Wow! - Rated 
Like the rest of the reviewers, I also found Simon Kernick via Relentless and was left wanting more. I've just finished listening to A Good Day to Die on audiobook and 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 and 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 - Rated
Like the other reviewer on this page, I also have just recently discovered Simon Kernick and started with RELENTLESS, and 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 actually a realistic credible character, you get a real sense of his home sickness when he peers into a warm and 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! - Rated
I've obviously done this alllll 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' and now just finished his latest, ('Severed'), so it looks as if I shall have to keep reading in reverse until I've done the lot! This author really does have a wonderful way of keeping the pace going all 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 personally at the offset, it somehow seemed to be quite plausable after you understood the circumstances.
Twists and turns all the way through and surprises popping up all over the place where I thought had a character sussed only to find I was wrong. His description of situations is excellent and you can truly imagine the scene...which sometimes perhaps....you'd rather not.
I'm definitely spreading the word about SK books to friends and 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 - Rated 
This cover of book promised much , with lots of fawning one-line recommendations, a good title and 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 and 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 "accidentally" mowed down a bunch of innocent customs officers in the last book.) He hears that his old cop friend Asif Malik has been murdered, and he comes back to London to solve the case. He is, of course, instantly embroiled in a trail of violence and 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 and got on with my life.
A Good Book to Buy - Rated 
This is the sequel to The Business of Dying (TBOD) and I would recommend that book to be read first although it is not essential. I read A Good Day to Die immediately afterwards and with high expectations, but I was just slightly disappointed that this one lacked the pace and excitement of the first. Dennis Milne now goes by a different name and has done so for the past three years while living 'on the run' in the Philippines, but his contract killing duties are called upon even in this relatively remote part of the world and 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 and hunt down the people responsible.
In London Milne sets about his mission and 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, and new characters take centre stage in The Murder Exchange and 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 and I recommend his work to anyone looking for a new identity in crime fiction.
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