A Winter Of Blood: A powerful British detective crime thriller. (The DCI Cook Murder Mystery Series. Book 1)

I have read all his DCI Freya books and was delighted to see this new series, but reviews were not brilliant. Anyway, it is without doubt his best book to date. Jack Cartwright is, in my opinion, the best writer of mystery murders that I have ever read. A 6 hour read without stopping!! My kindle ran out of power, but I had to read on, so changed to my iPad. Great story, wonderful characters and a super ending. Well done Jack!!

This is a very good start to a new series. As expected, we get to see a new partnership in the police and finally at the end get to know a bit about their background. I look forward to seeing how this duo of Cook and Devon develop in future books.As for the story, I found it quite riveting. The Dickens are really a horrible family and when there is a kidnapping and a killing, I found their behaviour despicable. Just when I thought everything was sorted, the reveal at the end caught me by surprise. Roll on the next book.

Having read every book so far in The Wild Fens Murder Mysteries i was delighted that Jack Cartwright was writing a new DCI Cook murder Mysteries series. They are just as good once I start the book it’s difficult to put down. Excellent story lines and the Mystery keeps you glued to the last page and looking forward to the next release.

Thus is different from the wild Fens, it seems more serious than the other books, dci cook and his colleague dc Devon are an intriguing pair each with their own secrets that by the time the book ends they both have started to share, the plot has many twists that keep you guessing to 'who dun it' almost to the last few lines a brilliant read that kept me turning the pages until I had finished 10/10 .... can't wait for next book to see how these pair rub together in solving their next case. Good to see the links between wild Fens with reference to 'standing' and the CSIs and pathologist who would naturally deal within the whole area

This is a good story, well told, but the characters are so dull and unlikable. I found it hard going and nearly gave up on it several times. But, it had enough to make me keep going and I did finish it so 3 stars.

I feel uncertain about how to review this book.I liked the author's Wild Fens series very much. But there are only two main characters in A Winter Of Blood. Somehow the eventual ending seemed contrived. There isn't any humour to speak of. And, as usual with crime thrillers, the author insists on repeating information (either to remind readers or to pad out the book - I know not which).DCI Cook and his DC, Devon, are well-drawn characters, both with backgrounds that haunt them (which detective thriller character hasn't?). They bounce ideas off each other and Devon rebuilds her self-confidence.I have only awarded four stars because this is the first book in a series. Obviously Jack Cartwright intends to begin a series, and he has introductory work to do. I'm not at all sure if I'll be reading any more of DCI Cook however.

Really good story, with more twists than a country lane by a mile, and I STILL didn’t see the final bit until the end.On to Book 2 in the series I think…. can’t wait!

I don't usually care much for odd-ball detectives, their problems tend to spoil the crime solving, but the author of this murder-mystery has got the balance about right.A well-plotted yarn, filled with misdirection, complete with a surprise ending, what's not to like, a thoroughly good read.

The author builds the characters so you envenison them as real breathing people. Story twist and turns before you know it the ending is totally different than what you thought it be. You can see the mansions architecture. Great story telling. Just awesome.

I found it a slow start but soon got into the story. It was well worth persevering as it is a brilliant page turner right to the unexpected end. Definitely recommend reading this one.

I took this book to bed with me intending to read a couple of chapters before going to sleep. Thirty chapters later I was able to put it down, but only because my eyes were crossing. After a brief nap I gobbled down the other thirty-one chapters.I love me a good dysfunctional family story and this fits the bill. There is dysfunction at all levels. The family of the victims, the family of the MMC, and the "family" of the newly formed police investigative squad.Everybody has secrets. Some benign, some scandalous, and some quite dark. The trick is to ferret out what any one of the characters would be willing to do to protect those secrets.I'm looking forward to to the next book in this new series.

As soon as I started reading this I didn't like the writing. Don't know why (I'm no writer) but it just annoyed me. Stopped at 25%.

The basic characters and settings might have made a reasonable book, but this author has no concept of going back over his writing and removing the extraneous. If there was an editor involved, she/he should look for another line of work. Tiresome.