At the end, however, everything comes to a boil and ends very rapidly.

If you’re a fan of police procedurals with gritty and realistic characters, this is going to be a great series for you to pick up.

I didn't realise this was the third in the Collins and Griffiths series set in London, but this works just fine as a standalone. Kate London writes a exceptionally pertinent novel of the real life nature of policing in London, the complexities and the current real life heartbreaking rise in knife crime and the consequent murders, and the conflicts the police service faces and the differing priorities within the force. The insights and observations that the author provides in the novel smacks of personal experience and knowledge, and it turns out there is good reason for this with the author having a personal history as a serving police officer. The book begins in 2016 in Gallowstree Lane with the young 15 year old Spencer Cardoso being stabbed whilst accompanied by his traumatised friend, Ryan Kennedy.

Spencer is a low level street drug dealer, a member of the Bluds gang. A passing black paramedic does his best to save his life, but to no avail as the boy dies. Ryan takes off with the paramedic's phone. The narrative hones in on the reverberations and consequences of this murder, conveyed from the perspective of Ryan, the committed DI Sarah Collins determined to find the murderer who sees Ryan as a witness, single mother DC Lizzie Griffiths determined to prove herself who focuses on Ryan and a past assault, and the hard bitten, implacable DI Kieran Shaw, hellbent on protecting a two year undercover operation, Perseus, aimed at cutting down on the huge influx of guns and gun crime in the area. Ryan's is a vulnerable young boy drawn into the life of gangs, given the few life opportunities on offer for the likes of him and so many others, facing a future that is written in blood. The gang provides a sense of belonging, a kind of family, with the leader, Shakiel, reeling in the young boys, intent on planning risky activities to raise profits.

This is a gritty police procedural that is brilliant in depicting certain parts of London and its communities, and the conflicting goals in contemporary policing. It is not often I come across a crime read that just seems to reflect the issues that beset the London of today with its desperately unfortunate rise in knife crime and murder, often committed for the slightest of reasons. With wonderful characterisations, Kate London gives us an uncomfortable and harrowing glimpse into London gangs and the boys that get caught up in that world and a police force that has to deal with this. This is a compulsive, unforgettable and gripping read. Many thanks to Atlantic Books for an ARC.

A young lad is stabbed on a London street and when his friend seeks revenge, a whole chain of events sparks off. This is book 3 in the Collins and Griffiths series but can be read as a stand alone. A very topical subject in today's events in London with knife crime and gang culture. A very believable and well written thriller. An excellent read which I would recommend.as it Has enough twists in the plot to keep you reading until the end. My thanks to Net Galley for my ARC. Reviewed on Goodreads and Facebook.

When 15 year old Spencer Cardoso is stabbed on the streets of London the investigations stirred problems across the police force. DCI Sarah Collins was investigating the stabbing and finding Spencers friend - and witness Ryan Kennedy. It soon became apparent that DI Lizzie was also investigating Ryan Kennedy for an assault on another person and Keiran Shaw was investigating Ryan Kennedy as part of a two year undercover drugs/weapons case..

The story is told from the four characters perspective and concentrates more on the investigations rather than the crimes themselves. It highlights the difficulties and tensions between police forces/teams when investigations overlap - who gets priority? Should they postpone action on the assault and stabbing to protect the undercover case or should the murder trump all else.

The decisions of each police team also carries its own consequences for the families of the victims (and suspects) which have to be dealt with.

I enjoyed reading this as it was more of how the police operate their investigations, particularly when cases do cross over instead of it all being solved within 48 hours.

I believe this book is part of a series, which I wasn’t aware of prior to reading but that didn’t matter when reading this book.

I did enjoy this book, I thought the characters were well thought out and it was well written, the author is very descriptive and have good knowledge of the area set.

The story plot is about a young boy who is Fatally stabbed in the street, with an off duty paramedic trying to save him. There is also a witness to the crime who causes threat to the gang members and officers investigating them. It’s a book about some very frightening current issues impacting our society and covers the topic well.

I enjoyed Gallowstree Lane very much. It had it’s little oddities, but it’s a well written, thoughtful and gripping police procedural.

This is the third in the series. I haven’t read the preceding two but it works fine as a stand-alone book. It’s a story of gang activity in London, including a murder, and of a major police operation to prevent guns being delivered to a gang leader. The two investigations overlap with conflicting interests and needs, which presents a genuine and well-delineated problem for the protagonists.

It’s a cracking story, told largely from the point of view of two female police officers, Sarah and Lizzie, one in each investigation, and also of Ryan, a very young gang member who becomes caught up in events which are well beyond him. All are well painted, but it is Ryan’s story and character which really makes this special; I found the picture of him, his circumstances and his actions completely convincing and in many ways sympathetic. It’s something we really need to understand and Kate London really does show insight into this serious current problem. The police procedure was also excellently done, with a detailed understanding of the issues and plausible behaviour by the officers (yes, really!) while still making it a gripping read.

I did have some niggles. The personal life of Lizzie dominated to an unwelcome extent, especially in the first part of the story. I know Kate London needs to flesh out her characters, and the issues she raises are very important, but it felt like a bolt-on intrusion, it was more irritating than illuminating and for a while it got in the way of the story quite badly. A street girl, far gone in crack addiction, takes inspiration from her memories of Shakespeare plays (seriously?), there is the odd over-ambitious simile and so on. For a while I dithered between four and five stars, but there is so much good stuff here and it became so good in the second half that it’s still a five star book for me. It’s much more intelligent and well written than many of the huge slew of crime novels around now, and I can recommend it very warmly.

(My thanks to Corvus for an ARC via NetGalley.)

I would like to thank Netgalley and Atlantic Books for an advance copy of Gallowstree Lane in return for a honest and impartial review.
Believe this is the third in a series featuring the main characters but the first I've read.
A fairly routine gang stabbing once investigated turns out to be anything but.
Thoroughly enjoyed this and read over a couple evenings and plan upon reading back catalogue.

This is a good read and a page turner. Kate London certainly knows the area and clearly has a great understanding of the people and their situations in this part of London. I found the characters and their situations totally believable. The story centres around Ryan a 15 year old with a drug addicted mother who is connected to a major drug and gun dealer.........obviously Ryan gets involved!
There is a detective's life running through the saga but it didn't grab me as much as Ryan's story.

new author to me, Kate London has written a hard hitting police procedural novel based around the London gang culture.

She has a descriptive style, with a good eye for details on police procedure. The book switches between the thoughts of the main characters, ramping the tension up as the book progresses.

Perfect read for those who enjoyed Prime Suspect and I could see Gallowstree Lane being made into a TV series in the not too distant future. Impressive and Kate London joins my list of must read crime writers.