Crossing the Rubicon

[John Dean]

I have just read Ian Patrick’s debut crime novel Rubicon (Fahrenheit Press) and was blown away by it. It is a terrific read and I can heartily recommend it.

As much as anything, this is a story about confused morals with undercover officer Sam Batford at the heart of it.

Batford is a detective whose ideas of right and wrong have become blurred as he plays different police departments and criminals off against each other. The result is a story that has great pace and tension.

Ian’s choice of first person to tell the story through Batford’s eyes allows us a deep insight into the character’s psyche, revealing a man who has lost sight of his duty and is prepared to break the law in the name of upholding it.

He challenges the reader because, amid all his greed for personal wealth, he also brings wrongdoers to justice – even if it is sometimes his own brand of twisted justice.

The result is a book that kept me gripped from first to last, created by someone who inhabited the world about which he writes during his career as a detective.

You can buy the book at

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Rubicon-Sam-Batford-Book-1-ebook/dp/B074MB...