Dead or Alive: A new contemporary thriller series set in the north of England

by Ken McCoy

Overview

Introducing Detective Inspector Sep Black in the first of a brand-new series of hard-hitting police procedurals, set in Leeds.

Two children have been abducted on their way home from school. After several weeks, they are still missing – and no one knows whether they are alive or dead. The police are certain that ruthless local gangster Vince Formosa is behind the kidnapping, but without proof their hands are tied.

Forced to resign following an accidental death in police custody, former Detective Inspector Sep Black knows he’s been set up. But how can he prove it – and stay alive in the process? Convinced that Formosa has a mole within the police, Black sets out to expose the traitor, clear his name and wreak revenge on the man who brought him down. In order to do so, he must go undercover and find the missing children. But even the best-laid plans can sometimes go awry . . .

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780727886330
Publisher:	Severn House
Publication date:	10/01/2016
Series:	A Sep Black Thriller , #1
Edition description:	First World Publication
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.60(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Ken McCoy was born in wartime Leeds and has lived in Yorkshire all his life. Having run his own building company for 25 years, he is now a full-time writer. As well as several historical sagas, he is the author of the Sam Carew crime series.

Read an Excerpt

This is a portion DEAD OR ALIVE. Detective Inspector Septimus Black is incarcerated in a secure psychiatric unit for going berserk in a pub and damaging a valuable antique window. He has already been kicked off the force for inadvertently killing a member of parliament who was being arrested for sex crimes against children. Sep is being interviewed by the resident psychiatrist, Professor Gilmartin. It’s in Sep’s interest to impress her in order to get out of the place early. Professor Gilmartin opens the conversation…


 ‘In your psych evaluation before you joined CID, it says you had periods when you were bordering on bipolar.’
 ‘I had my ups and downs, yeah, mainly due to what happened to my brother in Iraq.’
 ‘Yes, I know about your brother.’
 ‘Does it say that I love my brother?’
 ‘No it doesn’t.’
 ‘Maybe you should make a note of that.’
 ‘OK.’ She turned over a page. ‘It also says that you have a unique talent for sensing guilt in a suspect and that they’re often so amazed at what you appear to know about their involvement in the crime that they confess.’ Sep nodded. ‘It’s all part of the vibe I was talking about. It’s a question of using what knowledge you have to its best advantage and mixing it up with a few potent lies that you know will really throw the suspect. It’s possible to question a suspect in a way that makes them admit to things without realizing it. Some police interviewers do it. I just take it to a different level.’ He grinned. ‘The villains think I’m some sort of mind reader.’
 ‘It’s why you made detective inspector despite your psych evaluation.’
 ‘Is it? I didn’t know that.’
 ‘According to this they made a balanced judgement and promoted you.’
 ‘Then they made an unbalanced judgement and sacked me.’
 She went to sit behind her desk, looked at her computer monitor and tapped away on the keyboard, talking to him as she did so. ‘Would you say you’re having your ups and downs again?’
 ‘Obviously, but not for no reason. It was never for no reason. Outside agencies always caused my ups and down.’
 She looked at her watch. Sep took the hint. ‘Time’s up, eh?’
 ‘Not quite.’
 ‘Well,’ he said, ‘you’ve left no stone unturned so, what’s my psychiatric condition? Does everything I’ve just told you add up to me being a nutcase, or a man who’s got things figured out?’
 ‘I’ll let you know in a month.’
 She stopped what she was doing and studied him, waiting for his reaction, but he held himself in check and said, ‘I do hope you’re not going to ask your people to step up their offensive against me, to get me to crack before my time is up.’
 ‘They don’t have an offensive against you.’
 ‘So what am I doing here? Do you honestly think you can make me better than I already am?’
 ‘I want to see if you can maintain your level of sanity.’
 ‘This is not a good place for a sane man to be, especially a sane man being treated as an insane man, so if I don’t maintain my sanity you only have yourself to blame.’
 ‘I can live with that.’
 ‘Can you?’ he said, annoyed now. ‘Maybe you should stick me on the Broomhill Ward with the advanced nutters who piss themselves and shout at the wall and bang their chairs on the floor all day long.’
 ‘Yes I understand you’ve been in there. There was a complaint from one of the patients – Mr Cordingley.’
 ‘Don’t know him.’
 ‘Well he knows you – you threatened him.’
 ‘What? Oh him – of course I didn’t threaten him. This old bloke kept dancing about in front of me trying to block my way. I wanted to go through there to get to the so-called library. You know, that room with all the comics and Rupert Bear books.’
 ‘What did you say to him?’
 ‘If you must know I said if you don’t get out of my way, I’ll put a frog in your colostomy bag.’

Editorial Reviews

08/29/2016
Det. Insp. Septimus “Sep” Black, the hero of this middling series launch set in Yorkshire from McCoy (Mad Carew), is having a bad week. He’s convinced that a dirty cop has relocated just to bring him down, his estranged wife has accused him of beating her and won’t let him see their young daughter, a politician accused of child abuse has died while in his custody, and a powerful criminal has kidnapped two children. After a violent outburst in a bar, Sep asks for help and is sent to a psychiatric ward. He’s sure things can’t get worse, but they do, and when he’s released, he goes undercover to find those kids and clear his name. McCoy hits every note for a gritty procedural, including two sadistic henchmen that crack wise and kill with impunity, but this everything-but-the-kitchen-sink approach never rises above cliché, and the violence often feels gratuitous. Disjointed storytelling—Sep goes from just taking a break from his marriage to never really getting along with his wife in a hot minute—further mars this ho-hum effort. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

McCoy tells his tale with great dash—plus plenty of tension and violence—and he brightens it with doses of English-major wit

Booklist

McCoy tells his tale with great dash—plus plenty of tension and violence—and he brightens it with doses of English-major wit

Booklist

★ 10/01/2016
The northern English city of Leeds is not London, but crime happens everywhere. DI Septimus Ruddigore Black knows the new detective on the force is bent; Lenny Cope fled London when an investigation was launched into his connections to local crime lord Vincent Formosa. When two children are kidnapped, the gangster's fingerprints are all over the action. Dead bodies begin to pile up as Formosa, who always seems to be a step ahead of the police, cleans house. Black is forced to resign after a suspect dies in custody. How will he be able to clear his name, restore his reputation, bring down Formosa, and regain his badge? VERDICT McCoy (Perseverance Street; "Sam Carew" mysteries) launches a new crime series featuring a prototypical British police officer who holds his cards close to the vest and doesn't allow anyone to get too close. The well-constructed narrative unfolds in an entertaining manner. A solid choice for Peter Robinson and Reginald Hill fans.

Library Journal