Blind Alley Review

Blind Alley by Danielle Ramsay

Rating: 5/5

Source: Bought from Amazon 

Released: 27th February 2014

DI Brady is riding high after the successful outcome of his previous case, but his world is about to come crashing down. 

There's a serial rapist plaguing the streets of Whitley Bay. Three young women have been horribly abused, and his boss and the press are screaming for answers. Everything seems to point to his old friend and foe, gangster Martin Madley, though Brady still struggles to believe he's capable of such acts. 

With time running out before the villain strikes again, Brady must follow every scrap of evidence. But there are forces at work he knows nothing about, and his persistence is leading both him and those close to him ever further into danger.

Blind Alley is the third book the Inspector Jack Brady series, set a year after the first book and six months after the second. Not a whole lot has changed for Jack, his life is still complicated, his ex wife is still his ex wife and Conrad still hasn't given up on him. What has changed is that DCI Gates doesn't think that Jack is a complete waste of space following the success of his last case, which only piles on the pressure for catching the rapist terrorising Whitley Bay quickly. 

As well as being a dark and gripping crime novel, Blind Alley is another well developed chapter into protagonist, Jack Brady's, life. A common theme of Brady's personality is his unfortunate ability to hurt those who care most about him. We saw it over the course of the first two books in the series with Claudia, Jack's ex-wife and as of Vanishing Point, Conrad was shot protecting Brady and Madley wants nothing to do with him following the betrayal by Jack's brother, Nick.  

Right from the first few chapters these things seem to really affect Jack, he's upset that his friend of thirty years won't give him the time of day and that his loyal deputy is still recovering six months after being shot. Jack Brady is the definition of self destructive, he's even unable to give up smoking for more than five days at a time. He does show remorse for what has happened over the year that spans the first three books of the series, Danielle Ramsay writes Jack Brady as a public nuisance you can't help but be drawn to.  

Jack's problems seem to boil down to him being unable to let go of the past. Jack has been trying to keep his old friends and contacts from the Ridges on his side, instead of leaving that life behind like perhaps he should. Things only get more complicated when his brother's ex-girlfriend Trina McGuire turns up as one of the victims of a serial rapist. Her connection to Nick doesn't at all seem like a coincidence. 

Each book in the DI Jack Brady series seems to get more confident in the writing style, Danielle Ramsay eases us as the reader into more mature storylines as Blind Alley was even more intense than Vanishing Point. The relationships between characters have grown and as a reader I feel more invested in individual characters regardless of their role in Brady's life. If you have the stomach for reading violence then definitely give this book a go, you'll be gripped from the very first page.

Next month I will be reviewing the fourth book in this series, Blood Reckoning. Look out for that on April 1st.