Why a Booktrail?
2000s: The book was launched in a mystery of who the author – code name – Sam Alexander actually was which gave it an added interest. The true author is in fact Paul Johnston.
2000s: The book was launched in a mystery of who the author – code name – Sam Alexander actually was which gave it an added interest. The true author is in fact Paul Johnston.
DI Joni Pax is mixed-race detective transferred to work in Corham in rural Northumberland. Together with her boss, Heck Rutherford, she is there to investigate a murder in a brothel ruled by the Albanian mafia. A young woman Suzana has managed to escape from there so suspicion naturally turns to her. Could she be responsible or does she hold the key in another way?
This novel is different to anything else that we’d read and warning should be on it incase you have a weak stomach in any way. There are scenes of torture and sex that are hard to read in parts. But there are themes such as Albanian culture that are particularly interesting.
DI Joni Pax and her DCI Hector ‘ Heck’ Rutherford are very interesting characters – flawed in many ways and with many problems of their own. They work together under the Major Crimes Unit that covers rural Northumbria and County Durham.
The Northumberland setting is (fictional) Corham is –
A town with Roman, medieval and industrial heritage
And the stunning Hexham Abbey seems to be the inspiration for where DI Joni Pax lives –
“Joni Pax was at the window of her flat near Corham Abbey. The street ran behind the ecclesiastical building. Its stone flanks were now even more like honey under floodlights, the square tower surmounted by the yellow and red striped Northumberland flag.”