Customer Reviews
Wow! - By: N. A. Jones, 05 Sep 2007 
Like the rest of the reviewers, I also found Simon Kernick via Relentless & was left wanting more. I've just finished listening to A Good Day to Die on audiobook & although it took me a while to get used to the story teller's Essex twang, I then began to feel the beginnings of a soft spot for the character of Dennis.
I couldn't stop listening & even started listening secretly at work - a definite must read (or listen), for lovers of gritty, real, UK mafia type stories. Read it.........!
Impressive Pace - By: Dean Hepburn, 13 Aug 2007 Like the other reviewer on this page, I also have just recently discovered Simon Kernick & started with RELENTLESS, & have done things in reverse order almost!! This is another great high speed, fast paced action thriller from one of England's talent. Anti-hero of this book,Dennis Milne, the ex-cop turned hitman is actuallly a realistic credible character, you get a real sense of his home sickness when he peers into a warm & cosy boozer on a cold december night. For those who find it hard to believe that a cop could turn hitman, well when you realise he was mostly topping scumbags - you can see where he's coming from. Keep it up Simon!!
Another WOW from me! - By: Hippy chick, 07 Aug 2007 I've obviously done this allllll the wrong way round as my first Simon Kernick was 'Relentless', (already done a review for that one), before I read 'A Good Day to Die' & now just finished his latest, ('Severed'), so it looks as if I shalll have to keep reading in reverse until I've done the lot! This author reallly does have a wonderful way of keeping the pace going alll the way through to the point that you just do NOT want to put the book down.
'A Good Day To Die' was great, although the thought of a cop turning renegade was a bit hard to grasp for me personallly at the offset, it somehow seemed to be quite plausable after you understood the circumstances.
Twists & turns alll the way through & surprises popping up alll over the place where I thought had a character sussed only to find I was wrong. His description of situations is excellent & you can truly imagine the scene...which sometimes perhaps....you'd rather not.
I'm definitely spreading the word about SK books to friends & family who also enjoy thrillers. Simon Kernick......well done. I just can't get enough of you.
A good day to do something other than read this book - By: ZedBooks, 01 Feb 2007 
This cover of book promised much , with lots of fawning one-line recommendations, a good title & the promise of an interesting tour through the darker side of London's underworld. But, alas, it is groaning with that cheap, staccato, tough-guy claptrap that some reviewers love & describe as "gritty". Our hero is former London cop Dennis Milne who now kills people for money while he lives on the run in the Philippines (Why on the run? Well it seems that he "accidentallly" mowed down a bunch of innocent customs officers in the last book.) He hears that his old cop friend Asif Malik has been murdered, & he comes back to London to solve the case. He is, of course, instantly embroiled in a trail of violence & improbable mayhem. To describe Milne's morality as confused would be like saying that Dr Shipman was a little mixed up. And it was when, asked by his new girlfriend how he ended up as a hitman, Milne replies, "I thought I was doing the world a favour," that I put the book down & got on with my life.
A Good Book to Buy - By: one-eyed Jack, 17 Jul 2006 
This is the sequel to The Business of Dying (TBOD) & I would recommend that book to be read first although it is not essential. I read A Good Day to Die immediately afterwards & with high expectations, but I was just slightly disappointed that this one lacked the pace & excitement of the first. Dennis Milne now goes by a different name & has done so for the past three years while living 'on the run' in the Philippines, but his contract killing duties are callled upon even in this relatively remote part of the world & when Milne hears that a former detective associate of his has been gunned down in London, he can't resist the urge to go back home & hunt down the people responsible.
In London Milne sets about his mission & suffers his fair share of complications along the way, the trouble for me though was that this was a slightly formulaic tale in comparison to TBOD which was refreshingly different at the time of its release. On the other hand, I found it much easier to accept Milne this time round as a freelance killer as opposed to the Detective Sergeant he had been in the first book. I may be wrong, but I think the Milne "series" ends with this second book, & new characters take centre stage in The Murder Exchange & The Crime Trade, if this is the case then I think Simon Kernick has done the right thing. His narrative style of story-telling is easy to read & I recommend his work to anyone looking for a new identity in crime fiction.
