Review: 'First to Fall' by Carys Jones (2014)

Aiden Connelly’s first case will be one he’ll never forget.
Lawyer Aiden Connelly has traded the frenzy of Chicago for a slower pace in sleepy Avalon – and his first case appears to be as open-and-shut as he could hope for. Hired to defend a local ex-beauty queen accused of murdering her husband, he’s confident that he’ll have the case closed in record time. But below the surface lurks a darker truth…
Suddenly, a quiet backwater has transformed into a dangerous pressure cooker. In a town where everyone knows everyone, gathering evidence should be easy… but the harder Aiden searches, the more he appreciates how tangled this net of loyalties is. And as he digs deeper, Aiden begins to realise that his very first case in Avalon could be the beginning of his undoing…
I was lucky enough to be introduced to Carys Jones’ writing last year when she contacted me about possibly reviewing her novel ‘Prime Deception’ (click here to read my review). The book turned out to be an enjoyable read with a touch of both thriller and romance, and I looked forward to checking out more of Carys’ work in the future. Thankfully I didn’t have to wait too long to do just that since I still had a review copy of her novel ‘First to Fall’ waiting for me. ‘First to Fall’ was released in September 2014 by Carina and is the first in the crime/thriller ‘Avalon’ series; a series I was curious to check out!
Lawyer Aiden Connelly has decided to turn his life around completely by moving from the busy city of Chicago to a small and quiet town called Avalon, together with his wife Isla and their two-year-old daughter Meegan. Aiden noticed he and Isla were slowly drifting more and more apart, each of them leading their separate lives in Chicago, instead of being a close family. So, when he stumbled upon a job working as a lawyer in a small two-man law office in the sleepy town of Avalon, he decided to take the job and give their marriage another shot. However, Aiden’s first case is quite a challenging one involving the murder of a beloved Avalon resident, and it doesn’t take long before both Aiden and Isla discover that there’s much more to Avalon and the people who live there than what meets the eye…  
From the first chapter of this novel I was already intrigued by the small and sleepy town of Avalon and what the main character, Aiden Connelly, would find there. The murder case he is asked to deal with is a fascinating one and managed to keep my attention until the last page of the novel; constantly wondering what would happen and who had done it. The case revolves around twenty-something Brandy, who is suspected of murdering her husband Brandon, who was an extremely beloved person in town. Carys Jones definitely managed to keep the suspense going, urging me to keep reading, and I was even surprised by the eventual outcome. The story flows really well and has just the right pace and amount of background information and detail.
The novel has a fascinating collection of characters at its core. It was easy to like the main protagonist Aiden as we get to see two sides of him: Aiden the lawyer and Aiden the husband/father. I really liked how these two different aspects were focused on and brought together. Isla annoyed me a bit every now and again, but Meegan is just the cutest little thing. Next to that, Brandy and the other townspeople of Avalon were well-written and I’m still curious to find out even more about them. ‘First to Fall’ is a gripping, unpredictable and entertaining read that had me hooked from the first page; a great start to a new series and I honestly can’t wait to pick up the next part and read more about Aiden and Avalon!

Rating:8,5/10

  For more information about this book: Amazon.co.uk / Amazon.com / Goodreads

Thanks to the author for providing me with a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

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If you're a fan of Carys Jones' writing, be sure to keep a look out for the third novel of the Avalon series, 'Third to Die' , which was released on the 10th of January!

Justice must prevail……whatever the cost.
Aiden Connelly has settled in to life in Avalon and is developing a reputation as an attorney who will fight for the truth … no matter what enemies he makes along the way.
But when he is asked to look into the tragic death of an old friend ten years before, Aiden is drawn back to his hometown of Greensburg, the town he eagerly fled as a teenager. As the ghosts from Aiden’s past resurface, and new dilemmas rise up to challenge him in Avalon, Aiden begins to wonder if everything he holds true has been built on lies.