#BlogTour: Brighton's No.1 Private Detective Series by Tom Trott @tjtrott @rararesources #YouCan'tMakeOldFriends #ChooseYourParentsWisely #ItNeverGoesAway

Delighted today to be able to talk to you about the Brighton's No.1 Private Detective series by Tom Trott. My thanks to the author for the review copies and Rachel of Rachel's Random Resources for inviting me on to the blog tour. 

You Can’t Make Old Friends

Blacklisted by the police. Being sued by a client. And broke. Things can't get any worse for Brighton's No.1 Private Detective, Joe Grabarz.

That's when his best friend's body washes up on the beach.

Could it really have been ten years? What happened? How could his life have ended like this? He needs answers.

But with the city in the grips of organised crime, and struggling to deal with an influx of legal highs, who cares about just another dead drug dealer?

Joe, that’s who. After all, you can’t make old friends.

Purchase Link: tomtrott.com/ycmof

My Thoughts:

Oh how I love a new series to sink myself into, I love it almost as much as I like a flawed Character. Here I feel like I may have found a new favourite in Brighton's No.1. Private Detective Joe Grabarz. You Can't Make Old Friends is a superb introduction to this character, to the authors writing style and to the seedier side of Brighton. Joe Grabarz is not what you would call friendly to the police, probably because he is on a downturn and isn't adverse to straying from the rules. However he doesn't expect to find his best friend dead on the beach and it would seem that he is determined to find out why. This is such a promising start to this new series. There is much to admire here, the seedier sides of Brighton taking on a life of its own and a host of characters that bring reality to the storytelling. I was so impressed that I moved on to the second in the series straight away...

Choose Your Parents Wisely

One missing girl and the whole city goes crazy.

It’s been three days, and now everyone in Brighton is looking for her. There is an army of police searching, her picture is on every front page, and the public can’t get enough of it. Gangs of good citizens are going door to door, turning their neighbours’ houses upside down, but still no one can find her.

For Brighton’s No.1 Private Detective, Joe Grabarz, it brings back too many memories of his first case, another missing girl, when he learnt too many lessons the hard way. No one was going door to door then. No one cared. But her mum and dad weren't nearly as photogenic, nor quite so saintly.

It’s a lesson Joe learnt long ago that has come back to haunt him: choose your parents wisely.

Purchase Link: https://tomtrott.com/cypw

My Thoughts:

I couldn't wait to return to the life of Brighton's No.1 Private Detective Joe Grabarz and I was lucky that I was able to do that as soon as I finished the first one. These books could be read as a standalone but I really think there is benefit from reading the series in order. 

There is always a danger when following a series that the second or subsequent books are not as good as the first but never fear this one is even better. I am becoming quite accustomed to Joe Grabarz and his unconventional ways. 

Once again Tom Trott's unique and inimitable writing style come alive as this dual time line plot jumps off of the page. Never for the faint hearted but this mystery is exhilarating as the plot plays out and the investigation of the missing girl heats up and Joe finds himself in the thick of it once again. 

It Never Goes Away

From No.1 Private Detective to No.1 Suspect

A cryptic message from an old friend leads Joe Grabarz to an abandoned farmhouse in the middle of the South Downs. But Joe is too late, someone else has got there first: his friend is dead, and all the evidence points to him.

Ten years ago the farmhouse was the scene of three infamous murders when a young boy killed his mother, father, and little sister. Now an adult, he was released from prison with a new identity. Could he be involved? The farmhouse also sits on valuable land, fought over in a struggle between building houses and drilling for shale gas. But could it really be worth killing for? Whatever is going on, Joe knows one thing for sure: his friend’s murder is just a tiny part of it.

To bring the killer to justice Joe must dig up the past, and reckon with his own, because no matter how hard you work, it never goes away.

Purchase Link - https://tomtrott.com/inga

My Thoughts: 

I am awe at what a solid series the Brighton's No.1 Private Detective series is. Instead of running out of steam, book by book it is growing into its own. The plots are second to none and It Never Goes Away is the latest instalment. 

Joe finds himself in an abandoned farmhouse and it looks like past and present are about to collide. This is going to be a tough case for Joe as he battles with the past and himself at the same time. 

I found this one particularly gripping and I was sold from the very first chapter. It really is clever what Tom Trott has done with the character of Joe Grabarz. He has made a character that is whole and almost living and breathing and as the series progresses he is revealing him to us bit by bit. This is talented writing. 

Tom Trott really is writing in his own lane here and this is a series that I would be happy to come back to time and time again. 

About the Author

Author Bio – Born in Brighton, I went to school in here, worked many jobs here, and have never lived anywhere else. I first started writing at school, where I and a group of friends devised and performed comedy plays for assemblies, much to the amusement of our fellow pupils. The young ones would cheer (and the old ones would groan) as we stepped up onto the stage, the buzz was tangible. It has been with me ever since.

As an adult I have written a short comedy play that was performed at the Theatre Royal Brighton in May 2014 as part of the Brighton Festival; Daye's Work, a television pilot for the local Brighton channel; and won the Empire Award (thriller category) in the 2015 New York Screenplay Contest. I published my first novel, You Can't Make Old Friends, in 2016; my second, Choose Your Parents Wisely, in 2017, my third, The Benevolent Dictator, in 2018, and now my fourth, It Never Goes Away, in 2019. When I’m not writing books, I’m writing about writing, books, and film on Medium.

My inspirations as a writer come from a diverse range of storytellers, but I have a particular love for the works of Raymond Chandler, Agatha Christie, Joel & Ethan Coen, Arthur Conan-Doyle, Daphne du Maurier, Alfred Hitchcock, Bryan Fuller, Ira Levin, Quentin Tarantino, Robert Towne, JRR Tolkien, and many many more books and films beside. If you can't find me, or I'm not answering my phone, I'm probably at the cinema.

Social Media Links – www.twitter.com/tjtrott, www.facebook.com/tomtrottbooks, www.tomtrott.com,

Please do have a look at the other stops on the blog tour.