A seemingly routine Missing Person investigation is passed to the DCI and he soon finds out why - her father is a German Government minister.  The early stages of the investigation lead nowhere although it seems the perpetrator is going to a lot of trouble to confuse the investigation.  The a body appears in a swollen river trapped in a car under a bridge.  Soon we are in a rapidly moving race to find the killer before more deaths happen.  It's quite unputdownable, don't start it when you have something else to do because you won't want to stop reading before the end.  Another good outing for DCI Gillard.

The most complex story yet, multiple murders and strange messages and people being in two places at once and technology playing silly games it would seem.
So many things combine into a massive case that encompasses many others, some being 30 years old and more. And family loyalties and secrets are at the heart of the mystery. It seems that there are more secrets than you can imagine and someone is playing participants against each other and using some secrets against them.
A well crafted story/plot but a little bit Miss Marples/Agatha Kristy in that I wondered if the author had actually planned the whole story/plot or that he had decided how each sub plot was to end on the ‘fly’ as Agatha is rumoured to have done. Including her Red Herrings of course...
A 5 if you can keep the  whole plot in your head without notes, a 4 if you need to take notes to remember the names and cases.

When the daughter of a German politician disappears on her way back to London from Surrey where she has been giving a musical recital DCI Craig Gillard has been called in to investigate by his Chief Constable. A number of murders , a kidnapping and a cold case start to become entangled in the case when heavy rainfall causes the river to flood bringing bodies to the surface. This case then becomes personal and there seems no end to the mysteries.
Another book in the Craig Gillard series that gets better as the series evolves. There are many surprises and twists in this book making it difficult to put down. A really enjoyable read , looking forward to the next in the series.

Thoroughly good murder mystery. Good characters and a fast moving storyline with lots of twists and turns.

DCI Gillard triumphs again after much twisting and turning, and this time, his wife is at the heart of the story. From seemingly unconnected events, to uncovering a trail of deceit, death and destruction, this is another page turner from Nick Louth. I loved it!

Book 5 of the DCI Craig Gillard series and another good one. A musician goes missing and at first the main reason for Gillard's team's inclusion seems to be that her father was the German Minister of Justice. Not that simple of course as the team try very hard to trace her on what seemed like a straightforward train journey. It wasn't.  You felt the police frustration as yet another clue petered out. What was going on? Adding to the mix, a fierce storm, bodies piling up under bridges, old murder cases, freezers, adultery and perversion leads to a complex case for Gillard which turns personal with the abduction of his beloved wife, Sam. It does come out in the wash at the end but leaves his team in a bit of a pickle and he and his wife definitely traumatised. They need a break somewhere sunny and remote before he moves on to his next case. Thanks to NetGalley and Canelo for an advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

DCI Craig Gillard was annoyed to be pulled away from the funeral service for a serving police officer, particularly when he discovered that he was to take charge of the enquiry into a missing woman. Beatrice Ulbricht was twenty-five years old and a student of music at the Royal College of Music. She had been due to play with the other members of the Lysander String Quartet at the Church of St Martin-in-the-Fields but hadn't turned up. Gillard didn't understand why his immediate involvement was necessary until Chief Constable Alison Rigby explained that Beatrice's father was Karl-Otto Ulbricht, Germany's Minister of Justice.

The fact that Beatrice was missing had been reported by Karen Ellsworth, another member of the quartet. They'd accepted a late booking at the weekend to play at a wedding and Beatrice had texted the other musicians to say that she was on the train and on her way back to London, but had never arrived. CCTV on the train showed her moving from one carriage to another, but then she became untraceable.

DI John Perry found that his private life was collapsing around him. His wife openly admitted that she was having an affair and his daughter only seemed to speak to him when she wanted to offend him. Work was almost a relief for him. PC Lynne Fairbanks was finding temptations at work too: she couldn't quite define whether Kyle Halliday was a victim or a witness, but he was certainly very tempting. Craig Gillard had a different problem: he began by feeling that he was running the case, but then realised that he was at the centre of it and possibly even the target.

I first encountered DCI Gillard when I read The Body in the Mist and was sufficiently taken with the character to snap up the chance of reading The Body Under the Bridge and I'm glad that I did as I wouldn't have missed this book for anything. Nick Louth handles a large cast of characters with aplomb. I was surprised by the number of policemen and women who come off the page fully clothed (or not - but we won't go into that here). Most authors of police procedurals seem to have embraced the cuts to police forces and their Major Incident Teams are skimpy, to say the least. It's a big cast of characters all round and I felt that I knew every one of them.

The plot is twisty: I thought I had it sorted out pretty early on and was reading with a very smug look on my face, only to find that I'd been looking at the situation very superficially and it was a great deal more complicated than I thought. After that, I couldn't turn the pages quickly enough, firstly to find out who'd committed the crimes and then if they'd be brought to justice. It's a cracker of a book and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I'd like to thank the publishers for letting Bookbag have a review copy.

The Body Under The Bridge.  Nick Louth

DCI Craig Gillard is a detective in the Surrey Police. As the main character in a series of books by Nick Louth I’ve come to enjoy the character, and like all series his story ticks along throughout. Unlike many other series though, they only play a minor part of the books, which allows each of them to be read individually without deterring from the main plot.

This instalment sees Gillard trying to crack an unfathomable crime. A young woman, the daughter of a German Cabinet Minister, has gone missing. She is not underage, nor does she appear vulnerable, in fact far from it. She is the lead violin in a string quartet and an accomplished performer on stage, she is also trained in self defense. But as the daughter of a foreign diplomat pressure is put on the Police to find her.

The strange thing is that the investigation uncovers images of her on a commuter train to London, then she just disappears between stops. Her phone coverage continues but when  it’s traced only leads to more confusion.

Meanwhile one of the Detective Inspectors under Gillard’s command finds out his wife is having an affair and takes his eye-off-the-ball during the investigation to uncover his wife’s infidelity. A distraction he, Gillard, and the rest of the team could do without.

As the investigation continues a storm hits the South East of England, and the ensuing floods lead to the discovery of more dead people, not all of who have died as a result of the storm.

This book is a great read. It rattles along at a hectic pace and just when you think you have it sussed, it wriggles down another route, until the last few pages unveil a brilliant conclusion.

Nick Louth is the only author I’ve come across that has used the floods that the UK suffered in 2019 and 2020 as tool for his story, and it works really well. In fact it raised some good questions in my mind……but I won’t share them for fear of spoiling the book. Needless to say this is right up my alley and I spent hours navigating Google to see if anything like this has happened in the real world.

As I write this blog we are in week 3 of “self-solation” during the Covid19 virus outbreak. I wonder if this will feature in future books. If it does I wouldn’t be surprised to see Nick Louth being one of the first, and no doubt using it to great effect.

Pages: 288
Publisher: Canelo
Publishing Date: 30 April 2020, Available to pre-order on the usual sites.

Straightforward police procedural that has plenty to hold the interest. Some very nice characters to engage with some of whom will carry over to the next book, I’m sure.

Paced well and thoroughly enjoyable

I received a copy of this novel from the publisher via NetGalley.

3.5* rounded down.

This is part of a series, but stands well on its own (I haven't read the earlier instalments). It started off as a straight police procedural, but half way through turned into more of a thriller/adventure story. The ending made sense, but only if you accepted the perpetrator had superhuman sexual stamina, extraordinary levels of deviousness and organisation, and an ability to carry a grudge for three years. I may be alone in this, but I would happily read police procedurals where the detectives' families were not drawn into the plot and did not suffer extreme peril. I doubt it ever happens in real life!

When a musician disappears on a train heading into London, DCI Craig Gillard wonders why he is involved in a missing persons case. All is revealed when he discovers that the woman's father is the German Minister of Justice and that this threatens to be a very high profile case. All is not what it seems, however, and soon Craig finds himself battling with a particularly sadistic killer - one who has his eyes set on the detective himself. This case has suddenly got very personal...

This, the fifth in the series, sees the detective taking on one of his most complex cases so far. I was drawn in from the start and loved how when I thought I knew in which direction the plot was going, Nick Louth completely changed tack, yet always managing to make the story flow coherently. Initially, what looks like a missing person case, very much in the vein of Hitchcock's The Lady Vanishes, soon becomes a much bigger case involving subterfuge and murder and a killer with a grudge he believes he has to settle.

There are numerous shocking moments in The Body Under The Bridge, many of which I did not see coming at all. It soon became apparent that there was a shadowy character lurking in the background and that they had taken on many guises, but who was this person? I loved how Nick Louth built up this character's involvement, without us ever knowing who they were, leaving me shocked when all was revealed. It was scary to see how many people fell under this character's spell and there were several moments where I feared (quite rightly!) for the people they interacted with.

In amongst these shocks, there was one moment where my opinions of a character from previous books changed completely. If you have read the previous books in the series, you will be familiar with Craig's auntie Trish, a fascinating if rather unhinged character. No spoilers, but her actions in this book genuinely surprised me and I'm looking forward to seeing how Craig reacts to these events in the next book.

Another excellent twisty police tale from Nick Louth, filled with real people on both sides of the law. The nasties depicted here are nasty enough and are described well enough that I would not want to meet them in daylight, let alone when the sun goes down. I really do not want to even hint at the details and so will conclude by saying this is likely a book to read during the day but read it you must.

The fifth in ‘The Body’ series featuring  DCI Craig Gillard. A concert musician, Beatrice Ulbricht, disappears on her way to London to perform in a concert. Gillard is put on the case once they find out the missing girl is the daughter of a German Diplomat. A truly baffling case and Gillard has his trusty team to help him. A real page turner, as there are lots of twists and turns affecting nearly everyone Craig Gillard knows. I loved this novel with it’s police procedures and cannot wait for the next one. Put this on your reading list!!

I found the book to be very entertaining. The plot was gripping and moved along well. I would read other titles by the author and would reccomend this book to others.

A great addition to the series, DCI Craig Gillard realises it must be something important when all stops are pulled out to find the whereabouts of a young concert violinist when she goes missing on a journey to London. She has been missing for less than 24 hours and the last contact was a text message to one of her friends that she was meeting in London. Gillard is called in by the top brass who explains that the girls farther is a German diplomat and that they must act without delay to find her, This is easier said than done because CCTV would suggest that she has vanished into thin air. There is so much to this book with lots of twists and turns, I can highly recommend to fans of fast-paced police procedural books.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Canelo for an advance copy of The Body under The Bridge, the fifth novel to feature DCI Craig Gillard of the Surrey Police.

When musician Beatrice Ulbricht disappears from a crowded train Gillard fumes about time and resources until he learns that Beatrice is the daughter of the German Justice Minister and that there are a lot of eyes on his investigation. With no time and all the resources he could want it soon becomes apparent that the perpetrator is making the case personal to Gillard.

I enjoyed The Body under The Bridge which is an intricately plotted police procedural with a nasty perpetrator and a few good twists. The novel is told mostly from the investigative point of view and mostly Gillard’s so there are scant hints of the perpetrator’s identity or motivation, allowing the reader plenty of scope for guesswork and speculation. Don’t get me wrong, I was glued to the pages throughout as it is a good read with enough going on to hold the interest but I can’t help feeling that it was a bit writing by numbers and contrived, the way so many characters were linked to the perpetrator, his Machiavellian planning and the happenstance that revealed his plans. I think it lacked a little emotion despite the personal nature of many of the events. I’m not sure that it really matters as this is a plot driven novel, it’s just something I noticed.

As I said it’s a plot driven novel so the characters don’t get much development. They are marginally more vivid when events turn personal but still tend to be overshadowed by events.

The Body under The Bridge is a good read that I can recommend.

Excellent. This was another very good novel by Nick Louth, it was fast moving and had multiple plots going on. I really enjoyed it and would recommend it for anyone who likes thrillers. To say any more would give the plot away.

The Body Under the Bridge is the 5th instalment in the DCI Craig Gillard series. Whilst you can read it as a standalone I would highly recommend reading all four previous books as there are a lot or reoccurring characters and I believe it helps to connect with the story more. 

We begin with Craig investigating a missing musician which soon turns into a multiple murder case intertwined with a cold case, car theft and kidnapping! It's safe to say that he has his hands full. He has his usual team with him and as always they provide much needed support throughout. I enjoyed the addition of John Perry and his family, especially Mel. Whilst I may not of agreed with her initial actions I thought she was very gutsy at the end and found myself cheering for her. 

With every addition to the series I start to feel like part of the team; I'm in the cars when they are chasing down the killers, I fell their pain when they lose a member of their team. For five books now I have watched Craig and Sam's relationship evolve and obviously I felt for both of them this time round but in particular I felt for Sam. I think this woman needs a bit of a break and maybe something good to happen in the next instalment.

Yes that's right there will be a sixth book! Nick Louth has treated us with a little excerpt at the end of this book and I can not wait. The Body on the Island is out later this year so keep your eyes peeled, I know I will be. 

What I love about Nick Louth's books is the attention to detail. I never seem to have any questions when I've reached the end and I'm never confused about the technical jargon. He manages to explain everything clearly and thoroughly without being patronising or taking away from the flow of the read. I say this every time but this hands down is my favourite book in the series so far. I was glued from the beginning and kept finding ways to squeeze in one more chapter until I'd reached the end. To make things even better this book is being released on my birthday and I couldn't think of a better book to share my day with!

Thank you to Canelo and Nick Louth for another great read. I look forward to the next one!

A musician disappears, seemingly from a train. How?

It doesn't help that her father is a senior German minister, and the Home Secretary is now on the case too.

But while trying to solve the case, DCI Gillard becomes a target

When a young woman gets on a train to London and disappears without trace Detective Chief Inspector Craig Gillard has no idea how traumatic an investigation it is going to become. How could someone, tracked on CCTV and spotted sitting quietly with a violin on her lap, not arrive at her destination? When a massive clue is revealed by the girl's father Gillard begins to believe this could be more than a missing person's case and starts to fear for the safety of the gifted musician. 

I am a huge fan of Nick Louth's Craig Gillard series and this is definitely the best so far. The way the case begins with a missing person but quickly becomes far more than that, involving other police departments immediately grabs the reader's attention and doesn't let go. There were quite a few 'oh!' moments where I was totally surprised by unexpected happenings. Without giving any spoilers the way some of the main characters refused right to the end to believe what and who they had become involved with was a startling, scary, and, I expect, very realistic occurrence. 

Craig Gillard isn't a super detective, he works through the clues to get to what he hopes will be a satisfactory outcome, he is sympathetically written and carries the reader with him throughout never blinding them with science or making hard to believe discoveries with very little effort. 

There is a familiarity now with the main characters in and out of the police force, all of them are well rounded, realistically drawn and the cases ever more detailed and complex. A sneak peak at the next book is included at the end and although none of the police officers are mentioned I am hopeful of at least one more book in this outstanding series. 

I was able to read an advanced copy of this book thanks to NetGalley and the publishers in exchange for an unbiased review and would recommend it to anyone who has enjoyed the previous books or anyone who wants an excellent police procedural.