No Time to Cry: Constance Fairchild Series 1 (The Constance Fairchild Series)

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Con has multiple issues to deal with. The trail of devastation behind her and in front of her is incessant with no sign of letting up. Supposedly off-duty, Con finds herself unwittingly caught up in this new case. With the paparazzi still hounding her, Con can find no peace in her own home. At her place of work, many of her colleagues are keeping their distance and passing snide remarks in her wake. Following on from her previous case, members of the police team are under investigation and Con is the scape-goat in her station, as the now additional workload is allocated out to those still in their jobs. As this new case gains momentum and more victims are discovered, Con finds herself on a journey to Edinburgh in the hope of unearthing more about the victim found near her flat. She remains officially off-duty and works somewhat outside of her legitimate parameters. While in Edinburgh, Con encounters characters who may be familiar to readers of James Oswald’s McLean series. I love how the two series ‘accidentally’ overlap and how James Oswald subtly weaves these characters into each separate plot-line. Detective Constable Constance Fairchild is on compassionate leave following the death of her mother, and is renting a cottage near Aberystwyth, Wales to get away from the hustle and bustle of London. The problem is trouble appears to follow Fairchild around and she finds herself in a police station cell after defending herself from two would-be rapists. While at the station she is mistakenly put in the same cell as a young Ukrainian woman, Lila, who confides in that she’s been forced by her manipulative boyfriend into prostitution and running drugs. Fearing for her life, she has run away from him, only to end up in the cells.

Oswald’s debut book, a police procedural and the first entry in the Inspector McLean series, has over thirty five editions. The first edition of the book was initially published in 2012, titled Natural Causes, and the series is shelved as crime, mystery, and thriller genres. My thanks to Headline/Wildfire for an eARC via NetGalley of ‘Nowhere to Run’ by James Oswald in exchange for an honest review.With action from the start, numerous scenes of peril and suspense all wrapped up perfectly in a plot which mixes contemporary themes with Welsh folklore and a touch of the unexplained, this is a book that I have no hesitation in recommending. Oswald does a good job of giving a sense both of the town of Aberystwyth, and the isolation of the surrounding countryside. Aber really is a town on the edge of the country, and it feels like that in this book. The geography is slightly off, but you’ll only know that if you know the local area. He also plays fast and loose with the local legends, but that’s one of the reasons why I like Oswald's work, that 'is the supernatural real or just something we imagined' theme runs through all the James Oswald's books I’ve read so far. Con is trying to recover from the events of the previous book while mourning the death of her mother. A friend of her aunt has loaned her a cottage on the coast in a village near Aberystwyth, where she can heal. I found this a fast paced, gripping read which I found hard to put down. There are lots of twists and turns to keep the reader very interested in the story, which helped keep me guessing what was going on. I had to keep reading to find out what was happening and to see if Fairchild comes out on top again.

But what makes this book so excellent is that it doesn’t rely on the main character to hold it all up. There’s an entire collection of interesting people who feel real and present and relatable, from the kindly yet mysterious neighbour to Con’s police colleagues, near and far. And this is where things get interesting because there’s a bit of crossover here with James Oswald’s Edinburgh series and it seems like it might be a bit supernatural?? Full of dangerous and dark things?? If so... Sign. Me. Up. There’s a touch of that here too and I’m all for it. In a genre where everything has to be explained, it’s fun to have a hint of the inexplicable. And there are cats, so obviously there’s magic involved.Bob Mortimer wins 2023 Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction with The Satsuma Complex Con has been suspended from her job following the events of book one and is treated with disdain by both her colleagues and the press. Neither of who can accept that she is Lady Constance, even though she has no interest in the title, has little time for her parents and doesn’t get any financial benefit from having the title. I did feel their treatment was a little unfair, considering she was only doing her job. The subsidiary characters, particularly the villains, were rather one dimensional, and only the dog and Karen's girlfriend stood out from the crowd. On her way she calls in home and stays with her Aunt Felicity. Her brother Ben is getting married to Charlotte shortly and Con needs to tell her mother that she won’t be attending. The last thing Charlotte and Ben need is a bunch of paps turning up at their wedding in search of the ‘Posh cop’ and her family.

I was impressed with the third book about the new character and I look forward to reading both the Inspector McLean and the Con Fairchild series in the future. Strongly recommended. Now this book can be read as a standalone. However, given the fact that Constance (or Con as she likes to be called) is still off-duty due to her role in the previous case. There is a lot of references to the first book. It doesn't detract from the story in hand, but for me now I don't see the need to read No Time To Cry as I basically know how it pans out. The new book in the brilliant Constance Fairchild series, from one of Scotland's foremost crime writers. Once again, Mr Oswald creates fantastic characters even ones of the four legged variety; I absolutely loved Gelert the deerhound who embodies the phrase "[wo]man's best friend" and I guarantee you will want a Gelert in your life albeit without the flatulence! There’s some interesting secondary characters as well including her always cooking neighbour Mrs Feltham from the first book, and two new characters - PC Karen Eve who helps support her in dealing with the paparazzi and a new Detective Superintendent, Diane Shepherd. (both of whom we assume might appear in future books).Will I carry on? I honestly don’t know. I hope that this series gets better; I wonder if some of the weaknesses come from the difficulty inherent in trying to write a police procedural when the main character isn’t on active duty for most of the book, especially with a main character who seems to have no friends to interact with. As J D Oswald, James has written a classic fantasy series, The Ballad of Sir Benfro. Inspired by the language and folklore of Wales, it follows the adventures of a young dragon, Sir Benfro, in a land where his kind have been hunted near to extinction by men. The whole series is now available in print, ebook and audio formats. I really, really wanted to love this. James Oswald is one of my favourite authors, and although I didn’t enjoy the first Con Fairchild book as much as his Inspector McLean series, I hoped that this second Con Fairchild book would be different. Part of this book is set in Edinburgh, which is one of my favourite cities so I enjoyed following Constance on her visit there. This part also features a bit of a cross over with characters from the MacLean series which as a huge fan of the series I found hugely enjoyable. I’d love the two teams to feature in future books! When Con goes out for a drink she attracts the attention of two predators; though when they pounce she manages to defend herself. Yet she is the one arrested! While in custody she meets Lila, a young Ukrainian woman, who has run away from her manipulative boyfriend who had forced her into illegal activities.