A Third Is Darkness

Murray Bailey

SYNOPSIS

Judge not the man

Charles Balcombe cannot control his alter ego.
BlackJack is killing for fun and DI Munro knows his partnership with Balcombe can’t continue.
While Balcombe seeks help, Munro is asked to work for the Hong Kong governor’s aide-de-camp. He seems to be sidelined as Garrett resumes his hunt for the Squeezed-heart murderer.
But people have secrets and the more Munro investigates, the murkier they seem. When people start dying and with Balcombe’s help, Munro tries to get to the bottom of a conspiracy of silence.
Will he find the truth?
Will Garrett catch his killer?
Will Balcombe learn the truth about himself?
As the psychoanalyst told him: a third of the mind is darkness. If you dig too deep, be prepared. You won’t like what you find there.

This is book three of the series which should be read in order.

MY REVIEW

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I don’t know how Murray does it, but I only had to pick up this book to be immediately immersed back in the world of Charles Balcombe aka BlackJack.

The descriptions of Hong Kong. The characters. The plot. Everything fits together perfectly.

In this third instalment of the series, and I highly recommend reading the first two before this one, we find BlackJack, the alter ego of Charles Balcombe, getting more out of control in his hunger for killing. He has no memory of his actions as BlackJack. He is having nightmares – and I’ll not forgive Murray for putting the spider one in my head! – and begins visiting a psychoanalyst to try to control BlackJack and his nightmares.

His ‘good’ persona, Balcombe, is helping DI Munro with a private investigation into a missing girl. As an experienced investigator he is an asset, but Munro is getting increasingly wary of BlackJack. In addition, one of Munro’s colleagues is convinced Balcombe is BlackJack, he just needs to catch him. Can Balcombe continue to evade capture?

Balcombe’s rickshaw driver Albert is still providing his transport. She is a great character.

Love love love this series. Murray is such a talented writer.

Thank you, Murray, for inviting me onto the blog tour.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Murray Bailey Is the author of Amazon bestseller Map of the Dead, the first of the series based on his interest in Egyptology. His main series however is the Ash Carter thrillers, inspired by his father’s experience in the Royal Military Police in Singapore in the early 1950s.

Murray is well traveled, having worked in the US, South America and a number of European countries throughout his career as a management consultant. However he also managed to find the time to edit books, contribute to articles and act as a part-time magazine editor.

Murray lives on the south coast of England with his family and a dog called Teddy.