The Hollow Man: A Novel (Detective Nick Belsey Series, 1)

Nick Belsey is a down on his luck Detective in London. Facing bankruptcy he discovers a suicide victim who just happens to be very wealthy. So begins a far-fetched plan to steal a dead mans identity and start fresh. While I enjoyed this novel I never really felt any connection to the main character. Also while I know this is a novel I found it very hard to believe that Nick who was also somewhat under investigation at work was able to have such free reign and get away with as much as he did for as long as he did. If you looking for crime thriller with a anti-hero lead you should give this one a try.

Great story and pacing from start to finish. Enjoyed immensely. Am thrilled to have discovered Oliver Harris. Am looking forward to reading his other works.

good book

The Hol­low Man by Oliver Har­ris is a novel intro­duc­tion a new char­ac­ter, cop Nick Belsey, in what seems to be the first of a series. Nick Belsey is an Eng­lish police­man who seems to have no ethics and cor­rupt morals which con­stantly traps him in the lure of easy money.

It is when Lon­don police detec­tive Nick Belsey woke up in a crashed police car, drunk, no phone, and no wal­let did he real­ize that he hit rock bot­tom. As he goes to the police sta­tion, cer­tain that he is going to get fired, he sees a miss­ing person's report from a lux­u­ri­ous sec­tion of Lon­don. As he goes into the house, Belsey assumes the iden­tity of its occu­pier, Alex Dev­ereux who lived alone, has no heirs and it seems that he sim­ply vanished.

The broke detec­tive sees an oppor­tu­nity to start his life anew wear­ing a new iden­tity. But there are peo­ple look­ing for Dev­ereux and Belsey quickly real­izes that the scam­mer is about to be scammed and scrammed if he isn't too careful.

The Hol­low Man by Oliver Har­ris moves at a break­neck speed with a spec­tac­u­lar end­ing which plants destruc­tion and bed­lam in the Eng­lish countryside.

The book intro­duces anti-hero Nick Belsey, a Detec­tive Con­sta­ble in the Hamp­stead CID. Belsey has a seri­ous drink­ing prob­lem, is eth­i­cally chal­lenged and is in per­sonal debt up to his eye­balls. In fact, his pay­check no longer cov­ers the min­i­mum amount owed on his loans.

Belsey breaks every rule he could find, from squat­ting in a house where a crime has hap­pened, to tak­ing money, iden­tity theft and more. All while get­ting away with what­ever he can, jus­ti­fy­ing him­self to ... well... him­self know­ing all the while that he's full of bull.

The story starts off a bit slowly, but then moves at breath­tak­ing speed. The book is writ­ten with a noir feel to it, almost like watch­ing an old movie where the cop is drunk and grumpy in an attrac­tive, world weary sort of way

This is an excel­lent first novel, I loved the cor­rupt char­ac­ter of Nick Belsey and am look­ing for­ward to more cor­rupt shenani­gans. Sus­pend dis­be­lief, put on your seat-belt and get ready for a good time.

Detective Nick Belsey is in a bit of trouble: he's broke and the creditors are lining up. He's got no place to live and he's just woken up bloody and bruised, laying in the grass. Nearby he finds a wrecked cop car (not even from his district) and no sign of his phone, wallet, or ID. Not to mention the fact that he has little to no memory of how he got here. It's a great way to start the day. When he arrives in the office he finds a missing persons notice on his desk. A wealthy businessman has disappeared. Belsey soon hatches a plan to get himself out of London. But as he learns more about the man, in an attempt to to steal his money, the detective gets roped into a case that's more twisted than he could have expected.

Oh, my. THE HOLLOW MAN was either the perfect read or just happened to hit me at the perfect time. I zipped through this much quicker than I'd expected. Belsey and his dirty, dirty ways captivated me. I mean here he is, his life is basically falling apart (all his fault) and he's digging the hole deeper -- all the while investigating a case that becomes more complicated with each new clue. And all for the sole purpose of ripping off a dead guy!

Belsey is a fascinating character. He's really not a good guy, but even in the midst of his worst plans he also comes across somehow as not being all that bad. He commands attention, to say the very least. While his motives are completely self serving, he's kind of a crazy great detective.

This is very much one of those books that should come with a warning. Something like: Warning -- you won't get anything done until you finish this book! Or maybe: Warning -- don't plan on sleeping tonight! Possibly even: Warning -- don't read on your lunch break, will cause compulsive and uncontrollable reading break urges!