Huntington House. A Mike Humber Detective Novel.: Volume 1 (Mike Humber Detective Novels) Paperback – 24 Feb. 2013

Wow, I've read a lot of RR Haywoods' books but this is pretty "Left field" and unexpected, basically a detective story, which is NOT my usual type of book but....I really enjoyed this I have to say and suspect this will not be Mike Humbers first and only appearance.

A good fast paced tale. Good characters and mix of genres. It’s a shame that there were a fair amount of misspellings and grammatical gaffs that break the spell and pulls the reader out of the flow of the story, hence the reduction of a star.

A great story from start to finish, different to his normal story's but just as good would like a second book

A washed up has been former detective gets offered a job that is too good to be true. You know this from the beginning. You feel it when reading it. And you will say " I knew it" when something is revealed. You will laugh out loud with rr's brilliant back and forth remarks between characters that he is excellent at doing. With the exception of the second reality which bored me senseless and put me off reading for many months, rr haywood writing is superb. (Zombies not my thing, but met some of the main characters in another book that has tempted me to try the undead series one day. He does need better proof readers mind. Even I noticed the typos.. I am rubbish. As you I'll have noted if read this far...The good side is this is a great story, well told. Bad side is that no way should there be a 'happy ever after' ending, but this left many things in the air. Dna traces, email, two strangers leave the village when two building are on fire, what happens next with the laptop ? ... hope to read what happend in another book. Seems I have not read rrs books in order they were published. But have just noticed the third code book is out. And that by far is my favourite.

I have read all fourteen days of Haywood's fantastic undead series and grabbed this, and his other book "the second reality" as soon as I realised they were available. While completely different to the undead series. Kinda felt I was in the same world as Howie, Dave and the gang, possibly before it all goes to pot and the zombies show up. Mr. Haywood gives a nod to this himself when Cookie, Blowers and Dave make a fleeting cameo later in the book. My only gripe with this book is one I have with a lot of my kindle purchase an that it needs an editor or at least a proof reader to go over it and clean up some of the spelling mistakes and grammatical errors (no doubt this review could do with the same) that are prevalent throughout this otherwise brilliant book.Mike Humber is a well rounded, well thought out character and I would love to see him appear in the undead universe at some point if at all possible within the confines of that story. The story itself started out slow, and left me wondering what direction Mr. Haywood was taking me, but I was definitely happy with the end result overall. In summary this is a brilliant book by an author who has come a long way since his first book, and hopefully will continue to entertain me in both his undead series and by continuing the adventures of Ex Det. Mike Humber. I am now off to finish "the second reality" and will post my opinion (for what it's worth) on that when I'm done. Thank you Mr Haywood you have disabused me of the notion that you can be legally entertained for less than a pound and for that alone I applaud you!!! Keep up the good work and please please please can we have Day 15 and Mike Humber #2Wes Fazzani

looking for a quick book between the undead series and for some reason I avoided this one until now......within 2 pages I became invested and read the book in almost one sitting.if your not familiar with rr haywood (where have you been) then give this detective story a try.....and mr haywood, if you read these reviews then please consider a ghost story one day.

Didn't know this book existed but so happy I found it we need more decent people like Mike. Another brilliant read!!

The book starts slowly and starts to grip about a third of the way through.Mike Humber, the main character, is flawed. But, I still empathised with him. He gets sacked as policeman for beating a hardened and guilty criminal to a pulp. But the criminal walks, gets a measure of financial success while Mike Humber is left broke and becomes a pitiful character. I start rooting for him when his strength of character begins to shine through.Despite Mike’s flaws, you can’t help but feel sympathy for his predicament.At the beginning of the book I got the feeling it would morph into a ghost story. It doesn’t.The book has a satisfying conclusion, I felt it was worth investing my time to read to the end.Like other reviewers note, about half way thru a fair number of typos appear. These should have been picked up before publication. Nevertheless, the typos didn’t detract from the great storytelling.

Every book of his has been a great story. This book is no exception. The afterward explains a cameo appearance partway through. I hope our heroes make further appearances in more books.

90% of this book is filler, and cheap filler at that.The main character is a down-on-his-luck ex cop who feels entirely too sorry for himself throughout the entire book.The writer likes to remind us that he used to be a brilliant detective, and yet he accepts a series of increasingly weird situations without any sort of alarm bells going off. When he does start getting suspicious about the woman he's fortuitously met, he still doesn't pick up the phone and make a call to a former colleague to as much as inquire whether she really used to he a journalist, or if anyone has ever heard of her.The situation escalates tremendously, and it is never explained how it is that the bad guys realize that Mike has the item they seek. Furthermore, the ruthless way in which he deals with them, while satisfying, seems very out of character for an ex-cop.The reason for the elaborate deception which the bad guys organize is also absolutely ridiculous. Seems to me that hiring a private investigator would have netted them the answers to the questions they had without the extra drama.Pretty disappointing once you have a chance to actually think about it all.

This is a very different style for RR Haywood; it is almost more of a murder mystery. The story takes you on a journey with Mike Humber, a man who has lost it all and is stuck in a deep depression fuelled by alcohol and sleeping tablets. He takes a job caring for a property that sends him on an adventure that will leave you guessing to the end.I loved the mystery surrounding the house and the idea of a poltergeist causing havoc on its inhabitants.As always, Haywood weaves an intrinsic world of well developed and easy to like characters. Correlated with eloquent descriptions of their surroundings, making it easy for the reader to become imaginatively immersed in the story.I couldn't put it down.

As usual for Haywood, this book has well-developed characters, a fast moving plot and the right amount of tension that makes it impossible to put down. Mike Hummer is a gritty, imperfect ex-cop with a good heart but self destructive habits. I loved the tie-in to The Undead series and really hope to see him pulled into future Undead books.

Mr. Haywood you are definitely one of my favorite authors! I love every one of your books. There's a few errors but the suspense and fast pace make up for it. I'm looking forward to reading more from you