The purpose of Thrifty Thursday is to read a book which was free (at some point).
Kindle freebie on August 1, 2025 (currently $2.99 at Amazon and in KindleUnlimited as of writing this post)
Overall rating 4.23 with 16,923 ratings and 935 reviews
Crime on the Fens by Joy Ellis Series: DI Nikki Galena #1
Published by Joffe Books on October 1, 2017
Genres: Mystery
Pages: 262
Format: eBook
Source: Purchased
Goodreads
Amazon, Audible, Libro.fm
The Detective
DI Nikki Galena: A police detective with nothing left to lose. She’s seen a girl die in her arms, and her daughter will never leave the hospital again. She’s got tough on the criminals she believes did this to her. Too tough. And now she’s been given one final warning: make it work with her new sergeant, DS Joseph Easter, or she’s out.Her Partner
DS Joseph Easter is the squeaky-clean new member of the team. But his nickname “Holy Joe” belies his former life as a soldier. He has an estranged daughter who blames him for everything that went wrong with their family.The town is being terrorised by gangs of violent thugs, all wearing identical hideous masks. Then a talented young female student goes missing on the marsh and Nikki and Joseph find themselves joining forces with a master criminal in their efforts to save her. They need to look behind the masks, but when they do, they find something more sinister and deadly than they ever expected . . .
I purchased Crime on the Fens for free on Kindle as I do so many other police procedurals. It’s a long running series, DI Nikki Galena, with 15 books. The ebooks are in Kindle Unlimited and the audio published by Tantor audio are available at libraries.
The beginning is kind of weird but typical for British police procedurals I have read mostly. Nikki is the head of her team. She is a odd duck, divorced, prefers to work primarily alone. She can be unorthodox but she is the best. Her boss provides her with a new partner, Joseph who she must work with at least a month. The rest of her team includes some great members but misfits.
The start seems a little slow with things happening but not much progress. A girl goes missing on the Fens when she goes to star gaze with an amateur astronomer friend. Then there are thieves and vandals wearing ugly masks and causing chaos. One of the crime bosses in town, who has a connection with Nikki, calls to tell her his niece is missing. She convinces him to work together to bring the perpetrator to justice.
They do all the right things procedurally but don’t get much progress until a boy is found beaten nearly to death. They protect him in the hospital. Joseph guards and befriends him and they finally get some information. But things get more dangerous for Nikki and her team as they find and try to capture the criminals and also locate the missing girls.
I really enjoyed this after the short slow setup at the beginning. It was great to see the team come together and catch the criminals and protect the public. The team changes with Joseph being a strong help and working well with Nikki. I’m excited to be able to continue the series on audio, hopefully sooner than later.
I read all types of books but my favorites are urban fantasy and romantic suspense.I like some romance and some action / adventure / mystery in everything.I like sex in my books but please, only between TWO people.Intimate conversation is equally important to the sex in a book.It lets me see the characters.The other thing I enjoy is humor.
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Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
- 26-COYER
Another kindle freebie win! Love when this happens for you, Anne💜
yes! This one was really good. I’ll go on a bit and see if my positive impression holds.
Sounds like a good start to a series I’d probably enjoy!
The very beginning is a little slow with some of the setup of the wold/characters but once it gets going I really enjoyed it.
I think I have the first couple of this series, on my kindle already, Anne. I will have to check and after reading your review, give it a try.
Especially if you have them Carla, I really recommend it. I liked it a lot.
the bit about her boss forcing her to work with Joseph for at least a month really stuck with me — such a classic way to shove two mismatched leads together. honestly that slow setup almost lost me too, glad it pays off later. i ended up grabbing a few printable pages from free printable coloring pages to keep me busy during the slow bits, ngl.
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