A Tapping At My Door by David Jackson

Published on by Margaret

Zaffre/ 2016/ e-book/ Print length: 315 pages/ My own copy/ 4*

It’s that time of year ago when I’ve been reading and not reviewing – spending more time gardening as the grass grows so quickly and the weeds multiply. And I want to do some more family history . As it’s too hot to do much gardening today I’ve got some time to write a short review.

A Tapping At My Door is a crime thriller, the first in David Jackson’s DS Nathan Cody crime thriller series. I bought it not long after it had been published in 2016, but I’ve only just got round to reading it. I wrote about the opening in this post. Even though this book is more scary and, in parts more gruesome, than I like to read, I did finish it, and enjoyed it for the characters and the plot.

I liked Nathan immediately. He works in the Major Investigation Team in Liverpool, but was previously an undercover officer. It’s obvious that something had gone wrong whilst he was working undercover, which had affected him very badly. He can’t sleep, has a quick temper and flares up very easily, especially with the local reporter and he acts recklessly with little regard for his safety.

The mystery begins as Terri Latham is disturbed late one night by a ‘tapping, scratching, scrabbling noise at her back door’. When she goes outside to investigate she sees a large black bird trapped at her window and she is then struck with something hard and heavy, rammed into her skull. What follows is not a quick death and when the police find her, it is with the dead bird’s wings unfurled and spread across her where her eyes had been, and her cheeks. There is a note attached to the bird’s leg, with the message: ‘Nevermore‘, a reference to Edgar Allan Poe’s poem, The Raven.

There are more bodies, each accompanied by a dead bird and a cyptic note, and it is soon obvious that the murderer is targeting the police. This book is full of tension, it’s very creepy and in places it is utterly gross. Although, I’m giving it 4 stars I am not at all sure I’ll read any more of the books in this series, but if you have a stronger stomach than me you’ll probably love them.

I have a backlog of reviews to write, so this is the first of several short reviews so that I can catch up!

8 thoughts on “A Tapping At My Door by David Jackson”

  1. My stomach is about where yours is, Margaret! Nathan sounds like an interesting protagonist, and I do like police procedurals. The setting works for me, too. But I think this is likely more gruesome than I prefer. Still, your review is excellent as ever, and I’m glad you found things to like about this.

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  3. I think this sounds fascinating, with the dead birds and so on. ‘But’ I’m not great with gruesome or psychological so probably won’t be reading it. With you on being too busy to review books. The garden has got away from us all of a sudden, no matter hiow much we try to stop that happening in June, it always does. And although today is cooler it’s also turned really muggy, which it wasn’t when it was hot. Never happy in this country, are we? LOL

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    1. It is fascinating, which is why I carried on reading – I had to know what happened and especially what had happened to Nathan whilst he was working undercover. You do find out near the end of the book and it really made me wince – yuk! And the weather at the moment is not to my liking – so yes we’re never happy about it … never mind all the awful things that are happening everywhere right now!

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  4. I’m almost certain that I read this book several years ago. Probably closer to when it was published. The whole ‘bird’ thing rings a bell. Yes, seems quite dark indeed. I may have to go look it up again. There are other books with the same protagonist? Off to see what I can find. 😉

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