Sometimes, a story makes you hold your breath.
That’s how I felt for the first third of Leye Adenle’s spy / PI thriller, ‘Fall From Grace’. As two spies sought to manipulate each other and shadowy connections between characters began to emerge, I was on tenterhooks, waiting to understand the full set-up and see who would emerge victorious.
Then the PI, who isn’t a real PI at all but a coach who can’t resist a puzzle that touched his life, meets a woman and the action shifted in a way that made me feel that the kind of resolution I enjoy would not be forthcoming. I was right.
What’s it about?
Bobby Fatokun has been a police officer in both England and Nigeria. Now he works with the Met as a ‘Bad Coach’, helping to reform corrupt or obnoxious officers over a six month coaching programme, but when a former client calls seeking an urgent meeting and then promptly dies, Bobby suspects foul play and his inner investigator is roused.
Bobby’s investigations lead him to a church with a wealthy pastor, but Bobby isn’t the only person investigating this church. Could he be putting his own life at risk from a person determined to neutralise a threat?
What’s it like?
Initially fast paced and intriguing, ‘Fall From Grace’ shifts into slower territory about midway through the book. Bobby constantly doubts his own interpretations of situations and zig zags sharply and repeatedly from severe paranoia to a determined attempt at insouciance. Although, it’s only paranoia if they aren’t watching you…
Chapter one introduces Francis, ex-spy and current employee of the King of England, and John, current spy and Francis’ connection back to the service. From then on, I enjoyed the introduction of a range of suspicious characters, wondering who would turn out to be an agent or even a double agent in the events that followed.
I also enjoyed the touches of humour throughout the book, such as the opening conversation between Francis and John regarding contractors. Chapters are short and pacey, switching quickly between the first person narration of Bobby and the third person view of Kenny, a young lad drafted into the church, Francis and, later on, some of his connections. Other key characters are more opaque, especially the women involved in the church and in Bobby’s investigation, encouraging a constant sense in the reader that all their preconceptions could be upended at any time. And then – it ends.
Final thoughts
An ending can really make or break a book and, for me, this ending was frustrating; too much was left unresolved in favour of a significant cliff-hanger. I’ve written before about preferring each book in a series to be able to work as a standalone as well as adding to an overall narrative arc and that’s definitely still true.
Interestingly, I note that Bobby is not a new character for Adenle, although this is his first full-length outing. A brief perusal of reviews of ‘Cell One’, published last year as a Quick Read for The Reading Agency, suggests that it has a similarly open ending, setting the reader up to invest in this novel, which makes me think it is a stylistic feature of the author and would make me slightly hesitant about reading the second book in this series, due out September next year. Though, in truth, I do also really, really want to know what will happen in the next chapter!
I did really enjoy the set up and much of the story telling, and the ending is certainly both dramatic and revelatory. Personally, I wanted more answers, but I’m sure there are readers who will love the ambiguity and that dramatic final chapter.
‘Fall From Grace’,
Leye Adenle,
2026, Simon and Schuster, paperback
Many thanks to the publisher and Anne Cater’s Random Things Tours for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review and a spot on the blog tour.
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