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Jim Kelly
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The Great Darkness: A Cambridge Wartime Mystery (Nighthawk Book 1) Kindle Edition

by Jim Kelly (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 304 ratings
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1939, Cambridge. The opening weeks of the Second World War, and the first blackout - The Great Darkness - covers southern England, enveloping the city. Detective Inspector Eden Brooke, a wounded hero of the Great War, takes his nightly dip in the cool waters of the Cam. The night is full of alarms, but in this Phoney War, the enemy never comes.
But daylight reveals a corpse on the riverside, the body torn apart by some unspeakable force. Brooke investigates, calling on the expertise and inspiration of a faithful group of fellow 'nighthawks' across the city, all condemned, like him, to a life lived away from the light. Within hours The Great Darkness has claimed a second victim. War, it seems, has many victims. But what links these crimes of the night?

Previous page
  1. Print length
    346 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publisher
    Allison & Busby
  5. Publication date
    February 15, 2018
  6. File size
    2075 KB
  7. Page Flip
    Enabled
  8. Word Wise
    Enabled
  9. Enhanced typesetting
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"With a strong, effective plot and characters, this is crime fiction from a CWA Dagger in the Library author. If you like crime fiction, this is for you." (Historical Novels Review)

"Fans of Jim Kelly and historical mysteries, especially those centered around WWII, will definitely want to read The Great Darkness. Everything about it is unique." (gumshoereview.com)

“Kelly has crafted a believable wounded hero, and his re-creation of the first weeks of war in 1939 is wonderful. Another winner from the talented Kelly.” (Booklist)

"World War II is well covered in literature and history, but in The Great Darkness, first volume in the new Nighthawks series, Jim Kelly comes up with a fresh take—at least for historical fiction readers... The prose is direct, bordering sometimes on blunt, but always clear. The author ably captures the city, region, and period without overdescription—an impressive feat given how much occurs in the shadows... Readers, of course, will keep turning pages until they know the truth, too." (The New York Journal of Books)

"During a blackout a month after the start of WWII, Det. Insp. Eden Brooke, the hero of Kelly’s solid series launch, is taking a midnight swim in the River Cam in Cambridge, England, when he overhears a platoon of soldiers on the shore. The men are burying something with a “sticky sweet smell” in a pit. Brooke, a veteran of WWI, later tries to sort out exactly what the men were up to. But before he can get any answers, he learns that an American scientist, Dr. Ernst Lux, who was working at Cambridge University has died, apparently after becoming entangled in the netting of a stray barrage balloon. In the morgue, Brooke notices that Lux’s shoes are on the wrong feet, and he suspects that the man’s death was no accident. He soon gets on the trail of black marketers and a covert government experiment. Kelly has created twistier puzzles in his Philip Dryden series (The Funeral Owl, etc.), but he makes good use of his chosen setting to portray the challenges of domestic policing during wartime. Fans of TV’s Foyle’s War will be delighted." (Publishers Weekly)

About the Author

Jim Kelly was born in 1957 and is the son of a Scotland Yard detective. He went to university in Sheffield, later training as a journalist and worked on the Bedfordshire Times, Yorkshire Evening Press and the Financial Times. His first book, The Water Clock, was shortlisted for the John Creasey Award and he has since won a CWA Dagger in the Library and the New Angle Prize for Literature. He lives in Ely, Cambridgeshire.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B075G1XDYN
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Allison & Busby (February 15, 2018)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ February 15, 2018
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 2075 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 346 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 304 ratings

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Jim Kelly

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Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
4.4 out of 5
304 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Magpie
5.0 out of 5 stars Atmospheric and Absorbing - a stellar performance
Reviewed in the United States on December 19, 2018
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As always Jim Kelly makes the setting(s) additional characters. his approach to settings makes the story completely three dimensional. add to this a very sure grip of the general atmosphere of 1939 and the phony war and you have a tour de force. The story is extremely complicated but never fails. I am a great fan of Jim Kelly's other series (Philip Dryden, Shaw & Valentine) and this new Nighthawk series may even be better! Highly recommended.
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HelenH
4.0 out of 5 stars More, Please!
Reviewed in the United States on June 5, 2018
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Wow, what a great tale of coverups, and murder, and the malaise of waiting for the bombs to drop, literally and figuratively, in wartime era Cambridge. Our protagonist, DI Brooke, is a fully realized character, dogged in his persistence through an investigation that is increasingly receiving attention -- not all of it good or helpful. And then when the real mystery emerges -- it's quite terrifying.

The "star" of the book is the author's use of the city as a character in itself -- it was fascinating to read about this ancient city and its many parts. It's a character in itself, in the book.

I hope to read more of Eden Brooke -- hopefully the next book(s) won't be so fraught with horrifying thoughts of "what might have been."
2 people found this helpful
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tinyen
5.0 out of 5 stars Fabulous wartime atmosphere
Reviewed in the United States on March 25, 2019
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This is one of the best I have recently read and it ranks up there with the work of Rennie Airth, up to how, my favorite. I found the characters believable and detailed . The city felt like another character and the descriptions provoked a clear vision of the city at the beginning of the war.
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joyce conroy
4.0 out of 5 stars good mystery
Reviewed in the United States on August 15, 2018
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It was a fairly good mystery. I didn't guess 'who did it' and the ending was quite good.
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O'Henry
5.0 out of 5 stars Don't pass up a Jim Kelly book.
Reviewed in the United States on August 24, 2018
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I did not read yet, but gave 5 stars as I have never been disappointed with a Jim Kelly novel. Saving for a special time and place to savor the read.
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Abu
5.0 out of 5 stars Suspensful
Reviewed in the United States on March 7, 2019
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If you like the Charles Todd Ian Rutledge series, you will be very pleased with Detective Inspector Eden Brooke.
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jdp
4.0 out of 5 stars A very complicated but interesting start to a mystery series.
Reviewed in the United States on October 18, 2023
A very complicated but interesting start to a mystery series. A damaged but not bitter WW1 veteran, now a police inspector in Cambridge, faces a cluster of serious and possibly connected deaths. Curious characters abound in the history-rich university city and plots mix and mingle as WW2's shadow looms over Europe.
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J. B. Hoyos
5.0 out of 5 stars Jim Kelly’s Top-Notch Historical Mystery, “The Great Darkness,” Will Make Your Skin Crawl!
Reviewed in the United States on January 3, 2019
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It is October of 1939 and WWII has begun. There is a government sanctioned blackout that plunges all of Cambridge, England into the Great Darkness. A night of chaos ensues. An American scientist, Dr. Ernst Lux, is found horribly mangled; he was presumably dragged and killed by one of three military blimps that broke loose from their moorings and floated unchecked over the city. One of them explodes. Three trucks carrying black market meat are detained; however, their drivers escape. While swimming in the river, Detective Inspector Eden Brooke espies some men digging pits on the bank. Who are these men and what are they burying? Brooke must make sense of all three incidents before thousands of innocent people die.

Best-selling British author Jim Kelly has embarked on a promising new mystery series with its first installment, “The Great Darkness.” I am proud to say that I have read all of Kelly’s novels. The Nighthawk series, featuring DI Eden Brooke, has the potential to be as good, if not better, than the Journalist Philip Dryden series and the Detective Shaw Mystery series. Initially, I was skeptical about Kelly’s ability to write an historical mystery. His modern ones are extremely well researched in regards to both police and medical procedures; they make me feel as though I’m reading non-fiction. How well is Kelly at writing historical fiction? Well, I soon learned that Kelly is very good. One would think he must’ve lived during WWII, but he was actually born in 1957.

Many of Kelly’s previous novels involved cold cases. Murders took place during or soon after WWII and the corpses are not found until decades later. “The Great Darkness” is Kelly’s first mystery that occurs entirely during this time period. Its very likable protagonist, Brooke, reminds me of one of Kelly’s other heroes, Detective Inspector Jack Shaw. Both men are extremely dedicated and athletic, both enjoy swimming in cold water, and both suffer with eye damage. Shaw is permanently blind in one eye. While he was on duty, a little girl poked him in the eye with a stick that had toxic chemicals on it. Brooke must wear dark glasses because his eyes are extremely sensitive to light. This is due to the torture that he endured when he was a prisoner of war in the Middle East. I like to think that DI Jack Shaw is the reincarnation of DI Eden Brooke. Perhaps we will learn in a later installment that Shaw is a descendant of Brooke.

The Fens surrounding Cambridge remind me of the Fens that play a significant role in the Journalist Philip Dryden series, which is set in Ely, near Cambridge. Most of the Fens are marshlands that have been drained in order to create fertile farm land. The Tennessee Valley Authority did the same thing with their dams in America’s Southeast. Dryden and his wife, Laura, nearly died when their car turned over inside one of the many flooded drains that crisscross the Fens. He hires a personal chauffeur, Humph, who, because of his efficiency and quiet demeanor, reminds me of Brooke’s sidekick, Detective Sergeant Ralph Edison. Edison also reminds me of DS George Valentine who performs a lot of foot work for his superior, DI Shaw.

Typical of Kelly’s novels, “The Great Darkness” has a very intricate plot. All of the crimes that occur during the night of the Great Darkness are connected. There are numerous murders and they are evenly spaced throughout the storyline in order to maintain a fast pacing. Yes, there are some gory and disturbing scenes. I can’t go into lengthy detail for fear of ruining some of the innumerable shocks and surprises. Also, there is a university, Michaelhouse, and its adjoining lab building, the Galen. At the labs, Brooke’s friend, Dr. Peter Aldiss, performs classified experiments on cockroaches and other creepy crawlers. Furthermore, Kelly does an excellent job of describing the harsh realities of war, which include rationing, soup kitchens, curfews, evacuees, and the homeless dying in gruesome methods.

History was never my forte. However, I found Jim Kelly's "The Great Darkness" exceptionally intriguing. It actually contains several baffling mysteries involving the deaths of good people. There are numerous villains. Some of them are intent on killing thousands of innocent people throughout England. Brooke has a personal nemesis who endeavors to destroy him because he is coming too close to the horrible truth. Fans of Jim Kelly and historical mysteries, especially those centered around WWII, will definitely want to read "The Great Darkness." Everything about it is unique, especially the protagonist, DI Eden Brook, who wears dark glasses while patrolling the nighttime streets of Cambridge. He is one of many Nighthawks who strive to keep the city safe from Nazis. I can't wait for the next installment in this wonderful new series.
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Top reviews from other countries

Milly
3.0 out of 5 stars Wartime setting with great detail
Reviewed in Canada on November 4, 2020
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HAd read other Jim Kelly books
But although enjoyable preferred the other series
Story lines interesting as was wartime background
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JoeDoeBooks
5.0 out of 5 stars A great, complex, enjoyable Cambridge crime story
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 13, 2018
Verified Purchase
I was sold on The Great Darkness when I heard the author introduce it at Heffers bookshop event earlier this year. He read from the start of the novel and I got a real sense of the calm darkness of those early war years. Of spreading, ominous secrecy and a looming dread. Of everyday problems continuing and being magnified and dwarfed by the added complexities of war.
I had high expectations and I was not disappointed.

It's a crime novel. As story of a murder. Or rather of murder and death and manhunts and investigations. There are multiple, parallel threads and crimes that cross and intertwine. There is a clever who-done-it in there and period detail that is core to the crimes. There’s a cast of varied characters that pop in and out of the narrative and who left me hoping for further appearances, other books, more opportunities to learn of their world. The hero sails through the centre of this darting, complex story holding it altogether and quickly working his way into your affections.

This is an accomplished book. A fun read by any standards, but what really raised it to the level of one of the few series I wait and hope for the latest instalment of, was the depiction of night-time, wartime Cambridge. The quiet, the peace and the danger and the poverty. This is a complex Cambridge. A lovely place but also a real-world location.
I believe the second in the series is imminent and I can’t wait.
5 people found this helpful
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Kenno
3.0 out of 5 stars A deviation for Jim Kelly
Reviewed in Canada on November 13, 2018
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The book has yet to develop. If you are use to Jim’s other characters, this style of writing is a bit of a change.
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Jenny K
4.0 out of 5 stars Gripping detective story set at the start of WW2
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 6, 2019
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Full of twists and turns, with characters that you can relate to, and whose fate you can start to care about. Set in Cambridge in 1939 (the title refers to a night of complete black-out), it's particularly interesting to those who know the city or are planning to visit it - although that is certainly not a pre-requisite.
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Kindle Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant writer, wonderful writing.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 22, 2020
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These books are beautifully written. The Author creates atmosphere with words, this is one of the lost arts in writing, I read all three of this series of books straight after each other and I can only hope there will be more.
I am just about to embark upon the other books by this author, I don't think that anyone who can write like this could put a foot wrong. I was completely immersed in these books and can only hope that he will write more in the series, If you want to be totally immersed in the era and the life of the main characters, if you want a book to take away all the rotten things that are happening in the real world, I suggest you read these books, they are wonderful.
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