Black Money by S J Richards
Ex-DCI Luke Sackville could not have predicted the challenges he would face when he joined Filchers, a business outsourcing company, as their Head of Ethics.
He and his team are catapulted into helping MI6 thwart the activities of an international terrorist organisation. Initial suspicions centre on money laundering, but when women are abducted and bodies start to turn up it becomes clear there is a lot more at stake.
The risks are high and there is danger at every turn as the tendrils of the organisation reach into the home lives of more than one of Luke’s team.
Black Money is the second in the Luke Sackville crime series. If you like a team you can root for then you’ll love this page-turner. Perfect for fans of JD Kirk, LJ Ross, JM Dalgleish, David J Gatward and Alex Smith.
Review
This is the second book in the Luke Sackville series and I loved the first book so I was very excited to pick this one up. Despite it being part of a series it can very easily be read as a standalone novel, although I do recommend reading the first book! I had high hopes for this book and it did not disappoint, in fact, I think this one is even better than the first one. Maybe it was the subject matter, as it was a world I was quite familiar with as I used to work in financial services for quite a while.
This outing picks up a few months after the events in the first book and sees the Ethics team at Filchers tasked with looking into the dealings of a new company which they have just acquired. However, when Luke is called into a meeting he is faced with a MI6 officer, Evan, who informs them that the new company maybe be money laundering for a new terrorist outfit. As the team look into this they are drawn into something that is very dangerous!
The team this time round are much more slick with how they are operating and the dynamic is proving to be very interesting. Josh is maturing and developing his detection skills, Sam whilst still recovering from her abduction is determined to find out about the money laundering and how this is being achieved. I particularly liked getting to know more about Maj this time around!
Richards manages to balance dark gritty topics with humour and its very reminiscent to JD Kirk in this way. This time we are entering a more corporate world and how terrorists can still manage to manipulate large companies without people knowing! It's very scary and I found it all to be very authentic - I used to work in a team that use to cover this topic in a national bank.
I flew through this in one day and I'm already looking forward to book three! Let me know if you pick this one up.
