Woohoo! It is my stop on Owen Mullen’s DELANEY: And So It Began blog tour! Huge thanks to the ever so awesome Sarah Hardy and Bloodhound books for asking me to take part and providing me with an ARC of this book!
About The Book
PI Vincent Delaney thought he was done with the NOPD until a string of seemingly unrelated child murders brings an unexpected invitation from the FBI, and his old boss.
A serial killer is roaming the South, preying on children appearing in pageants, and the police want him to go undercover using his own family. Accepting would mean lying to people he loves and maybe even putting them in harm’s way.
In Baton Rouge, a violent criminal has escaped and is seeking revenge for the brother Delaney shot dead. But Delaney isn’t going anywhere. He has unfinished business. Meanwhile, north of the French Quarter, shopkeepers are being extorted and ask for Delaney’s help. Extortion is a matter for the police.
But what do you do when those responsible are the police? Delaney has his work cut out and he’ll be lucky if he makes it out of this alive…
Owen Mullen is a The Mcllvanney Prize long listed Novelist
My Rating: 4/5
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
My Review:
Set in New Orleans the reader is faced with loss, guilt, greed, deception, organised crime, power, control, corruption, revenge, regrets, righting wrongs and difficult decisions – so readers, the question is: In or out?
This book can be described as a PI-focused crime thriller that has an interesting plot with three complex strands that keeps the reader turning the pages. Delaney: And So It Began is cleverly narrated in first person POV with flashbacks to seven years before interwoven throughout. The flashbacks give the reader a well rounded backstory to Delaney’s present situation. Tension and suspense are carefully balanced to just the right level and emotions run high as we race with Delaney to bring the culprits to justice.
I felt this novel was very character driven and have to say that PI Vincent Delaney captured my interest immediately! Ex-police, in a relationship and with a fabulous dog named Lowell – I was immediately drawn to Delaney and wanted him to succeed. I adored his conversations with Lowell, his decency, sense of humour, a man who assumes nothing and challenges everything but who can sometimes be a bit of a fool when it comes to his career vs personal relationships. Yeah – he was a likeable and relateable character.
There are a few other characters from the dark side I really want to talk about, but I am too afraid that I might reveal a spoiler, so what I will say is this: they had that sinister air that could easily be masked when needed, some were far darker and disturbed than others – guilt and greed could easily make decent indivduals turn and power fuelled a hunger that easily led to destruction for others. Was that cryptic enough for you? ?
My amateur detective skills were on fire with this book as I figured out a few twists before they were revealed ?️♀️ however, I wasn’t disappointed at that. In fact, because I was so drawn into the story, I oddly felt like I was working alongside Delaney to end the madness that plagued New Orleans! The descriptions were vivid and had me picturing the pageants as they played out, the streets of New Orleans and the darker side of The Big Easy. Love that!
Would I recommend this book? A mighty big hell yeah on that front! Gritty, thrilling, plausible and with a storyline that leaves the reader with an excited anticipation of what might happen next, Delaney: And So It Began really is worth a read. So once again my fellow bookworms, are you In or Out? ?
About The Author
OWEN MULLEN’S debut novel Games People Play has been long-listed for Bloody Scotland McIlvanney Crime Book Of The Year 2017
School was a waste of time for me. Or rather, I wasted time; my own and every teacher’s who tried to get me to work. It took twenty years to appreciate what they were telling me. Life has rules. They aren’t written down but they exist nevertheless. I got that. Eventually. But by then I was thirty five.
Along the way I missed an important clue. At ten I won a national primary schools short story competition – and didn’t write anything else for forty years.
SMART BOY WANTED APPLY WITHIN
As a teenager my big obsession was music. Early on I realised if I was successful I would probably be rich and famous and pull lots of girls.
So how did that turn out?
Well, you haven’t heard of me, have you? And this morning I caught myself worrying about the electricity bill. So the short answer is: one out of three ain’t bad.
Running around the country in a Transit van with your mates is fun. It’s your very own gang. You against the world. Until you fall out and the dream lies bleeding on the dressing-room floor.
When that happened I went to London [everybody from Scotland goes to London, it’s like first footing at New Year, or ten pints of lager and a vindaloo on a Friday night; a sacred tradition] and became a session singer. I also started gigging with different bands on the circuit.
Back in Scotland – most of us come back with wild tales of great success, none of them true – I wondered what I should do with myself and didn’t have to wait long for the answer. Her name was Christine. We got married, I went to Strathclyde Uni and got a bunch of letters after my name, and toughing it out at Shotts Miner’s Welfare, or dodging flying beer cans at the Café Club in Baillieston, was in the past. The long hair was short now, I wore a suit and pretended to like people I didn’t like because we were ‘colleagues’.
After many adventures I started my own marketing and design business and did alright. Christine and I were very happy, we travelled all over the place; India, Brazil, Botswana, Nepal, Borneo, Japan. One day I suggested we move. To the Greek islands. So we did. We bought land and built a beautiful villa overlooking the Mediterranean. Then the pan global financial crash happened, years of fiscal carelessness finally caught up with Greece; the exchange rate dived and the cost of living in Paradise went through the roof.
I had to do something. Then I remembered the short story competition. I had been good at writing, hadn’t I?
I wrote another short story called The King Is Dead…the first thing I’d written since primary school. When I typed the last word [Christine taught me to type] I held the pages in my hand then started to read. An hour and a half, rooted to the chair unable to believe what was in front of my eyes. For four decades I had shunned a god given gift. And as I read I started to understand why. It was awful. Not just bad. Bloody terrible.
But I kept going.
And now, eight years and seven books later, three literary agents plus two I turned down [they were reading a different book] I am a writer. My books are on Amazon. People buy them and come back for more.
One seasoned London agent has predicted I am destined to be ‘a major new force in British crime fiction.’
Yeah!
So is the moral: follow my example, find something you’re good at and stick with it. Hardly. I didn’t, did I? Do it your own way; it’s your life.
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