Dana King’s A Small Sacrifice is an entertaining and smart private dick novel. Nick Forte gets into a case all about clearing a woman’s son from the murder of his child, which quickly escalates into attempts on his life as he realises this thing reaches deeper into Chicago’s underbelly than at first glance.

The plot is intricate, smart, and well played. The violence is short and sharp, and spare. King doesn’t dwell on the kid’s murder, but at the book’s end, there’s some graphic bloodletting. The book’s core is the mystery, the process, his internal monologue and the wrestle of his conscience about what he must do to stay alive in the mess he’s trod in. And that is where it sings. The action is fun when it happens but it’s definitely the second act to the chit-chat and finding his moral compass.

Good fun.

You can buy A Small Sacrifice at Amazons US and UK.

“I fucking love this book” – David Nemeth, Unlawful Acts, on Never Go Back.