Cover Image: Turf Wars

Turf Wars

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Capitaine Victor Coste is back in this second of Olivier Norek's Parisian crime trilogy. It's another brutal read, but vividly real, complex, and attention-grabbing. The pages will fly by.

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Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience

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I did not realise that this was a follow on book so struggled at first with the characters. Set in Paris, the book depicts the socially deprived parts of Paris, which to be fair could be set anywhere in the world.
Capitane Coste and his team find themselves at a crime scene where a man has been tortured to death in a garage.
Moving quickly on to another murder victim, the team find themselves with more questions than answers as to what is found in the victims home.
This book was a bit too descriptive in some parts but felt that it all fitted into the dark gritting thriller that it is.

The book I felt gave many sides to the story and how it affects many within the community, and I feel a sad realistic picture of how many young people are getting involved in crime.

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As in the previous book the mayhem and murder starts very quickly as a number of vacancies in the illegal narcotics trade in the notorious Malceny district arise suddenly,and bloodily, not unconnected to the ambitions of a shadowy figure keen to become the new kingpin.

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The tranquillity of a Paris suburb of a densely populated young unemployed immigrants is disturbed when three men are murdered followed by the police discovering two different lots of stored drugs awaiting distribution. From this comes a tale of the resultant conniving of the Drug Baron striving to take over the territory and how the local politicians are forced to find money to finance him. A brutal story of torture, murder, of violent riots and destruction overlaid with political skulduggery and a police investigation of the murders. A story of whole scale corruption in the pursuit of power. A rather savage and depressing read.

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This is the second in the Banlieues Trilogy, following on after The Lost and the Damned so you really should have read that first before starting this book. Them's the rules on trilogies!
So, we reconnect with Capitaine Victor Coste and his team; Sam Rowan and Johanna, who we met in book one. This time they are mostly concerned with the shenanigans going on in one of the council estates where, as the book opens, we find them musing over the death of a man, found badly tortured in a lock-up garage. It appears to be gang linked as soon after, there are more related killings found. It looks like there's a takeover on the cards. But who is involved? And more importantly, as it is designated gang related, the whole shebang is taken off Coste and his team and he is left only with the death of an old woman who was living in the same estate.
And then the riots begin... but who is fanning those flames?
I warn you, this book is a bit brutal, no punches are pulled and even I, a veritable aficionado, and lover of all things gritty crime, winced at one scene which really is particularly nasty and upsetting. It's also a bit interconnected and convoluted and had me spinning around, chasing my tail as I tried to work out what in the heck was going on.
I am not sure whether it is that I am more familiar with the characters, setting and style of writing of the author but, where I struggled with the translation of the first book, I had no such issues with this one. Yes there were things I didn’t quite understand about the French judiciary system but I was better able to guess, accept and move on.
As I get to know Victor and his team better, I can only love them more. An eclectic mix of characters but their differences really are their strengths. As with the previous book, the tension is high throughout and the descriptions of what happens pretty brutal so the author needs the banter between them to lighten the mood along the way and he manages to do this very well. It’s a warts and all peek into life on a sink estate and all that entails with drugs, gangs and, well, I’ll leave you to discover all the rest of it.
All that’s left now is sit back patiently and wait for book three which I hope will not be too long coming.
My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

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What a follow up! It's gritty and dark and horrifying, yet I could not stop reading. Capitaine Coste and his team are back, and I enjoyed seeing them - their dynamics and banter provided a little light relief. With assassinations, corruption, drug dealing and riots, this is a tension filled read. I can't wait to read read the third in the trilogy!

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This is Olivier Norek's follow up to his superb French translated The Lost and the Damned, the second in his Banlieus trilogy that feature the equivalent of socially deprived, no-go council estates in Paris. Norek is a writer on the brilliant TV crime series, Spiral, and his work is informed by his extensive experience as a police officer. Capitaine Victor Coste, and his team of Lieutenant Ronan Scaglia, the now established Johanna De Ritter, and techie Sam Dorfrey, of the Seine Saint-Denis Police Judiciare, find themselves at the scene at the death of a man badly tortured in a lock up garage. This is part of the gang warfare that has involved the assassination of two other gang leaders, there is now a new, ruthless aspiring crime kingpin with plans of taking over their territories in the notorious Malceny district.

Coste and the team are not to be involved in the case, instead they focus their attention on the death of the elderly Rose Carpentier, whose home yields some surprising contents for the police. There are unedifying political machinations, underhand bids to gain votes, connections and co-option of criminal elements from the estates, and corruption, and Mayor Andrea Vesperini, the Queen, is seeking re-election and is willing to do whatever it takes to extend her reign. The criminal drug gangs have been using elderly residents homes to stash their drugs and money, a shocking discovery for the police who had never suspected this. The new drug lord is using teenage enforcers, led by a brutally violent 12 year old boy, Bibz, a product of life on the estates and a dysfunctional family. Coste is forced to turn maverick to protect an old man that others in the police wish to use as bait, as deadly and devastating riots erupt.

This Euro-Crime series is not for the faint hearted, it is gritty, littered with grisly murders, and I should warn readers there are some unbearably grim animal abuse scenes with what is done to a pet cat. Norek provides a pertinent political and social commentary on French politics and policing, race, religion, the consequences of the high levels of social deprivation on the estates, and the community's economic reliance on money coming in from the drug trade, the only option available to them. This comes at a high cost with the criminalising of the community, with politicians all too willing to exploit them, a disenchanted and volatile youth with no future and the end product of which results in hardened youngsters like Bibz, who have little expectation of living to old age. This is not a crime read for everyone, but this is one of the best crime series around, utterly compulsive and informative, with great realistic characters, an engaging read with plenty of dark humour. Highly recommended. Many thanks to the publisher for an ARC.

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This is a very grim and gritty read. Set in Paris, I never realised it is part of a series and struggled with the characters at first. The scene involving the cat really put me off and that finished the read for me. If you love animals, I don't recommend the book. Not one for me. Thanks to Net Galley for my ARC.

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Turf Wars is the second book in Olivier Norek's Baneleues trilogy. The first book, The Lost and the Damned introduced Capitaine Victor Coste' and his motley crew of cynical ,rule-bending,smart-talking Parisian Cops, the testosterone-fuelled Ronan, geeky and timid Sam and Johanna the Amazon.
The crew operate in and around the sink estates of the Paris the guide books don't talk about ,where gangs rule,drug dealing is the only growth industry and those on the margins of society are shunted out of sight and mind by the authorities.
As in the previous book the mayhem and murder starts very quickly as a number of vacancies in the illegal narcotics trade in the notorious Malceny district arise suddenly,and bloodily, not unconnected to the ambitions of a shadowy figure keen to become the new kingpin.
Olivier Norek is a former Paris policeman which gives his books the kind of insight into the Police and the job do that only someone who has "been there,done that" can give. Just as cynical as his characters are his own views on things like the unexpected role drugs play in the Parisian ghettos and the corrupt and dishonest politicians that both play a part in the tale . His books are always thought-provoking as well as entertaining.
Once again a great read from Olivier Norek, please be aware though that there is a lot of explicit violence and scenes that might make you wince............cat lovers should definitely give this one a miss.
A superb action-packed book with some great characters and plenty of dark humour.....but not for the squeamish. I can't wait for the next in the series.

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I would like to thank Netgalley and Quercus Books for an advance copy of Turf Wars, the second novel in the Banlieues trilogy to feature Capitaine Victor Coste of the Seine Saint-Denis Police Judiciaire.

Victor and his team are called out to the torture and murder of a drug dealer, but as it’s part of a series, they hand the case off and concentrate on the death of pensioner, Rose Carpentier. Unfortunately there is a new drugs kingpin in the Malceny district and his efforts to gain control lead to mayhem.

I thoroughly enjoyed Turf Wars, which is a tough, take no prisoners tale of crime and policing in the deprived housing estates of Paris’s suburbs. It is uncompromising in its take and may not be for every reader, but I loved its realism and unsentimentality.

The novel is told from various points of view with each side offering their approach to life in the suburbs, so there is Victor and his team, the mayor, the juvenile enforcer and a few others. The social commentary is eye opening, not just the corruption or the violence, but the other issues covered, like drug dealing and its profits putting much needed money into the local economy. I found the novel extremely informative in this area.

It opens with an assassination and doesn’t seem to slow down from there, encompassing more deaths, departmental infighting, elderly stash holders, corruption at the town hall and a riot. There is hardly time to breathe between events and, yet, there is time for romance and a big dollop of humour. It made me laugh on more than one occasion. I also thought that the riot scenes were particularly well done with the fear and tension ratcheted up.

Turf Wars with its scope and excellent writing is one of the best books I have read this year, so I have no hesitation in recommending it as a good read.

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This is the second book in the Banlieues trilogy featuring Capitaine Victor Coste and it’s just as good as the first book “The Lost and the Damned”.
Once more we have a gritty story with no holds barred descriptions that moves a a fair old pace with a terrific ending I didn’t expect. It’s a crime story that all lovers of police procedurals will love full of information and a damn good plot line that feels so real and I think that’s what makes these books stand out.
The team is back with Coste at the forefront and are just excellent and likeable dealing with riots , drug dealing and more on an estate that the police risk entering especially when the gangs are in a vicious and deadly turf war.
I loved the book it was again as was the first a book I couldn’t put down and roll on the next in the series.
Highly recommended and many thanks to Olivier Norek and the translator Nick Caistor..
My thanks also to NetGalley and Quercus Books, MacLehose Press for giving me the chance to read the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

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*4.5 stars*

French author Olivier Norek, was a policeman, serving for 18 years and eventually rising to the rank of captain in the Seine-Saint-Denis district of Paris , where his Banlieues Trilogy is set.

This follow up to the gripping ‘The Lost and the Damned’, ‘Turf Wars’ takes us back to the notoriously dangerous Malceny estate, and to the murder of three drug dealers - someone is clearly intending to take over this territory. Capitaine Victor Coste and his team think that they’re going to take a backseat in this investigation, but how wrong they are!

Innocent people on the estate are dragged unwillingly into the drug dealers turf wars, being used as stash minders, some of them elderly and unable and too frightened to refuse, leading to some horrific encounters.
Some of the dealers involved in the drugs trade are barely into their teens, but make no mistake, regardless of their age, these are vicious killers.

With a local Mayor, who’s ambitions are such, that she is prepared to turn to crime in order to fund and secure her a second term, you can be sure that the murky world of politics adds much to the storyline.

*Animal abuse warning * For all animal lovers, there’s a scene involving a cat that I had to skim quickly past, I wouldn’t read it*

Grim, gritty, but utterly compelling. Norek’s previous career within the police force, in this very location, is evidence for its authenticity. Highly recommended.

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Just when you thought crime novels couldnt get any grittier, along comes Olivier Norek with The Babnlieues Trilogy, this is crime fiction not for the fainthearted, it is intelligent, realistic, darkly disturbing but most of all it's one of the best crime series out at the moment. This is the sequel to the heartstopping The Lost and the Damned and takes us back to the dangerous world in which Capitaine Victor Coste and his team inhabit. Once again we hit the floor running, with the murders of 3 drug dealers on the notorious Malceny estate, Coste's team at first think they are not going to get too heavily involved in the investigation, how wrong could they be! Coste finds himself dealing with elderly drug minders, vicious teen killers and a mayor who uses crime to fund her political ambitions.

Norek serves up realistic, explosive crime noir which gives you a rollercoaster of a read. This series is a true successor to Stieg Larsson's Millenium trilogy. A must....must read!

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There's a new kingpin in charge and his using everything he can to keep a tight grip on his territory.
The mayor who knows the underworld very well is willing to make a pact with the devil to get her 3rd term in office.
Capitaine Coste and his team are on hand to prevent an elderly stash minder being used as bait even if they have to break the rules along the way.
The 2nd novel from Oliver Norek is perfect if you like your reads gritty and fast paced.
Thanks to Netgalley and Quercus books for the ARC

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