Category: Sam Batford

Fools Gold by Ian Patrick: The Batford Trilogy Ends with a Bang

Fools Gold

Fools Gold

by Ian Patrick
Series: Sam Batford, #3

Kindle Edition, 237 pg.
Fahrenheit Press, 2020

Read: August 25-26, 2021
Grab a copy from your local indie bookstore!

I love remote working. It means I can be where I need to be, doing what I need to do, when I need to do it. After that there’s whatever time’s left for police work. I don’t regard myself as a criminal. I’m just a disgruntled public servant supplementing my meagre living. Most criminals I despise but there are a few who break the mould.

I’m one of them, after all.

What’s Fools Gold About?

After recovering from Stoned Love, Batford’s thrown back into the field. This time, he’s answering directly to Klara Winter and she’s got two things on her mind—shutting down an armed robbery team and exposing Batford.

Batford has three missions—stopping the robbery team; finishing cleaning up after his former boss/mentor—including getting what cash he can; and staying clean in front of Winter. Note the qualifier there, clean “in front of” Winter, not clean.

Typical police procedural stuff, right?

The UC work is great—and Batford ends up finding more criminal activity than the police were aware of when the operation started. I don’t want to get into it, because it’s better for you to read it. But like so many of the police actions in Patrick’s works, it screams authenticity.

So, what did I think about Fools Gold?

There was a time the police were viewed as protectors and defenders. In a way that still applies: Terrorists denied their spoils, criminal networks disrupted, drugs and guns seized. I’m part of all that but no longer feel like crew on the good ship, Justice.

I’m pretty sure I’ve said something like this before, but it’s worth repeating. It takes a special skill to make readers get behind a crooked cop—a reader will accept a Bosch or a Rebus bending the rules a bit to get the murderer to confess or get convicted. But that’s not Batford. Well, okay, it is. But that’s not all that Batford does—while he gets results/arrests/stops whatever crime he’s been sent to investigate, he also makes sure he profits off it. And somehow Patrick gets his readers to hope Batford gets away with it. At least a little bit.

It drives me crazy—I want him to succeed and I hope he spends the rest of his life behind bars. You figure that out, I can’t.

Patrick’s prose here is as lean as ever—and once the momentum builds up, it doesn’t stop. There’s a ticking clock on Batford’s investigation, and it carries over to the novel. The action propels you from one scene to the next.

There’s real growth in Patrick’s plotting—with no disrespect intended to his previous work—but this feels so much tighter, he doesn’t waste a moment.

And that ending? I don’t have words for it. It’s both a great launching pad in the (seemingly unlikely) case that there’s a fourth Batford novel, and a great way to conclude the trilogy.

Get them all—this would work okay as a stand-alone, but as the end of a run? It’s great. It’s a trilogy that goes from strength to strength, and you’d be smart to pick it up.


4 Stars

This post contains an affiliate link. If you purchase from it, I will get a small commission at no additional cost to you. As always, opinions are my own.

Universal Monster Book Tag


Witty and Sarcastic Book Club tagged me in her little creation—a tag based on Universal’s Classic Movie Monsters. There’s a lot of recency bias in my pics, but oh well—I liked the list. I really need to do more things like this, it was fun.

While trying to come up with the last couple of entries for this, I took a Facebook break and read a couple of posts on a Nero Wolfe fan group, and realized I could fill my blanks from that Corpus. Then it occurred to me that I could do one of these with entries only from the Nero Wolfe series. Or, the Spenser series. Huh. (I’d have trouble with some other series depending how you define “sequel” below). Watch me control the impulse.

bullet Dracula: a book with a charismatic villain
The Silence of the Lambs
My Pick: Gotta go with Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs, every other charismatic villain I can think of pales in comparison.
Bonus Nero Wolfe Pick: (yeah, so much for restraint—this was a fun additional challenge) Paul Chapin in The League of Frightened Men (my post about the book)
Bonus Spenser Pick: The Gray Man in Small Vices

bullet The Invisible Man: A book that has more going on than meets the eye
The Last Adventure of Constance Verity
My Pick: The Last Adventure of Constance Verity by A. Lee Martinez (my post about the book)
Bonus Nero Wolfe Pick: Even in the Best Families
Bonus Spenser Pick: Early Autumn

bullet Wolf-Man: A complicated character
Needle Song
My Pick: Doc Slidesmith in Needle Song (my post about the book)
Bonus Nero Wolfe Pick: Can I just use Nero Wolfe? Eh, Orrie Cather in A Family Affair
Bonus Spenser Pick: Patricia Utley in Mortal Stakes

bullet Frankenstein: A book with a misunderstood character
The Unkindest Tide
My Pick: The Luidaeg in The Unkindest Tide by Seanan McGuire (my post about the book)
Bonus Nero Wolfe Pick: Over My Dead Body (my post about the book)
Bonus Spenser Pick: Hawk, A Promised Land

bullet The Bride of Frankenstein: A sequel you enjoyed more than the first book
Stoned Love
My Pick: Stoned Love by Ian Patrick (my post about the book)
Bonus Nero Wolfe Pick: The League of Frightened Men (yeah, that’s the second time this shows up, but it’s the sequel…) (my post about the book)
Bonus Spenser Pick: God Bless the Child

bullet Creature from the Black Lagoon: An incredibly unique book
A Star-Reckoner's Lot

(there’s a better cover now, but this is the first)

My Pick: A Star-Reckoner’s Lot by Darrell Drake (my post about the book)
Bonus Nero Wolfe Pick: Some Buried Ceasar (my post about the book)
Bonus Spenser Pick: A Savage Place

bullet The Mummy: A book that wraps up nicely (see what I did there?)
Every Heart a Doorway
My Pick: Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire (my post about the book)
Bonus Nero Wolfe Pick: This applies to almost every one of them, I’m going to go with The Doorbell Rang
Bonus Spenser Pick: The Judas Goat

I’m not going to tag anyone, but I’d encourage any reader to give it a shot. I’d like to see your lists.

Also, I’ve been thinking for awhile I needed to do a re-read of the Spenser series. This post has convinced me I really need to get on that.

BOOK SPOTLIGHT: Rubicon by Ian Patrick

Today we welcome the Book Tour for the provocative Rubicon by Ian Patrick — frankly, half the reason that I’m happy about this is that now I can read all the great content that’s been put together for this tour. Along with this spotlight post, I’ll be giving my take on the novel here in a bit.

Book Details:

Book Title: Rubicon by Ian Patrick
Publisher: Fahrenheit Press
Release date: August 21, 2017
Format: Paperback/ebook
Length: 232 pages

Book Blurb:

Two cops, both on different sides of the law – both with the same gangland boss in their sights.

Sam Batford is an undercover officer with the Metropolitan Police who will stop at nothing to get his hands on fearsome crime-lord Vincenzo Guardino’s drug supply.

DCI Klara Winter runs a team on the National Crime Agency, she’s also chasing down Guardino, but unlike Sam Batford she’s determined to bring the gangster to justice and get his drugs off the streets.

Set in a time of austerity and police cuts where opportunities for corruption are rife, Rubicon is a tense, dark thriller that is definitely not for the faint hearted.

About Ian Patrick:

Ian PatrickEducated in Nottingham, Ian left school at sixteen. After three years in the Civil Service he moved to London for a career in the Metropolitan Police.

He spent twenty-seven years as a police officer, the majority as a detective within the Specialist Operations Command. A career in policing is a career in writing. Ian has been used to carrying a book and pen and making notes.

Now retired, the need to write didn’t leave and evolved into fiction.

 

Ian’s Social Media:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/IPatrick_Author
Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ian-Patrick/e/B075VB1MP4/ref=dp_byline_cont_ebooks_1

Buy Rubicon direct from Fahrenheit Press:
http://www.fahrenheit-press.com/books_rubicon.html


My thanks to damppebbles blog tours for the invitation to participate in this tour and the materials they provided.

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