Kindle Edition Amazon Wendy Cartmell Amazon Category:  Mystery/Suspense Price: $2.99 (eBook) Can Sgt Major Crane stop soldiers killing their children and then committing suicide? Meet Sergeant Major Crane. A Special Investigations Branch Detective in the British Army, he is the soldier who polices other soldiers. He thinks he has seen every crime known to both war and peace. But nothing has prepared him for the case of Solomon. An Afghanistan veteran he has murdered his wife and six year old son and then committed suicide. Soon there are similar horrific murders around the country. Crane knows there must be a connection. But what? Crane starts to investigate the local Church Solomon was attending. But with the body count rising, events start to take a darker turn ... could the Church be the connection? Is the Church offering salvation? Or is it forcing people to take the first,untimely Steps to Heaven?

A Superb Read
Wendy Cartmell has triumphed in this top notch thriller. Opening with a horrific scene, she inviegles the reader into the intricate investigation led by Sgt Major Tom Crane and his staff, Billy and Kim. Someone is luring young fathers into killing their families and in spite of the army hierarchy announcing that the first episode is a domestic argument gone too far, Tom has reason to think otherwise. Things go downhill from there.

As the army investigators and police dig deeper, more tragedies occur, giving the army a problem with keeping the details out of the media's reach.

Sgt Major Tom Crane is a new character amid the hundreds of fictional sleuths available to the avid reader. Ms Cartmell has created a team of likeable characters with their own private problems and insecurities, which in Tom's case, threatens to impinge on the investigation. The fact that Sgt Major Crane is not a six foot plus hunk and gorgeous is a refreshing change!

I am particularly partial to English thrillers and this has to come at the top of the list. A truly terrific read and I for one, am going to be buying the two next novels featuring Tom and his team. Diane Hockley

Police Procedural with a Military Twist - Exciting!
I'm not quite sure why, but Steps to Heaven reminded me of a Columbo cop tale--maybe because of the main character, who is brash, persistent, hard-punching and hard-hitting in terms of personality. The kind of guy that makes a great cop, but not necessarily a nice human being. Fortunately, he has some friends who will point out this latter fault from time to time. Since the author has personally been a wife and occupant of Army facilities and living, the novel allows readers to learn especially about the difficulties as a service wife.

From my perspective, since I grab a police procedure to see if I can solve the crime along with the officer, his personality is somewhat secondary to his cop characteristics. I liked him and felt comfortable seeing him take command and shoot out orders fast and steadily...

In fact, I'd say I've had a couple of bosses like him. A couple I didn't personally like, but that's ok if you can respect them, right? The ones you can't respect aren't worth talking about...LOL

The setting for the novel is the Aldershot Garrison where Sgt Major Crane is an officer in special investigations. So he was immediately called when an apparent murder/suicide happened.

A soldier who had just come back from Afghanistan had killed his wife, and then, while holding his son close in his arms, he had slit the boy's throat and then his own.

From a procedural standpoint, it soon became clear that the soldier had done it... Sgt Crane's boss wanted to close the case. But Crane asked him whether he didn't want to know why... Crane, obviously, could not rest until he did! And so he was authorized to continue the investigation exploring what might have occurred on his last stay in Afghanistan, as well as his personal and family life.

And then another murder/suicide occurred... And another...

And Crane found himself working with the Aldershot police as well as the police from two other towns. All would have thought the cases could be routinely closed until Crane forced them to see that something had to be "causing" these men to choose to do what they had.

Slowly, as a result of Crane's having found some religious pamphlets in Crooks' home that had not been noticed, he began to put together the idea that what was happening to these men had started after they were back home, and, possibly, within a church or some type of religious cult leader's influence...

Fortunately, Sgt Major Crane had no clue of who was behind this--so I didn't feel bad in not figuring it out. LOL But the author certainly had me fully involved in the "why" of these incidents and "how" it was happening. The surprise ending totally caught me off guard! I especially enjoyed the character of Padre Symonds. Once he realized what was happening, he began to research and working with Crane as closely as possible, actually getting caught up too far with the investigation? Still, I think he realized that his position required that he help in any way possible...and he did!

This debut novel is first in a series with the latest, third book just out! If you're into police procedural, I highly recommend you check out when the police have to work with the army investigators! Enjoyed it!
G A Bixler