This is a confident literary crime novel that gets better and better as the story progresses. I really enjoyed it.

It is a story of crime, family, friends and their relationships, set against the background of the 1984 miners’ strike in the UK. Ian is in the police, running away from everything. His brother Stephen is on the strike picket line. Childhood friends remain close by, and everyone has secrets.

Literary crime fiction means that this is a character-driven novel. Yes, there are mysteries and crimes, and these are investigated, but the focus is on the characters; what they feel, what troubles them and what motivates them. This works very well for me as an approach for a story like this.

The writing is strong, and I love how the relationships between the characters develop over the story.

The novel also provides a fascinating insight into a key time in British social and industrial history a little over forty years ago, and shows how it impacted families.

I recommend this one for a thoughtful read, and look forward to the rest of this planned trilogy, covering future decades.

You might like this if you like Kate Atkinson, Tana French or Jane Harper.

A good gritty crime thriller novel. This is a strong start to the Stoke Rising series that is set in the 1984 miners’ strike. This forces family alliances to the limit when Ian’s childhood friend is murdered he then takes up a role he thought he had long left behind of serious crime detective. A great read.

Stoke 1984.
This story has its origins in 1959 when tragedy strikes a family which will never be the same again. Fast forward to 1984, DC Ian Weedon has been running from his past since a young boy. Initially, his police duties take him to Liverpool and serious crime but he now serves in rural Staffordshire as a local bobby. Meanwhile, his brother Stephen is heavily involved with the miners strike and is on the forefront of the picket lines. This is police locally, reinforced by the Met. The Staffordshire force is stretched to the limit and when one of Ian‘s childhood friends is brutally murdered, he is reluctantly drafted in to the investigation. He now has to face his past, even more so with problems for his family deepening, when Stephen’s son Christopher goes missing.

This is a complex and very well written novel which I enjoy very much. It’s set against the backdrop of the bitter miners strike and whilst I think it does help to know something about it, five minutes or so on the Internet would cover the background. It’s obvious the author has done a huge amount of research because the book feels so authentic. It’s really excellent on atmosphere, capturing the divisive aspects of the strike and the tensions are there for all to see. It’s written so vividly you can almost feel them. It deeply affects Ian’s family which is conveyed well.

Although it is set in the 1980s, the plot feels fresh as the issues here (apart from the strike obviously) are current. Drugs and county lines, community issues that are similar to today, racism, homophobia, corruption and OCG’s – it’s all here and so it’s apt and appropriate.

I think the author does a good job on various plays on Black Earth, deep in the coal mines being the obvious one but there’s dark Stoke, dark Liverpool, dark characters, dark pasts etc etc. This is a very strong aspect of the plot.

Although most of the novel is set in 1984, it backtracks to two other timelines to show the connections and the roots of what plays out in that year. It does slow the pace a bit but I don’t mind as it makes it all click into place. Many of the characters have a huge amount of baggage, Ian for example, but some other characters are tortured souls for one reason or another. There are quite a lot of characters, but I sort them out eventually!

It’s tense, it twists, it turns, it makes me think and keeps my interest throughout. Overall, it’s a very good literary mystery/crime novel. I think this is the start of a trilogy and I look forward to the next two.

With thanks to NetGalley and especially to. Firefinch Publishing for the much appreciated early copy in return for an honest review.