DCI Yorke may have met his match. He and his team are after a man who cold bloodily murdered a woman who worked in radio.

Once he and his team start investigating, Yorke finds a skilled assassin with connections to the Russians. There's also a connection to Yorke's wife.

With rumors of corrupt cops, Yorke doesn't know who to trust ... and he and his family have become the target of a vicious hit man who knows no boundaries when it comes to torturing and killing. Who will survive when bodies start falling.

This is a skillfully woven plot surrounding deftly drawn characters. It's an action -packed page-turner from start to finish. Although 5th in the series, it can be read as a stand-alone. I highly recommend starting at the very beginning to pick up those nuggets that make a good book much more than that. There is a wee cliff-hanger which will segue into the next book.

Many thanks to the author / The Book Club/FB for the digital copy of this crime fiction. Read and reviewed voluntarily, opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.read-in-2020 tbc-reviewer-request12 s Yvonne (thehorrorhive)801 329

Dance With The Reaper – how many people have tried to do just that and lost? A haunting title, a disturbing cover and a soul breaking synopsis. Wes Markin has penned a story that can only build upon the DCI Yorke franchise. So, who pray tell would dare dance with the Reaper? Someone who has given up on life? Someone that lives a life with reckless abandon? Or is this something else entirely? Well you’ll need to read it for yourself to find out.

I’ll let you into a little secret – I couldn’t wait to read Dance With The Reaper. It was highly anticipated, and I so desperately wanted it to live up to my expectations. I couldn’t wait to uncover the secrets it was desperate for me to unleash. My worst fear is something happening to one of my children. You want to the natural order of things to follow through. I don’t think life would be worth living if they didn’t live under the same sky. For one character that scenario becomes a reality, but they don’t have the opportunity to say goodbye, but they do witness it of a kind. The heartache, the trauma and the emotion would be enough to break anyone.

I’ve already mentioned the cover – you can feel the desolation and very quickly the action-packed narrative seeped into my veins and I became at one with the enigmatic words. We have dual POV’s told and it brings clarity and a multi-faceted understanding to the timeline. It brings you to that pin dropping moment that feels a tsunami carrying you away. By the almighty power of Zeus, the author at no point sugar coats anything. The power of the story sweeps you on. The story opens with a local woman, a radio broadcast presenter being held at gunpoint. If a listener can guess the perpetrators favourite song, then he won’t kill her…can someone guess in time?

Dance With The Reaper takes us on a journey with DCI Yorke. The details that are scattered, the unsaid words and the palpitating heat and perspiring sweat and the moment when you wonder if everything will be ok. Wes Markin knows just how his readers tick – he has that secret formula that just allows him to connect with us. I’ve read many crime fiction novels and it takes a lot now to move me one way or the other. This story just managed to get under my skin and that doesn’t happen as often as it used to.

Crime is a scary and unfortunately inevitable occurrence in our social world. Well Wes Markin has manged to have me checking over my shoulder all that more now. Our assassin is one scary dude – not just your average shady character, he is terrifyingly awful. We have a Russian ex-pat with little words, but he more makes up for that in height and bulk and the strength of 10 incredible hulks. It’s the aspect of the story that had me quaking the most.

Dance With The Reaper has success written all over it. Wes Markin knows how to play with your head and leave you dazed. A cat and mouse chase, a race against the clock, a superb voice in British crime fiction.

Thanks to Caroline Vincent for a copy of the ebook and my spot on the blog tour – always a pleasure.3 s Anthony Brooks135 4

This was a great Read. So much going on.

DCI Yorke, once again at the center of Major crimes, has to revisit old crimes, crimes of murder, murder of a gangsters granddaughter, and the gangster is none other than the Reaper. But the true Reaper is a former Russian ballet dancer, who is now is clean killing machine.

Yorke's teams is all nearly gone. Gardener moved on after the last case, Another vanished, Jake is nearly absent, and Yorke is struggling with pulling what little he has together.

Highly recommend this book! Another 5 star book3 s Kath MiddletonAuthor 23 books153

Wes Markin’s readers will jump at this book. It’s fifth in the series but a sequel to the first. The story is exciting, explosive, and the author can certainly hook you in. Events from previous books are cleverly interwoven so it’s really best to read these in order. Yorke is a able character and doesn’t deserve all that happens to him. There are times in the story you actually have to stop and remember to breathe. I have slight doubts as to the credibility of all of this but hey, it’s fiction, so hang on to your hat and go for the ride.2 s Kath2,688

This is book 5 in the series and there is quite a lot of interconnected arcs and follow-on from previous books so I really would recommend reading this series from book one and in order. They are all great reads so it's really no hardship!
This book follows on from some of the events that happened in the previous books and deals with the devastating fallout. Yorke's team has changed personnel wise and the dynamic is all a bit new. So it's really not the best time for them to be hit with another most heinous adversary. But there we are! I say heinous, well if you've read the previous books you'll know the author does love his dark side and it is front and centre in this book too. Not for the faint-hearted! This time we meet the Reaper and he definitely pulls no punches in his torture and killing. Yorke is pulled once again into a very murky world as he and his colleagues race to apprehend him. But is everyone playing on the same team...?
I love this series. I do a foray into the dark side and this is definitely covered by the shenanigans found herein. I also love my real ale and, coincidentally, on the day I read this I did venture into the outside world of scary pub openings and had me a Summer Lightning! (They didn't have Crop Circle on) I found that quite serendipitous...
Anyway... all the other elements I need to make a good book a great read are also front and centre too. A cracking, convoluted, interconnected story, played out by some well crafted characters - both series and episode; big and small a - and it got on with itself very well with no superfluous padding and waffle. Character development continues to work well and the ending left me wholly satisfied.
All in all, a cracking addition to an already impressive series. Roll on next time!1 Sue Wallace 6,571 81

Dance with the reaper by Wes Markin.
Yorke's world collide in this devastating sequel to one last prayer for the rays.
Absolutely brilliant. I loved the story and some of the characters. Michael was my favourite. Wow I didn't expect that. I do hope there is more to come. 5*.1 Michael Sanderson-green761 4

The violence is overwhelming the plot1 Annette916 1 follower

Wow, another cracking read, it's complicated it keeps you on your toes but nothing more than you would expect from this brilliant author. DCI York is drawn back into the seedy underworld where violence and torture are commonplace but when it starts to get personal he realises he will have to pull out all the stops to put an end to it once and for all.1 Darren1,861 43

I got this as a e book for my i pad from a facebook page that I am a member of. I enjoyed reading this book. It had a good story to it. I have read other books by this author and d them too. I look forward to the next book by this author.1 Amanda2,026 51

I have been a fan of the series featuring DCI Michael Yorke for a while now.  In fact I have been a fan since I had the good fortune to pick up the first book in the series called 'One Last Prayer For The Rays'.  Since then, I have grabbed a copy of each new release in the series and squirrelled myself away until I have managed to finish reading it.  The fifth and latest book in the series is called 'Dance With The Reaper' and it was released on 18th July 2020 in both e-book format and in paperback.  Blimey I thought that the other books in the series were good but 'Dance With The Reaper' blows the rest out of the water and is my favourite book of the series so far.  I thoroughly enjoyed reading 'Dance With The Reaper' but more about that in a bit.

I love the character of Detective Chief Inspector Michael Yorke and I warmed to him from the start.  In fact it didn't take long for me to feel as though I had reunited with an old friend in Yorke.  He is a dedicated police officer, who often goes above and beyond in the course of his work.  He has a bit of a temper and he seems to have the occasional confrontation, which gets him into trouble.  Yorke manages a small team and in general they do get on well together, although there is the occasional blip.  Within his team, is his former best friend but their relationship fractured a bit and relations between the two of them have been strained of late.  Yorke happens to witness a murder as it is being broadcast over the radio.  Yorke can't help but become involved in the investigation which is set to test him and his team as they have never been tested before.  Will Yorke crack the case?  Are there surprises and shocks in store?  Well for the answers to those questions and more you are just going to have to read the book for yourselves to find out as I am not going to tell you.

Oh my flipping word, where do I start with this fantastic book?  As soon as I started to read, that was it- there was no point talking to me for the rest of the day because you just wouldn't have got a polite answer from me.  I literally couldn't put this book down at all.  My Kindle wasn't exactly glued to my hand but it might as well have been because it travelled everywhere with me.  I couldn't bear to miss a single second of the story.  I was so deeply immersed in the story, that I lost all track of time and I also lost track of just how quickly the pages were turning.  Unsurprisingly it only took me a day to finish reading 'Dance With The Reaper' and all too quickly I had to bid a temporary farewell to DCI Yorke.

'Dance With The Reaper' is simply superbly written.  The author certainly knows how to start a story in a memorable way, which ensures that this book will stay fresh in my mind for a long time to come.  For me, the story hit the ground running and maintained a fast pace throughout.  I was drawn into this story from the start and I felt as though I was taken on one hell of a fast, unpredictable and at times downright scary rollercoaster ride.  At times I almost had to read through my fingers as I feared what was going to happen next.  Certain parts of the story were shocking and a certain part of the story brings a whole new meaning to 'parents keeping an eye on you'.  I felt as though I was part of the story and that's all down to this author's very vivid and realistic storytelling.  This series just gets better and better and goes from strength to strength.

In short, I thoroughly enjoyed reading 'Dance With The Reaper' and I would recommend it to other readers.  I will certainly be reading more from this author in the future.  The score on the Ginger Book Geek board has to be 5* out of 5*. Alyson Read977 46

This is book five in the absolutely stunning series featuring DCI Michael Yorke, set in and around Salisbury in Wiltshire. Yorke is now happily married to Divisional Surgeon Patricia, with adopted teenage son Ewan and baby Beatrice, but sadly his loyal team of officers was very much torn apart at the end of the last story. Emma Gardner has ended her career and works as a security guard, DS Jake Pettman is now living apart from his family and is just about hanging in there, and DI Mark Topham has disappeared. Yorke has been promoted back to DCI and has the support of two promising officers, DS Collette Willows and DC Lorraine Pemberton. He is doing his best to pull them all back together after the shattering events of the previous year but true to form the peace doesn't last long. After two short descriptions of events that happened many years ago, the story is straight back to present day and the murder of a radio presenter. The poor girl is held at gunpoint on air and executed when a member of the audience does not guess the correct song title. It transpires that the girl's grandfather is doing time for being part of an infamous organised crime gang from Southampton. Readers of a previous book in this series will remember what happened to their leader and know that they are completely ruthless. Another old gang member is also in the same prison who may have links to Yorke, threatening the integrity of the whole case. In the meantime the reader gets an introduction to the assassin and it's not long before detectives identify him. However it will be finding him and catching him that will prove to be the problem as the killings start to mount up, and once again Yorke and his team have to face the very embodiment of evil. In the midst of all this, Yorke discovers more about the murder of his sister years ago, and there are plenty more people around him keeping secrets of their own as the tentacles of organised crime stretch far wider than anyone could imagine. Wow! You'd think Yorke had faced the worst killers possible already in the s of the collective Ray family and Christian Severance, but prepare to be amazed. This guy is truly horrible - perverted, deranged and yet in perfect deadly control. There are some really gut-wrenching moments that made me flinch but somehow the blood and gore never seems gratuitous, but instead always a crucial part of the story. The reader might be forgiven for thinking that the during the first part of the book things are running smoothly for the detectives but once the action starts, it is relentless until the final explosive and devastating ending as the team are caught up in the wake of the killer. This book had me hooked right from the very first page, with perfectly drawn characters and a thrilling dramatic plot. Although each story is fantastic on its one, this is a series that is best read in order as there is a lot of character development and some threads which carry on from one book to the next. And true to form, while some of the cast receive some form of closure at the end of the story, some are left in a dilemma which leaves me eagerly awaiting the next book. 5* Kerry https://herdingcatsblog.wordpress.com Robinson788 15

Although this novel does work well alone, I'd recommend reading the whole series in order so that you get a much better feel for the character development and where they are coming from.  They are also cracking reads.  I have read 3 out of the 5 and I did have to fill some gaps in from context however, it doesn't spoil the main plot line or excitement of the novel.  

A hitman is on the rampage and it becomes obvious for Yorke that the people in his life are potentially in danger.  Can he identify and catch the killer before it's too late for his loved ones or even himself?

I'm always excited to read a DCI Yorke thriller and experience has taught me that this series is never a cosy crime mystery.  The first chapter is explosive and I was actually sitting with goosebumps up my arm whilst reading it.  I had my breath held and couldn't believe how the opening went (although I should have known better).  From this point until the end, I was addicted and couldn't put it down.

As always, a plot devised by Wes Markin is the stuff of nightmares and this one is no different.  Always dark, disturbing but an invisible force holding you there - refusing to let you put the book down and run away.  I am both fascinated and terrified by the darker side of human nature and this book (and the others I have read in the series) indulges my whim completely. 

There is always a good balance of the macabre, the police work and the personal relationships of Yorke which really bring the novels to life.  This installment has a lot of new team members and the dynamics from previous novels have changes and are slowly being redefined and rebuilt.  I enjoyed the different perspective the new relationships brought to the series. 

The best thing about this series is that every book is different.  There is no familiar format or deja vu feel to them.  The plots are fresh and unique each time and the surprises are still as haunting and compelling as ever.

Highly recommend this novel and the whole series if you have never indulged.  I also highly recommend you lock the doors and keep the light on whilst reading.  Alex Jones741 15

‘Dance With The Reaper ‘ is the 5th book in the DCI Michael Yorke series from the master of the Macabre, Wes Markin.

As a Beta Reader for Wes , I’m lucky enough to get my eyes on his latest works before most which is always a pleasure as he doesn’t let you down. In fact, he is an author growing in stature with each of his quite brilliantly dark thrillers starring DCI Micheal Yorke.

This latest story is another darkly powerful addition that introduces the most evil nemesis yet in the and is full of tension and suspense as Markin writes the deranged disturbed killers with his usual aplomb

Not forgetting that as much as these books are dark and frightening they are also top notch police procedurals with some very real feeling characters who you instantly feel an affinity with.

This book can be read as a standalone but I’d highly recommended any reader coming in at book 5, was to start at book 1, Rise of the Rays, and really flesh the characters out as the back stories are quite prominent and there are several characters who stories continue through the series.

Compelling and so easy to read and become lost in the gloomy murky world of DCI Yorke, this story is again is full of evil and scares as Wes Markin serves up another fast paced chill ride that will be lapped up by fans of the series.

Highly Recommended

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