Good gracious, this book is the most cliché riddled bag of rubbish ever committed to paper.

Every character is so uninspired and unoriginal. Lee Child come back! All is forgiven!

A minus mark would be the most appropriate rating.
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Ex-DS Dennis Milne is partnered with a former informant and running a small hotel and dive shop in the Philippines. He’s hiding out after the events that occurred in the first novel, The Business of Dying. He’s asked to kill a man due on Friday’s plane from London. Having recognized the man as the killer of his former partner, DS Asif Malik, he shoots him and then decides (implausibly) to return to London where he was the subject of an intense manhunt to wreck vengeance on Les Pope, the man behind Malik’s killing, and also the man who solicited Milne to kill the man off the plane.

The trail to Malik’s killer is convoluted and has a surprising ending, at least as far as one character is concerned. Good read. The books should be read in order. ( )

Former Detective Inspector and hit-man Dennis Milne, last seen in The Business of Dying running from the law returns in revenge thriller A Good Day to Die. He made it as far as the Philippines, where working under the name Marcus Kane, he has gone into the diving-supply trade with a former informant. But business is slow so Milne/Kane, falling back on old habits, injects a bit of extra cash into the dive-shop accounts by working part-time as a hit man for London criminal overlord Les Pope.. Milne's initial target is Richard Blacklip, a British pedophile on the run. Next, Pope assigns Dennis to get rid of Billy Warren, another criminal fleeing justice back in the United Kingdom. However, Warren isn't exactly the man he claims to be. Milne has a history with this guy and discovers that West's escape to the Philippines came in the wake of his involvement in murdering a pair of cops from the Serious Crimes Unit: Detective Inspector Jason Khan and his partner, Detective Chief Inspector Asif Malik., Milne’s former partner at CID. Milne respects few men but he admired Malik so he heads back to London to find the man responsible for Malik’s death and make sure he pays. The story continues in London filled with hoodlums, underworld overlords and more corruption.

Love him or hate him, Milne isn’t a protagonist that you’ll feel ambivalent towards.
There are few lines he won’t cross so you never know what he’ll do. It makes the story anything but predictable and is an interesting take on a thriller where the hero is also an antihero. Fast paced and filled with lots of action and twists and turns, I hope we haven’t seen the last of Dennis.
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A stunning read. Kept my attention right to the end. A good mix of action, detective and a little bit of social interest.

A Good Day to Die is the continuation of the story of ex-policeman Dennis Milne who in this book comes back to England from the Philippines where he escaped to at the end of The Business of Dying. Even after some plastic surgery and carrying a false passport, returning is a dangerous proposition as he is still very much a wanted man. What draws him back and makes for an exciting read is the murder of an old friend and partner who was gunned down along with an informer.

How this story weaves together it’s many pieces and slowly reveals why this shooting occurred makes for an exciting read. Simon Kernick is a master at providing his readers with a story that takes off running from the first page. British Crime is about “Hard Men” and the character of Dennis Milne is certainly all of that.

A gritty, exciting revenge thriller that I thoroughly enjoyed. ( )