As the Crow Flies by Damien Boyd

In Damien Boyd's As the Crow Flies, the first installment in the DI Nick Dixon thriller series, he made a smashing thriller debut in 2014. DI Nick Dixon is a young rising star for the Metropolitan Police Station in Avon-Somerset, England. During his first case with the Criminal Investigation Department, we'll get to know about his background, when he learned about the death of his former climbing partner, Jake Fayter, who had fallen from climbing a rock wall named As the Crow Flies in Burnham-on-Sea. While he worked on an empty building burglary case with the CID, he investigated Jake's death by interviewing Jake's family and girlfriend. He interviewed eyewitnesses, inspected the rock climbing equipment, and went to the scene of the crime to check it out.

DI Nick Dixon also looked through Jake's stuff and made some shocking discoveries about his late friend. He learned how Jake was a rock climbing enthusiastic, and also had shady dealings with drugs and had stolen rare bird eggs to sell to the highest bidder in the Middle East. Nick also had a bit of chemistry with DI Jane Winter, when sparks started to fly between them too as they worked on the case. As Nick dug closer to the truth on Jake's death, he eyed a potential person of interest, who later wound up murdered himself. Dixon wondered if Nick's death was an accident, suicide or murder. In the end, he discovered the shocking true identity of the culprit, that would blow you away on the reason why.

Damien Boyd had written his first short story featuring DI Nick Dixon, Drop Dead, which was recently serialized in the Mid Somerset Gazette, Wells Journals, and other associated newspapers in 2013. Now it had been optioned for his fifth book in the series.

‘…this is a great new writer…looking forward to more books written by Damien Boyd, great stories well written, would make a good TV series.’

‘I am in awe of the research the author appears to have done in preparation for these stories.’

‘What a truly fantastic read. So good I was unable to put the book down…’

In January 2015, I was intrigued by the title and the cover art, when I selected it for Netgalley to be my first e-arc request. The blurb on the book cover had caught my eye: "Rock climbing is now also a blood sport." I had I loved the English settings and impressed by all of the knowledge about rock climbing on real rock walls. I loved how Nick interacted with his fellow policemen and superiors, while he reacted well while under pressure and had taken care of another ongoing case. This thriller author I would be reading more in the future. His thriller series is something to be on the lookout for, too.

I would love to rock climb someday. It would be something I would try on the artificial rock walls and start my training there. Damien Boyd had done his research well in the dangerous sport of rock climbing from the terms and lingo, the equipment and the popular rock walls that people climb on in the area. This was really a must-read for all thriller readers.

Damien Boyd is a solicitor and a crime fiction writer. While drawing from his extensive experience of criminal law as well as in the Crown Protection Service, Damien writers fast-paced crime thrillers.

I would recommend this thriller for those who love you love fast-paced thrillers with tons of action and dealt with an extreme sport for the theme of the series. You would fall in love with Nick Dixon and become hooked into his world of criminal investigating, too. This is an ebook you couldn't put down, whether you're reading it on your Kindle, Nook, Sony e-reader or on the computer. It comes out on January 20th, 2015 via Amazon Digital Publishing and Thomas & Mercer. It's worth a good steal of a buy. If you have Kindle Unlimited, you can read it for free. You can also pre-order it now and read it next week.

The other books in the DI Nick Dixon crime series are as followed with some information: Head in the Sand, which deals with a severed hand found in the sand of a gold course, Kickback, which deals with the death of a trainee jockey, who was kicked to death, and the newest one, Swansong, which deals with the death of a 6th form student, which comes out on April 7th, 2015.