Fantastic novel. Fast paced with an intriguing storyline. Looking forward to reading more in the series.

This book grabbed me by the hair from the very first page and didn't let go until the very last. The book was a great read, and recommended.

Great book, the opening chapter pulled me in and never let go, nice and fast paced, not too much self analysis by the lead detectives, would recommend to anyone who loves a good crime.

When a priest is found crucified in an abandoned chapel, Charlie George and his team know they're dealing with a difficult opponent. Then one of their own is killed on Boxing Day and the race is on to find a serial killer with a religious twist. As they follow a set of leads, George has to deal with personal issues which compromise his thinking.
At the heart of this is a really good story but it gets lost in too much complexity. It is almost as though Falconer is trying too hard. The checklist of police procedural genre novels is definitely covered: police person with quirks, family history, personal problems relating to both romance and family, serial killer, religion, race/immigration. I could go on. For this reason the first half or so was slow and I didn't really engage. Towards the end the book really improved as the action was happening. However the perpetrator came out of left field and wasn't really linked to the story at all until he appeared which I found disappointing.

This book had me at the title. Lucifer Falls. The suggestion of a biblical / supernatural scenario lured me to the line. Then the blurb set the hook: a serial killer in London, twisting Catholicism to his own psychopathy, making grisly martyrs from genuinely good people. Sign me up!

And Lucifer Falls delivers all that – but to my dismay it also subscribes to all the clichés of British police procedural crime fiction. The investigating officer is a good guy at heart but deeply scarred by childhood violence. He’s married to the force, trying to give up smoking, trying to give up a damaging love affair. He’s riddled with guilt for not visiting his mother, suffering extreme dementia, often enough. His senior officer is a self-serving career climber; quick to seize credit and faster to lay blame. The squadroom is full of burly blokes calling each other ‘guv’ and ‘skip’. And there’s a smart newcomer to the crime squad, a young female constable with her head smartly screwed on. All of which has the feel of items being checked off a list, making this little more than a by-the-numbers crime novel.

And that’s frustrating, because Colin Falconer certainly can write and he’s got plenty of literary references lurking up his sleeves. The snappy banter between the scuffers is superb, as is his evocation of modern London – not the tourist town, but the grey wastelands where most folk live and work (and occasionally die).

But his talents are kept firmly in check in Lucifer Falls, possibly to make it attractive to the broadest audience. Any originality was kept well under wraps: the bad guy also comes straight out of central casting and is barely developed. Another missed opportunity: if the protagonist has to be Captain Whitebread then the author’s creativity can usually be unleashed in the form of a memorable villain. Sadly, there’s nothing much remarkable about this killer.

Starts well, then, but soon slithers into safe territory. Would make an ideal adaptation for an undemanding prime-time TV series.

6/10

Love love love Colin Falconer books and this promises to be the first goody in a series so looking forward to the 2nd. Highly recommend

This is the first book in a new police procedural series set in London. Filled with religious connotations, we are introduced to the new characters, my favourite being Charlie George. The book is dark, well written and filled with dashes of humour and a very twisty plot. A cracking good start and I would recommend reading this book. Thanks to Net Galley for my ARC.Reviewed on Amazon, Goodreads and Facebook.

Lucifer Falls, the first book of the Detectives Charlie George and Clare Reeves series, is a superb police procedural with religious connotations, one of my favourite type of reads, and a promising start to a new series I know I'll be following from here on in. The plot is well crafted and as twisty as an S-link, the writing engaging and dark humour interspersed throughout a welcome change to what I normally get in the crime fiction genre. The juxtaposition of the religious inspired and gritty crime to the black humour and wit is done very well. That said, there were instances that I felt uncomfortable when inappropriate jokes were made involving race and homophobia. They appear to be the thoughts and feelings of Sergeant Jayden Greene and possibly reflective of the views of some serving police officers as well as others and really aren't funny to me.

Set in Essex Road, London, our main protagonist, Charlie George, is a likeable, affable and down-to-earth guy who it is easy to get behind. The pacing is perfect, and the slow unfurling of the story had me feverishly flipping the pages. Despite there being little in the way of clues, the investigators continue to chase leads and search for the unknown killer who has now murdered one of their own making them even more adamant to apprehend this monster before he gets the chance to strike again. I also appreciated that Falconer didn't do what many similar books do and make the narrative contrived and unbelievable by letting everything just fall into place conveniently. Instead, the case is hard-fought making the success all the sweeter for both the characters and the reader.

Many thanks to Constable for an ARC.

Another new author for me and the start of a new series. This is a really good police procedural, it is set in London wjere some pretty horrific murders are being carried out. Why are the pillars of a local community ending their daysin such horrific and macabre ways. I read this book in one sitting and when the killer was revealed it was a shock and not who i was expecting. This book is dark, graphic and laced woth humour. A really good read and highly recommended.
I would like to thank Netgalley and Little Brown Books UK for the ARC of this book in return for giving an honest review.

Lucifer Falls is the first book that I have read by Colin Falconer and it is a very good police procedural thriller.

At first the supporting cast feel like they are cliches from the A to Z book of crime however as the story evolves their stories all develop and tie into the main story and add to the enjoyment.

The pace of the book us fairly relentless which keeps you clicking the pages.

Overall recommended

Excellent police procedural set in London with horrific murders at the centre of the piece . Graphically violent with a touch of dark humour keep things ticking along nicely as our hero and his female DC attempt to unravel the crimes hindered by senior officers along the way! The perpetrator comes as a shock which happens in only the best yarns so this one doesn't disappoint!

This is the first in what, hopefully, will become a new series. D I Charlie George works out of Essex Road (quite close to where I work) and, suitably named, is an Arsenal supporter. Of course, the first novel in a series introduces the characters and so we meet the, less than supportive, D C I Fergus O’Neal Callaghan (nicknamed, ‘FONC,’ but not to his face), new recruit, the keen DC Lesley Lovejoy, D S Dawson and the rest of the team. George himself is a likeable character, with a large family; including an elderly mother in a care home, one brother who is a big shot in the city, a sister in Brighton with an unlikeable husband, and a son with a genetic condition, and a married lover.

Father Andrew O’Meara is known locally as a Saint, so when he is found killed in a violent and unusual method, suspects are difficult to find. Who would kill a man who does so much for others? Then, another person, also known to be a pillar of the community, vanishes on Christmas Eve. With the clock ticking, George is desperate the discover the victim before it is too late. However, before he can find the killer, he needs to discover the motivations behind these disturbing crimes.

I really enjoyed this novel. I liked the characters, the realistic portrayal of the London streets and the dark humour. There were, perhaps, a little too much use of the word, ‘innit,’ but, that aside, and given that I support West Ham, I really loved this. Indeed, I thought this had the beginnings of an excellent series and I look forward to reading more about D I George, hopefully soon. I received a copy of this book from the publishers, via NetGalley, for review.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Little, Brown Book Group UK for an advance copy of Lucifer Falls, a police procedural set in London, featuring DI Charlie George.

When a priest is found crucified in a disused church Charlie and his team are given the investigation. The staged nature of the crime scene makes them think that this may be the first of many so the pressure is on.

I thoroughly enjoyed Lucifer Falls which is a good procedural with a twisty plot, a dash of humour and a very likeable protagonist. It is mostly told from Charlie’s point of view with the occasional foray into potential victims’ thoughts and action and latterly the killer’s. it seems to me that it is a very professional piece of work which covers all the bases. The dialogue is rough and full of black humour so it amused me to a point but the casual racism and homophobia of Sgt Jayden Greene was a bit near the knuckle for me. On the whole, however, the dialogue is natural, capturing both the situation and, to be pretentious, the zeitgeist. It makes the reader feel at home and invites them to participate in the novel. Mr Falconer captures the essence of the hunt for a stranger killer, the pressure from the brass, the clutching at any hint of a clue and the sense of searching for a needle in a haystack. I liked that nothing falls neatly into place and that the team has to work for progress, apart from the ending which was a little pat. I think the pacing is good with a trickle of reveals to keep the reader interested. It held my attention from start to finish.

I really like Charlie George who is a character I felt affinity with. He is down to earth, kind and thoughtful although sometimes he speaks before he thinks which leads to a tricky relationship with his boss, FONC (you’ll have to read the book to get to the bottom of that one!). He doesn’t have his troubles to seek in his personal life, like being an Arsenal supporter, but he makes progress in the course of the novel.

Lucifer Falls is a good read which I have no hesitation in recommending.

This crime fiction piece of a police procedural by Colin Falconer really grew on me as I read more and more of it. I am not sure if this is the beginning of a series, but I really hope it is. There is plenty of humour in it, and the central character, a man for whom football and Arsenal runs through his veins, DI Charlie George, is named after a famous ex-Arsenal footballer. Charlie and his team are London Met, based at the Essex Road Police Station. A priest known for his dedicated work with the homeless, Father Andrew O' Meara is found brutally crucified in a derelict chapel. For a police team more used to council estate stabbings and domestic abuse, this horrifying scene galvanises them to hunt down the perpetrator. The only problem is that they are desperately short on leads other than the killer using a white van. Then the killer strikes again on Christmas Eve, only this time the victim is one of their own, Constable Stephen Morton, a man known for going out of his way to help troubled and disadvantaged youth.

Faced with a pressurising media focus, Charlie and his team that include DS Dawson and enthusiastic and committed newcomer, DC Lesley Lovejoy, are more often than not hindered by their ambitious boss, DCI Fergus O'Neal-Callaghan, known as FONC. In a case that results in tragic outcomes and leaves the experienced and hardened Dawson suffering PTSD, the team struggle to get anywhere close to an intelligent and well organised killer who has every intention of continuing to target people who do good in the community. Charlie is a troubled man, in a relationship with a married woman he knows is not good for him, but he finds it difficult to stay away from her. He has a large and sprawling family that includes a mother suffering from dementia who still loves his father, a man who knocked her around, a sister, Jules in Brighton, married to the problematic Tel, and her son, Rom, afflicted with the life threatening Bubble Boy syndrome, and carefree brother Ben with lucrative employment in the city, keen on dishing out advice to Charlie. As Charlie and the police try to locate the latest victim of the killer, it is DC Lovejoy's idea that leads to a thrilling finale with a cornered but dangerous murderer.

Colin Falconer writes a compelling piece of crime fiction where the darkest of deeds is relieved by the constant strands of comic wit and humour that runs through the story. The more I got to know Charlie, the more I liked him, from his designer clothing acquired in charity shops, his blue collar persona that occasionally reveals his more literate and academic side, to his commitment to helping others in his job and the support he provides his family. He recognises the value of the lowliest and newest team member, ensuring that Lovejoy's total commitment and ideas are harnessed. I found this a entertaining and gritty read, it is not often I read crime fiction that amuses me so much. Many thanks to Little, Brown for an ARC.

Interesting storyline about a policeman looking for a serial killer with a vendetta against God. The main character was believable but other characters were stereotypes which spoilt it somewhat. A homophobic and racist policeman, a short haired lesbian with no make up, a ‘mick’ priest - there seemed to be a lack of effort put into developing these characters.

The book also lacked suspense, there was very little build up of tension and you only really got a feel of the serial killer 3/4 of the way through the book.

A quickly written crime novel with intriguing characters and a good sense of humour. More heavily religious than is ideal but an interesting plot.