Loose Cannon by Jack Steele (A Detective Joe Stone Novel Book 1) / Books Teacup and Reviews

Published: July 27th 2016 by CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform

Read date: November 11th 2017

Pages: 342

Stars: 4/5

A psychopath is loose in London. Detective Joe Stone must hunt the serial killer before a gangland civil war breaks out.

Loose Cannon is first in A Detective Joe Stone series.

That blurb is just 2 sentences! Strange, right? Well it created a good suspense by giving very few info, it was just like going blind in the book. And the book was such that it’s better to say less in synopsis.

Loose Cannon is about detective Joe Stone’s investigation on series of abduction and murder of family members of London mafia that threatens to start gang war and ending the long hard worked peace in London achieved by Strategic Investigation Unit (SIU), where Joe Stone works. Book also gives a view on his private life, his grief over disappearance of his girlfriend Gemma a year back and his struggle on getting back to life.

Main character Joe Stone was good person with moral, brave, smart, and amazing in his work. I liked his assumption for people, they were very correct almost all time which made him very good detective. I enjoyed his crispy refreshing monologue. Carl– his buddy at SIU was sarcastic and fun loving. His love for his mother was so adorable. Other characters of SIU were described thoroughly, I felt like know whole team so well and together they made amazing team. I was suspicious about few character in team but my suspicion was not fully concluded in this part of the series. I loved Stella and her way of living life. She was free spirit and yet hard working in team. They all well written, descriptive, creative and felt so realistic.

Starting of the book, first chapter, abduction of Marcia. It was terrifying and cruel. I could tell this book is going to be thrilling and interesting. Multiple POV from victims, Joe (majority it was narrated by this MC), and other characters gave it the feel of watching crime investigation TV show.

The police procedural was well written that left room of doubt. Description of places were so well that it transported me straight to London, I could visualize them very clearly. All events were realistic and plausible. Even the flow of book was perfect. Short chapter made it engaging and fast read. Each chapter had cliffhanger that made it more gripping.

I liked to read bits of life story of all characters both of SIU team and gang leaders and mafia specially that of Carter and Stettsi family. There were moments in the book that created a tight tension. It gave a thrill in the book. Catching a loose cannon was like chasing a mouse in the labyrinth.

Climax was good but the way story was going my assumption on how it will end was right. It little bugged me why SIU couldn’t guess who was the mind behind all the killing and motive of that person. There was more to this case and it was very complex than I expected. Some things were left mysterious in this book for the continuation of the series.

Joe’s memory of Gemma and his grief made me so curious I wanted to know what happened to her and how she disappeared and why they couldn’t find her throughout the book. She was a precursor to the series and would love to get answers to these questions in the next book was the series.

End was a cliffhanger, open ended and gave another mystery to solve for next book.

After climax, the book became little slow. Usually I enjoy last 30%n of the book more than whole other 70%, but here this part felt little stretched. I was desperate to reach to the end. And more than 100 chapters (yes, you read right) in the book didn’t help in that. I was constantly feeling like, “I’m on 90th chapter already, how many still left! when end will come!” I was more focused on rushing to end than enjoying the story.

Overall, it was interesting, loved the way author wrote characters and premises, full of suspense and thrill. I recommend it to all who enjoys gangster and investigation stories.