This 5th installment in the DCI Craig Gillard crime thriller series is the best yet -- and I've read them all. There is so much going on in the Surrey Police with a complicated case that starts slowly and then builds to an incredible climax with lots of suspense and tension until the chilling conclusion. 

The story begins with a missing woman -- a 25-year-old German-born student at London's Royal College of Music goes missing and doesn't show up for a scheduled performance. Gillard is a bit irritated as the woman hadn't even been missing for 24 hours. He then discovers that she's the daughter of Germany's Minister of Justice and suddenly the case is high profile and they throw all available resources into the search. But, there are problems tracing Beatrice Ulbricht's last known locations and even such a large team can't figure out what happened. But the investigation really turns bizarre when the body of a 15-year-old girl turns up in a car found floating in a flooded river -- the shocker is that it turns out to be someone who had been missing for 37 years! How can this even be possible? The crazy stuff just keeps happening and everyone is working on trying to figure out what is going on. There's so much more that I can't say because -- NO SPOILERS.

You'll just have to read this one! Such a complicated police procedural that requires so much work and involves so many different experts in various criminology fields. I really enjoyed the methodical approach and the details needed for the Surrey Police et al to solve this. The characters are well known to me from reading the previous books and they have grown on me over time. Gillard is the protagonist but others on the team have significant roles as well. The writing is excellent and this was a hard one to put down. I'm looking forward to the next installment due out later this year.

Thank you to NetGalley and Canelo for this e-book ARC to read, review and recommend. I am sure you would be OK to read this as a standalone, but I feel that you'd appreciate it more if you had all the background from the previous books.

Great book. Very nice characters and very well written. Have read other books in this series and they never disappoint. Will look out for more and would definitely recommend to anyone.

Fifth in this tense exciting series.The latest book drew me right in multi layered always well written characters that come alive a story that weaves a web in the readers mind..Highly recommend each book in this series,#netgalley#canelo

Another fantastic book in the Craig Gillard series.  Normally I am not a lover of books with multiple storylines running through them but it worked in this book and helped build the suspense of the book overall.  Great characters, a great storyline and a book I'd highly recommend to read!

Having read several books by Nick Louth, including a couple from this, the DCI  Craig Gillard series, I am looking forward to this,  the fifth book.

After a slightly slow build up, suddenly the story had me gripped towards the end of the third chapter. From then onwards I really enjoyed the fast pace of this carefully crafted police procedural novel. 

There are plenty of superb characters in the book, both criminal, incidental and on the police investigation team.

It is difficult to say much about the story lines for fear of spoiling the plot for the reader. I will settle for saying it involves a missing person, a criminal with a good knowledge of police methods. 

The novel is set in the southern suburbs of London, in Surrey. Many of the locations are real, which gives the book a sense of geographical significance, which is enhanced by some interesting fictitious places. 

There are plenty of twists and turns in the plot and the tension builds to a dramatic conclusion. 

I rate this book as 5 stars. It is one of the best crime thrillers which I have read so far this year.

Once again I give my thanks to Netgalley and Canelo for an advance copy in exchange for this review.

In this, the fifth in the excellent DCI Craig Gillard series, he once again tackles a complex case and is challenged by a very clever serial killer who has it in for poor Craig. It starts with the disappearance of a violinist on a train journey into Waterloo station, but the solving of this mystery is only the beginning, there is so much more to come.

It is great that Nick Louth maintains his standard of storytelling, I particularly like the detail he goes into and that he imparts the complexity of a major investigation with so many specialists involved supporting the central team. I can’t wait for the next in the series.

This review is from a complimentary copy provided by the publishers, but is my genuine opinion, not influenced by their generosity!

Another excellent novel by Nick Louth, this is the fifth novel featuring DCI Craig Gillard and his team and they just get better and better. I am already waiting with baited breath for the next episode to appear. This novel begins with Craig attending the funeral of one of his colleagues who lost his life in the line of duty at the end of the last novel when he is called away urgently by the Chief Constable. On his arrival at police headquarters he is informed that a female musician has disappeared, initially he thinks that she is an adult and may be with a boyfriend, he is then informed that she is in fact the daughter of a high ranking German politician and that it may be a kidnap scenario. My thanks to Canelo the publisher and Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read and review this novel before it is released to the general public.

The fifth and latest book in the DCI Craig Gillard series finds Craig heading up a missing person case. A missing person! Not DCI Gillard’s usual sort of case but on direct orders from his boss he has no choice.

The missing person turns out to be Beatrice Ulbricht daughter of the German Minister of Justice. Resources are being thrown at the case when Gillard realises that they have been mislead, quite cleverly, by the kidnapper and have wasted valuable time.

There is also a smaller investigation happening within his team on a stolen vehicle. One that caused much amusement because of the home security footage!

Craig is, as usual, working hard on the investigation which means long hours especially when they have to practically start all over again!

Heavy rain, flooding and an incident at a bridge which Craig and Sam get caught up in add two bodies to the investigation.

Messages are being sent to Craig and it looks as though there’s something personal, taunting his ability and then Sam, his wife, is taken! Craig is removed from the case as SIO. There’s a new SIO and a special unit brought in.

This doesn’t stop Craig from some investigation. Then his colleague DI Perry find out that his wife is having an affair. He’s taken some personal time and is tracking his wife’s lover when his daughter, supposedly staying with a friend, has gone missing.

There are so many threads to this story each dangled tantalising before us that it is impossible not to be making guesses at what is happening and who is responsible.

This is a gripping book and Nick Louth masterfully brings together all the twists and turns in this complex and engaging story into a stunning conclusion.

Previous reviews: Body in the Mist | Body in the Marsh | The Body Under the Bridge

Thanks

With thanks to Sophie at Canelo for the invite to read and to Canelo via NetGalley for an eCopy of The Body under the Bridge by Nick Louth. These are purely my own thoughts, for which I have received no payment.

I loved this book. Thank you NetGalley for giving me the chance to review it. I had never read any of this series of books by Nick Louth, I think this is the 5th in the series, but I now want to read the rest of them. It is quick paced, easy to read, lots of different elements to it which end up being linked. The story begins with the puzzling disappearance of a talented young German musician who simply just vanishes into thin air. It hooks you in and you cannot help but want to keep on reading. I like the character of Craig Gillard, the main detective in the book, he is sympathetic and a nicely rounded individual. The puzzle is linked to Gillard's past but I don't want to give anymore away. It is refreshing to read a different type of police procedural that hasn't got a grizzly policeman at its core with a multitude of personal problems. Like I said earlier, I now want to discover the rest of this series and cannot wait to read them.

I've read a couple of the other books in this series and I was looking forward to this one. I wasn't disappointed. The Body Under the Bridge is action packed, fast paced and with lots of twists and turns. There's also several threads that gets woven together nicely. I also really like the author's writing style. I would highly recommend the book (and the rest of the series).

Wow - this book certainly lived up to the hype.  When I read The Body in the Snow I ended by saying that I couldn't wait for the next Nick Louth!  Well this one was worth waiting for; his plots are remarkable _  how does he think them up?  The action   and story lines are fast moving and clever.  So I end with the same line - I can't wait until his next one -  bring it on!

My thanks to Canelo for an eARC via NetGalley of  ‘The Body Under the Bridge’ by Nick Louth in exchange for an honest review.

This is the fifth in Louth’s DCI Craig Gillard series of police procedurals. I previously read the third in the series, ‘The Body in the Mist’ last May though somehow missed Book 4, ‘The Body in the Snow’. I was able to ignore references to recent events and expect that I will read it in the near future. 

This was a fascinating case. It begins with what appears to be a routine disappearance. A gifted music student, who had been travelling back to London the previous day from Surrey, had failed to turn up for a recital. Gillard isn’t sure why he’s involved until it is revealed that the young woman’s father is the German Minister of Justice. The Home Secretary is following the case closely. So naturally everyone is on high alert. 

When CCTV covering the station and on the train seems to indicate that she boarded the train but somewhere on route vanished. It appears that they have a real locked room (or carriage) mystery. Yet, this is just the start of an extremely twisty case. No further plot details to avoid spoilers though yes a bridge is involved. 

This was astonishingly good. Even with a considerable number of characters and strands to the case, it proved quite easy for me to follow. I did note that there was a slight continuity issue concerning the fate of a minor character, though that may have been corrected for the finished edition. 

This was a totally addictive read that ramped up the suspense in the final chapters and had me perched on the edge of my seat frantically swiping the ebook pages. 

There was an intriguing preview included of Book 6, ‘The Body on the Island’. It is currently due to be published in October 2020. I can hardly wait!

I love Nick Louth's DCI Gillared. This latest DCI Gillard thriller is a fast and totally gripping tale.  Will he, won't he get there in time!

DCI Craig Gillard is called in to investigate the disappearance of musician and daughter of German Minister of Justice, Beatrice. But what starts out as a simple missing person’s case soon develops into something far more deadly, when flood waters wash out not one, but two bodies, one of whom has been missing for a number of years. And then it starts to get personal.

This is my favourite of the Nick Louth books I’ve read so far. The story was action packed from start to finish, and in spite of the number of characters involved, never got confused or repetitive. I was involved all the way through, and was keen to find out how the plot would resolve itself.  The central characters of. Craig and Sam Gillard are likeable and Craig in particular is somebody you want to succeed. Even though I was sure he’d come out on top in the end, there was still a small fear that it all could go horribly wrong, and that’s the joy of Nick Louth’s books. Nothing can ever be taken for granted,

A great read and one I thoroughly enjoyed.

I love this series. The characters are strong and the storyline always makes a compelling read. There was a lot to this story and I read it in one sitting. This is a very cleverly thought out plot. I would recommend this book and the rest of the series.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.

This book was great, but some of the characters could maybe a bit less....terse? I think that's the word I'm looking for. The storyline itself was incredible, not something I've come across before. Very well thought out and put together and you can tell this author did a high level of research to get this right.

The main character, Craig Gillard, was a strong one, he went through so much in this story and yet still remained to determined. It's hard not to say too much and give anything away but this book FEELS like it has a few different storylines but then it doesn't. I hope that makes sense.

The writing style from this author is great, very descriptive and really does pull the reader in.

Though some parts 'irked' me, I still thoroughly enjoyed this thrilling ride with DCI Craig Gillard and I may have to go back and read the others and look out for the next one!

Another excellent mystery in this series. It's gripping and entertaining, a well written story that kept me guessing till the end.
i liked the well thought cast of characters and the well crafted plot full of twists and turns.
Can't wait to read the next book in this series.
Recommended.
Many thanks to Canelo and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

The Body under the Bridge is the fifth book in a series about Surrey-based detective Craig Gillard, which I've read in order over the last year or so, and largely enjoyed, apart from some persistent niggles, mostly related to the characters. The mysteries are clever and the suspense works well, and there's enough variation between the plots to keep it interesting, but once again I was disappointed by the characters.

A month after the events of The Body in the Snow, Craig is ordered by his boss, Chief Constable Alison Rigby, to go all out on the investigation of a young  musician who has gone missing, because her father is a high-ranking German government minister, so no expense will be spared to find her. A freak flood reveals the body of a young woman in a river who was reported missing in the 1980s - so how can she still be a teenager? And who is stalking Craig and his young wife Sam?

My main criticism of some of the previous books has been that the focus has been solely on Gillard as main character, with minimal development of the rest of his team. This begins with him being pulled away from the funeral of a colleague killed in the previous book, and despite only reading that one a few months ago, I genuinely couldn't remember what had happened to him as he left so little impression. This one attempts to fix that as there's a major subplot about DI John Perry, a pitiful character having problems at home, who seems there mainly to make Craig look super-manly by comparison. 

Once again, the mystery was well done, as Louth gradually reveals clues and red herrings in equal measure, and we don't know whether the missing girl will be saved, or how she connects to the other disappearances. I do find it odd that Craig, a Detective Chief Inspector, spends so much time doing on-the-ground grunt work more usually suited to a Detective Seargent - this is sort of explained by the political pressure to have their "best man" on the job, but still felt wrong when he should've been coordinating from the top. 

The aspect of this series I find most off-putting, and it was even more obvious here, is the portrayal of women. All the female characters are either bitches, sluts, idiots, ball-breakers or victims - in Sam's case a mix of all these. The only remotely sympathetic woman is Craig's colleague and friend Claire, a nice mumsy type always ready to lend him an ear or a spare bed, but she doesn't get to do any detecting herself. Craig really loves his wife but we never really get to understand why, as she's mostly comes across as a jealous shrew who objects to him spending so much time on his much-more-important -than-hers job and seems to fill hers gossiping on the phone with her girlfriends. Even Rainy, Glaswegian doctor turned cop, is portrayed as a sort of comedy thug to be scared of for her intelligence and size rather than valued as a team member.

A major sub-plot of the past couple of books has been Craig's malicious aunt Trish, who moved in over the road to torment them, and was at least interesting as a crazy-cat-lady nemesis who kept getting one over on him, but here barely features other than to become another victim and her fate is unclear as at one point it's mentioned that she died, but then perhaps not. Craig's refusal to go and feed her pets while she's in hospital dropped my impression of him another few notches.

I finished this last night and rated it 4 stars, but left writing this until I was properly awake, and now feel I only want to give it 3, as the problems mentioned above really have left an unpleasant taste. I'm invested in this series and want to know what happens next, but would enjoy it far more if the hero were backed up by some intelligent capable female characters.

Thanks to NetGalley and Canelo for the ARC which allowed me to give an honest review. The Body under the Bridge is published on 30th April.

The Body Under The Bridge is the 5th Edition of the DCI Gillard Detective series. DCI Gillard is asked to follow up a case in which a missing young musician Beatrice Ulbricht goes missing on the train. The Mystery deepens when the police are unable to identify the Musician leave the train and the phone turns up a few days later in a City waste site. Gillard has the usual job of juggling his home life with his wife Sam and overbearing neighbour who just happens to be his Aunt as well as having his boss and the German Minister on his case.

The book had me hooked but I would have preferred fewer characters as there were a lot of characters to follow in the plot making characterisation not as effective as in previous books. I would like to have more dialogue with DCI Gillard's Aunt as in previous books Nick has created some very strong characters in the DCI's family making these books compelling.

This mystery winds through a small town and connects so many people in its chilling wake. This is a disappearance, and then a storm. Dead bodies begin to appear. Lies and deception abound in this tale full of twists and turns. It is a part of a series, however, it can stand on its own. The detectives are smart and clever and the suspects sneaky and mysterious. Bringing it all together with descriptive narration and a diverse cast.