So, I got to the end of 'A Tapping At My Door', the first book in the DS Nathan Cody series and my gut reaction was: I don't want to continue with this series.

Then I argued with myself.

I reminded myself that this was a well-written book. The dialogue is spot-on for Liverpool. The characters were believable and easy to empathise with. There was a strong sense of place and of local culture. There were diverse attitudes towards the police that were conveyed with passion. Moments of high tension were balanced with moments of introspection. The ending was tense and spectacular. So waddaya mean you don't wanna read the rest of the series?

I responded with "Well, just because it's well-written and realistic and has a credible main character doesn't mean that I enjoyed it". DS Cody is a broken man - mentally unstable and lying to himself, his boss and his colleagues about it and thereby putting himself and his colleagues at risk. It makes for a strong story but it makes him a hard man to cheer for. The scene where I found out exactly how he was broken and by whom was one of vivid violence that was necessary in terms of understanding Cody and his problems but one that I'd rather not have had splashed across my imagination.

I also struggled with the motivation of the off-the-wall character who was killing police officers and leaving birds with their corpses. It felt far-fetched and over-elaborate. It's extremely rare for a Police Officer to be murdered in the UK. The idea of multiple murders accompanied by exotic clues felt exploitative to me, especially when the setting for the crimes was so realistic. Later, when I learned that the motivation of the murderer was linked to a single, at that point unrevealed, word I know what the word would be. Most people who grew up on Merseyside would be able to guess. I won't say why here because it would spoil the plot but I found the link distasteful. Even though the distress linked to the word was described with some dignity, the motivation for this crime left a bad taste in my mouth.

Which is why, even though I think 'A Tapping At My Door' was a four-star read, I don't want to read any more of this series. ( )

An absolute page turner. Very scary, I must get the sequel soon.
Like the third book in the series, this works fine as a standalone.

Jonathan Keeble's narration was great, too. ( )

Home alone at night, in Liverpool, the persistent tapping on the door and window makes her check outside. A raven, but then the killer attacks.
D.S. Nathan Cody is recovering from an undercover job gone wrong and when another police officer is killed it's realised that they are not random killings but police officers who are being targeted. But why. For me an okay read.
A NetGalley book. ( )

The tapping at the door in the title is an omen of death — a raven lures a woman outside into her backyard, where she is killed and relieved of her eyes. DS Nathan Cody, who has joined the major incident team after a traumatic experience from his undercover days, throws himself rather recklessly into solving the case. Especially when more people die in the same manner. It seems as though there’s a serial killer stalking the streets…

This was a good first in series. I liked the setting of Liverpool, and Cody certainly has a different backstory than some of your typical tormented cops. I did find the present tense narrative mildly irritating but just mentally re-conjugated all of the verbs in past tense. That was easy enough to do.

On the strength of the first book I bought the other three books in this series — hoping they’re just as good. ( )

Had to reduce the playback speed to 1.5x for this one. Bloody accent. But 4 stars none the less. ( )