This Little Piggy (DI Rosalind Kray – 2) by Rob Ashman
Kevin Palmer is a regular sort of guy, or he was until his life fell apart. His wife, his money, his business and his reputation are all taken away from him. He tries to fight back and ends up in prison.
There he concocts elaborate fantasies to wreak vengeance. He is sent to work in an abattoir and the final piece of the jigsaw falls into place with chilling consequences. Then a cruel twist of fate changes everything.
DI Rosalind Kray is battling her own demons having returned to work following a brutal attack. She finds herself on the trail of a sick and twisted killer and cracks the macabre pattern of murders. But her boss is unconvinced.
Kray has Palmer squarely in her sights. But he has other ideas …
Can Kray break him in time to save the final victim?
Time is running out.
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Author’s Bio
My name is Rob Ashman I’m 55 years of age, married to Karen with two grown up daughters. I am originally from South Wales and after moving around with work we settled in North Lincolnshire where we’ve spent the last twenty-one years.
Like all good welsh valley boys I worked for the National Coal Board when I left school at sixteen and went to University at the tender age of twenty-three when the pit closures began to bite. Since then I’ve worked in a variety of manufacturing and consulting roles, that was until I had the bonkers idea to publish a book.
I’ve always had Those That Remain stuck in my head. It took me twenty-four years to write – and yes, I know after all that time you’d expect it to be better! I played around with it for years and only got serious about writing when my dad got cancer. It was an aggressive illness and I gave up work for three months to look after him and my mum. Writing Those That Remain was my coping mechanism. After I wrote the book my family read it and said ‘You have to do something with this, and besides its not finished.’ So not being one for half measures I got myself made redundant, went self-employed so I could devote more time to writing and four years later the Mechanic Trilogy is the result. I never set out to write a trilogy it just happened that way – probably down to a complete lack of planning.
It’s probably not the best thing to admit but the inspiration to write comes from the voices in my head. I can just picture my friends exchanging knowing glances at this point. My characters talk to me incessantly. They compete for my attention – they row, they laugh, they fight, and of course try to murder each other. When I woke the morning after I finished writing the final book in the series the voices were gone. It was as though the story had been told and they were silent. It’s a very strange sensation not having them there anymore.
Whenever I write I find all of my characters are damaged in some way. There is a dark thread running through the books which comes from them. They are all deeply flawed, each one capable of doing bad things and making the wrong choices. But sometimes they surprise me by having flashes of doing the right things as well. We met a woman on holiday who was interested in the books and Karen what they were about. After Karen finished describing them the woman screwed her face up and Karen said ‘I know, it’s worrying to think that goes on in his head.’
My immediate plans are to publish the next two more books in the series which will keep me busy. I am fortunate to have a fantastically talented editor, Helen Fazal, and we recently finished editing the second book called In Your Name. The next step is to send it to my beta-readers, to get their opinions and feedback. They are very blunt, which is great, and I trust them implicitly, but it is a scary process.
My Review
5 stars
Kevin Palmer is a regular guy that loses everything. When he tries to fight back he ends up in prison. The thing that gets him through is his revenge. He knows how has screwed him over and he has a plan.
Detective Rosalind Kray is still recovering from a brutal attack that took her husband’s life. She has her own dark corners that she is fighting but when bodies start appearing, she has something to focus on. She just knows that Kevin Palmer is the killer, everything points to him except that he seems to have an air tight alibi for each murder. Of course her superiors don’t think Rosalind is ready to return to work. Rosalind is determined to catch Kevin before the last person on his list ends up dead.
When I read the name Rob Ashman I just know that I need to get my hands on his books. Reading his books is true art. You have a broken/damaged investigator that makes human mistakes but is determined to stop the killer. You know who the killer is but this doesn’t keep you from being on the edge of your seat as they brutally kill their victims and make you almost feel sorry for them. And then you have the dance as the killer and detective go round and round, faster and faster to a conclusion that you will never expect.
If you like dark thrillers, heck any kind of thriller/mystery, you need to check out Ashman’s books. This is one author that will find an permanent place on your shelves.
I received a complimentary copy of this book. I voluntarily chose to read and post an honest review.
I would like to thank Bloodhound Books and Netgalley for the opportunity to read and share this book.
Blog Post
Writing This Little Piggy was a journey of discovery for me. Anyone who has read my previous four books will realise that my villains are psychotic individuals with a pre-disposed urge to kill. But when I wrote about Kevin Palmer, the protagonist in This Little Piggy, he was nothing like that and it threw me completely.
I found when I sat down to write about him I could not find his voice. I had the story that wrapped around his character but not him. So, I did what I normally do when faced with a writing problem, I shared it with my long-suffering wife. Having first poured her a large glass of wine.
I described the situation to Karen and she said, ‘Well, maybe he’s not who you think he is.’ And that was it. That was the sum total of her wisdom. Rubbish advice I thought and took back the wine – joke, that’s a dangerous thing to attempt.
The following week we were out with friends and out of the blue Kevin started talking to me. His first words were, ‘This is not a story about a psycho, Rob, this is a story about revenge.’
As usual my wife was right, Kevin was not the guy I was trying to portray. His motivations were different to anyone I had ever written about before.
Once I had that straight in my head Kevin came to life and did some eye watering things, some of which even made me wince.
Kevin Palmer stretched me as a writer and I hope readers will enjoy his character.
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