Speechless - Stephen Puleson



Today is my turn on the tour, and despite not being my first by Stephen, this is the first in series which I will be reviewing.

Things that I enjoyed about this book was the plot line, sounds obvious, but it was well developed and believable.

I found the book easy to read, and would highly recommend it.

Speechless

The body of a young Pole working in Cardiff is pulled from the River Taff. His tongue has been amputated in some sort of ritual. 

More murders in the Polish community take Inspector John Marco and his team into the East European immigrant community and the murky world of people trafficking. 

But what is it that links all the deaths together?

When the evidence points to one of the city’s criminal and the involvement of a gangster from Poland Marco faces the challenge of gathering evidence from a close knit and secretive community.

And why do the Polish Secret Service seem to be interested?

When Marco finds himself entangled emotionally its impossible for him to think clearly. In search of an answer Marco travels to Poland only to find himself implicated in a murder and hoping he can avoid another. 

Racing back to Cardiff he hopes he has enough to unravel the case and arrest the perpetrators.



Biography

I write crime fiction based in Wales and about Wales. The rural landscape of north Wales provides the backdrop to the Inspector Drake novels. And Cardiff the capital of Wales provides the setting for the Inspector Marco novels set in a modern urban environment.
I love the novels of Raymond Chandler, Ian Rankin, Mark Billingham, Henning Mankell, Val McDermid – the list could go on! And I enjoy watching detective series on the television the recent Hinterland series based near Aberystwyth in Wales was great. One of my favourites is the French series Spiral but The Bridge and Broadchurch and the Rebus series with Ken Stott and Kenneth Branagh in Wallander are great too.
I have been on writing courses at the Welsh Writers Centre in Llanystymdwy, North Wales tutored by Matt Whyman and Marcus Sedgwick as well as crime writing courses with Peter Robinson and Andrew Taylor at the Scottish Writers centre.
 I was born in Anglesey an island off the north Wales coast and after leaving school in Holyhead I went to University in London before training as a solicitor/lawyer. I practised in a small family business doing criminal work in the magistrates and crown courts, divorce and family work.
I still live on Anglesey, North Wales near the beach and the mountains of Snowdonia