Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review. This was a creative and absorbing tale! If a little slow in places…Definitely recommend this one!

John Corey is one of my favourite fictional characters so I was excited to dive into The Maze and it didn't disappoint.

The Maze is a twisty thriller with its wise cracking, utterly entertaining main protagonist getting into all sorts of trouble as ever. Bad guys really shouldn't go up against Corey who's devil may care attitude gets him both in and out of hot water on a regular basis.

Loved this. A binge read that works on many levels. I recommend this whole series.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Little, Brown Book Group UK for an advance copy of The Maze, the eighth novel to feature former NYPD homicide detective John Corey, set in Long Island.

I may have read Plum Island way back in the dim and distant past but I have no memory of it, so functionally this is first John Corey novel and it will be my last. To be fair, the plot is slow but acceptable once it gets going at about the 40% mark, but that’s about the best I can come up with in terms of positives.

The problem lies in the character of John Corey. He may be a smart if reckless detective, but his twentieth century locker room talk (I think that is the correct term) is offensive in the twenty-first. The novel is told in the first person so the reader spends the first 40% of the novel up close and personal with his views. He objectifies women and seems to view the younger ones as future conquests - I don’t even want to talk about him calling a woman a “hot number”. He has little respect for smart, intelligent women if they are not in his bed and it’s all passed off as humour. In short he’s obnoxious. I’m not an engaged feminist but I can recognise misogyny when I see it.

I have enjoyed previous books in the John Corey series but this one, not so much. Told in the first person, the pace is slow, not much action and Corey comes over as extremely offensive to women. The plot had promise but quickly descended into an unbelievable farce with a very disappointing ending. There were, however, touches of humour throughout the read. Thanks to Net Galley for my ARC.