The. Black Highway is the third book in the Laughton Rees series by Simon Toyne. The first two books Dark Objects and The Clearing set a pretty high bar for the series. The Black Highway clears that bar and leaves me eagerly awaiting the next installment in the series.

The river Thames aka The Black Highway is the backdrop for the third book in the Laughton Rees series from Simon Toyne. Dr. Laughton Rees is a professor and a forensic specialist who provides assistance to the London police

The Story

.The previous two books in the series Dark Objects and The Clearing were both outstanding, as was Sanctus the first book in the Sanctus trilogy (of which I have only read one book Boo Me!)
In The Black Highway the case becomes extremely personal. When a headless and handless body is pulled from the Thames, with Laughton’s home address on its arm a target is placed on both Laughton and her teenage daughter.

Soon Shelby Facer a figure from Laughton’s checkered past shows up. Shelby has been recently released from prison after serving a 16 year prison sentence in Florida. The drug deal gone bad that resulted with Shelby’s arrest was overseen by none other than Laughton’s father John Rees. Oh and Shelby unbeknownst to him is Laughton’s daughter’s father!

When a second body is found in a similar condition and it’s related to the Shelby’s prison sentence it appears that the murderer is out to avenge their imprisonment. Does that make Laughton and he daughter targets because of her father’s association with the case!
And from there story is masterfully told

My Thoughts a Book of Relationships and Murder?

The Black Highway is another gem of a book by Simon Toyne. I enjoy books and series where the character relationships are as important to plots of the novel as the action occurring be it a murder, a kidnapping or other action.

I guess that’s why I love the Cork O’Connor books where many of the story-lines revolve around Cork and is family relationships, as well as, his relationship with his Ojibwe roots. Another example is the Joe Pickett where Joe’s relationships with his family, Nate Romanowski and even the Governor of Wyoming are important to various books in the series, Oh, I forgot Joe’s relationship with his mother-in-law Missy!
Boy do relationship form the core of The Black Highway.

First there’s the relationship of Laughton, her daughter Gracie and Shelby, How do you deal with the appearance of you daughter’s biological father who is not only a convicted criminal but is now associated with a murder investigation and a potential target. But also represents a time in your life you would rather forget.

Then there is the relationship of Laughton with her own father former police commissioner John Rees. Laughton blamed her father for her mother’s murder and left home at the same age as Gracie! Oh,my! Could he have been responsible for what happened to Shelby?

Finally, there is the relationship between Laughton and Kahn Tannahill. which was just blooming. The actions throughout the book certainly put a strain on their relationship.

So all these relationship are tied into the weaving story line of The Black Highway resulting in a rip-roaring finish that I believe sets the stage for more Laughton Rees books in the future, At least I hope!

(oh Laughton is named after the actor Charles Laughton!

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About Simon Toyne

Simon Toyne was born February 29th, 1968 in Cleethorpes, England, but spent his formative years in Peterborough. He moved further south, to Goldsmiths College, part of the University of London, to study English and Drama then ended up working as a producer, director in commercial television for almost twenty years.
He quit in 2007, just shy of his fortieth birthday, to try and focus more on writing. His first book, Sanctus, became the biggest selling debut thriller of 2011 in the UK and also an international bestseller, translated into 27 languages and published in over 50 countries.More at Goodreads

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Inside the Citadel in the ancient city of Ruin resides a select group of monks charged with protecting the Sacrament, along with thousands of ancient texts discovered over the millennium.  The nature of the Sacrament is known only to a select few of those monks – the Sancti. But when Brother Samuel is initiated into the Sancti, and discovers what the Sacrament is, he decides can not live with that knowledge or continue to belong to the Sancti. He makes a harrowing and torturous climb to the top of the Citadel, where he stands for hours in a pose symbolic of the Tau, the symbol of the Sancti, before plunging to his death. So begins Sanctus, first book of the Ruin trilogy from British author Simon Toyne. The questions left unanswered are: Why did he do it? What did he see that lead him to take his own life?

I picked up Sanctus in Dollar General for $3.00 because it looked like the type of book that I enjoy, one that combines history with action and while the historic aspects of the story are somewhat fictional the action and the characters more than make up for it. The key character in the book is newspaper reporter Liv Adamson, who is the identical twin of Brother Samuel. Actually, they were the first conjoined twins to be different sexes. The story revolves around Liv’s attempt to discover the why of Samuel’s death. Liv hadn’t seen her brother in eight years and assumed was dead!  Of course, the Sancti want no one to know the secret of the Sacrament, and will do anything to stop Liv’s search, while others including members of an ancient rival religious sect of the Sancti want to help!

Sanctus is rather lengthy 578 pages, but the writing is crisp, and the characters and action kept me turning the pages quickly, particularly through the second half of the book, once I knew all the players!

Several of the reviews of Sanctus, I read at Goodreads.com were negative because the readers felt that Toyne did not develop the  city or the people of Ruin realistically enough. The reviewers felt the setting could be any city or police force in the US or the world. Again, I thought the action and characters more than made up for any lack of geographic  “sense of place”. I did feel that the descriptions and feel for the Citadel, the mountain fortress of the Sancti, was well done. I had a feel for the dark library that housed thousands of historic documents and the spectral images of the monks that worked within the library

Bottom Line: I thoroughly enjoyed the book and will  move on quickly to the second book in the trilogy – The Key. I think that if you enjoy the books of Dan Brown and Chris Kuzneski you’ll enjoy Sanctus.

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Book 34 for 2014 – Here’s the Trailer for Sanctus

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