Portobello Book Blog

I was delighted when I heard there was another Tom Reynolds book being published. He’s definitely a contender for my favourite fictional detective!

Luke Connolly is The Boy Who Fell. Six weeks ago he was pushed from the window of an old abandoned house and died. Luke’s death is a tragedy for his family in more ways than one. The police already have someone in custody for the crime, someone who is refusing to admit to being guilty but who also refuses to deny involvement. When Tom is asked to look at the case again by a colleague who has a personal interest, he has a niggling feeling something isn’t right. And if you have read a Reynolds book before, you will know his gut instinct is rarely wrong!

So many very topical issues are brought into the storyline as Jo Spain considers how racial prejudice, sexuality and entitlement influence people, not just within the police investigation but also in the wider community. Luke had a group of close friends who all come under suspicion of his murder. None of these so-called friends are particularly likeable. What were they covering up and why? All seemed capable of carrying out the crime. Jo Spain did a grand job of making me suspicious of each of them at different points in the book.

Within Tom’s work situation, he is about to be promoted and is considering who within his team to move into what position. This gave the author the ideal opportunity to look at issues of gender equality and how, even nowadays, some men have difficulty accepting a woman as boss.

The Boy Who Fell is another enthralling book from Jo Spain, who has an amazing ability to catch me unawares. A brilliant addition to the Tom Reynolds series, I flew through the pages. I’m looking forward to following Reynolds as he moves into his new position with all the new and different challenges that will entail.

My thanks to Katya Ellis at Quercus for sending me a review copy of the book. The Boy Who Fell is available in Kindle or trade paperback formats (in the UK) and you can order a copy online here: The Boy Who Fell

From the back of the book

Kids can be so cruel. 
They’ll call you names. 
Hurt your feelings.
Push you to your death.

In the garden of an abandoned house, Luke Connolly lies broken, dead. The night before, he and his friends partied inside. Nobody fought, everybody else went home safely. And yet, Luke was raped and pushed to his death. His alleged attacker is now in custody.

DCI Tom Reynolds is receiving the biggest promotion of his career when a colleague asks him to look at the Connolly case, believing it’s not as cut and dried as local investigators have made out. And as Tom begins to examine the world Connolly and his upper class friends inhabited, the privilege and protection afforded to them, he too realises something.

In this place, people cover up for each other. 
Even when it comes to murder.

About the author

Jo Spain’s first novel, top ten bestseller With our Blessing, was one of seven finalists in the Richard and Judy Search for a Bestseller Competition. It was named as an Irish Times crime fiction book of the year by Declan Burke. Beneath the Surface (2016) and Sleeping Beauties (2017), the second and third in the DI Tom Reynolds series followed, to further critical acclaim. Her standalone thriller, The Confession, released in January 2018, became a number one bestseller and sold in multiple territories. Jo is releasing the fourth Tom Reynolds, The Darkest Place, in 2018 and a new standalone Dirty Little Secrets in 2019. 

Jo also writes for TV and is the co-writer of new series Taken Down.

A graduate of Trinity College Dublin, Jo lives in Dublin with her husband and their four young children. Jo previously worked as a policy advisor in the Irish parliament and as vice-chair of the business body InterTrade Ireland.

Jo’s debut novel is set against a background of the infamous Irish Magdalene Laundries and Mother and Baby homes. The author’s own father was born in one such home in Dublin and the novel’s backdrop was constructed based on the in-depth research she undertook while attempting to trace her family roots.

Her favourite writers include Pierre LeMaitre, Fred Vargas, Louise Penny, Jo Nesbo, Ann Cleeves, B.A. Paris, Elizabeth Haynes and Agatha Christie.