Revenge of The Zeds - Stewart Ross

Synopsis:

The Soterion has been opened, but does it mean salvation or devastation? A horrific mutation in human DNA has resulted in a world where no one lives beyond nineteen. Cyrus and the noble Constants have opened the Soterion vault containing the Long Dead's secrets of science, art and possibly even the cure to the mutation. First, Cyrus must teach the Constants to read. But those he calls friends are falling prey to the greed and power knowledge can bring. Meanwhile, the barbaric Zeds are massing against them, determined to take the Soterion for themselves and destroy everything the Constants have built.

Review:

The second book in the Soterion Mission trilogy is just as gripping as the first, after being left internally screaming after finishing the first book, It was an easy call to quickly move on to the second book and continue the journey. I'm going to try and keep this review as spoiler free as I possibly can.

By the title alone I knew there were going to be hard times ahead for the Constants. Revenge of the zeds picks up almost exactly where we left off. In the first chapter alone their is the conclusion of a trial, funerals and the fate of Malik Timur's is found out by the Zeds. Its a pretty fast paced book yet alone chapter wise, it's perfectly paced this way and is action packed and gory. What I love about the book is that even though there are still moments of violence and action, we still get to see the quieter more thoughtful moments and its a lovely contrast and it still wonderful to see great characters being developed and seeing them interact and relate to each other.

When it comes to the characters of the book it was lovely to be back and seeing familiar characters like Sammy and Cyrus from the constants and Giv and Jamshid from the zeds. The one character who is new to us this book, is a character I didn't think I'd like but she grew on me quite quickly and her name is Malika Xsani who is the head of a different tribe of Zeds who you can really feel has determination and focus. There are many characters within this book, majority of them are new to us and that's because we get to see Cyrus become a tutor to members of Alba, he uses what is found within the walls of the Soterion to do so. What's great about this is how logically the character went about this and how well it was portrayed. Although Cyrus himself is not able toe read and write effortlessly and know the meaning of everything, he is the best they have so he is soon tutoring members of Alba whom he himself didn't pick bar 1.

I feel as though these books have lessons to learn within them and to me this book feels like it's about knowledge and how it is valuable, that it is powerful and it can be understood differently by  many. Some want knowledge in order to be able to share it with others, to make things better, but others see knowledge as something to be feared or something to be kept to oneself in order to maintain a position of power and importance. I feel as though the reference to and the plot itself backs this idea up.

This is a really good continuation of the story of the Constants and Zeds so it easily gets a 5/5 without a struggle. The ending is great, but as so many things are left unresolved there is a wonderful place for the next and last instalment. Thanks to the build up and ending of the book you are left needing the next book just to find out what happens and how so. It is yet again beyond words for me to tell you how I fully feel about this book and that I hope a lot of teenagers will pick this book up and absorb it.

City of Drowned Souls (Elisenda Domènech Investigations #3) - Chris Lloyd

Synopsis:

When a child disappears, the clock starts ticking
Detective Elisenda Domènech has had a tough few years. The loss of her daughter and a team member; the constant battles against colleagues and judges; the harrowing murder investigations… But it’s about to get much worse.

When the son of a controversial local politician goes missing at election time, Elisenda is put on the case. They simply must solve it. Only the team also have to deal with a spate of horrifically violent break-ins. People are being brutalised in their own homes and the public demands answers.

Could there be a connection? Why is nobody giving a straight answer? And where is Elisenda’s key informant, apparently vanished off the face of the earth? With the body count threatening to increase and her place in the force on the line, the waters are rising…

Be careful not to drown.

The stunning new instalment of the gripping Elisenda Domènech crime thrillers for readers of Ian Rankin, Henning Mankell and Andrea Camilleri.

Review:

It felt so good to be back with Elisenda and the team again, since the last book its been a few months and people have clicked on that Elisender is still struggling with the lost of her daughter years before. The book begins with a small few pages that you need to keep in your head because they are so relevant when you get near the end of the book. When we do get to Elisenda, she has been put on leave and forced into bereavement counselling every morning, However, just days into being on leave the disappearance of a controversial politicians son leads her back into the filed at the same time she and her team are trying to solve and stop to violent burglaries of houses.

The team is split in 2, one set are working the missing child case whilst the other works the violent burglaries case. Elisender is also looking for her informant who gave her bad intel before disappearing off of the face of the earth. There are a lot of strands in this book, your pretty much have to follow each lead with the strands as far as you can before it snaps. There are avenues of investigation that have to be covered or are covered just to make sure and it really is a book that you actually don't get lost in because it all makes perfect sense.

As for the characters there are a few new characters here, we see the controversial politician Susanna Miravent and her husband Marc Comas, also her campaign leader  Francesc Bofarull. Jauame is the missing child and what makes this case even more important and yet confusing is their eldest son Albert had gone missing 5 years previous. With so many threads to pull at I'm surprised to have seen the team stay sane.

We have the regular POV's of the team members and also a mystery POV that you pretty much assume is a certain someone once you read it.

What's great about this book is the path of it because you automatically believe what you have been lead to believe, you don't question it at all, you just go with it. In the end I must warn you not everything is as it seems. The paths of 2 cases could be linked or the people involved with either case might be linked to the other you just don't know until you read the whole book. Its beyond gripping and I fell in love. Even though I struggled with the first book City Of Good Deaths I'm far beyond in love with the series now since I've read the following two books.

After all the mystery and tension I definitely didn't see the end coming and I know I say that about a lot of book but this one really was that good. I didn't at all expect it to unfold the way it did. Its an easy 5/5 for this book and I definitely recommend this to anyone who wants an immersive thrilling mysterious read and has the time to read it. As this is, for now the end of my journey with Elisender and the team I feel it has been a great journey so far, I'm thankful for it and I cant wait to see them again in the near future hopefully.