Drop Down Dead by Michael Dylan

Timy reviews Drop Down Dead, the fifth book in the DI Simon Wise crime thriller series by Michael Dylan.

Review(s) of previous book(s): Rich Men, Dead Men, The Killing Game, Talking of the Dead, Into the River Dead

About the Book
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Possible fit for The Sound of Madness Reading Challenge 2026 prompts:

Joker prompt that goes with anything: Freefall

No matter how bad things are, they can always get worse.

Detective Inspector Simon Wise thought London might finally catch its breath after bringing down a serial killer. But when a woman is found murdered on the Old Kent Road, he’s thrust into another nightmare—one that will test every instinct he has.

As the hours tick by, Wise and his team uncover a web of secrets and lies leading toward something far darker than a single killing.

Somewhere in the city, a tragedy is about to unfold—and unless they can stop it, countless lives will be shattered.

Meanwhile, Wise’s brother Tom—Britain’s most wanted man—is about to show the police just how dangerous he can be.

Twenty-four hours. One impossible case. No room for error.
DROP DOWN DEAD is the fifth electrifying novel in Michael Dylan’s bestselling DI Simon Wise Crime Thriller series

“Because right then, Palmer was throwing a tantrum in the middle of MIR-One that would put a five-month-old baby to shame. And all because Wise had asked Hannah to be the SIO at the scene of murder until he could get there.
Apparently, that was enough for Palmer to justify throwing all his toys out of his pram.”

It’s not much of a secret that I’m a big fan of Michael Dylan‘s crime thriller series and have been waiting eagerly for the fifth book to drop. I might or might not kept pestering him about it… Gently, I might add, I’m not a monster after all, and I also know people have lives, duh. But yeah, I totally needed my gritty crime thriller fix. I’ve been listening to a series on audiobook, but it’s not quite the same. So imagine my happiness when it finally came out just a few days before my birthday!

Drop Down Dead picks up the thread pretty much where it dropped in Into the River Dead – at least where the overall plot of the series is concerned. So obviously, I’m not going to go into a lot of details regarding that particular plotline to avoid spoilers. All I’m going to say is that the hunt for Wise’s brother continues, and let’s leave it at that. And based on the ending of this book, we sure as hell have a wild ride ahead of us.

The main plot revolves around the murder of Rebecca Russell, who gets stabbed in the street and drops dead in a shop while asking for help. Wise and his team are called in to investigate, and it soon turns out that a young child is missing, so the case takes priority over anything else. They have quite a few lines of investigation, a few clues to follow, while the team also has its own inner and outer conflicts. Hannah, for example, still deals with the aftermath of her car accident, taking painkillers like candy. Wise worries about his family and the inner politics, including his new boss and his loyal ass kisser, Palmer, who tries to fuck him over every possibility they get. Not even talking about dealing with the deaths occurring in past books, which takes a toll on the whole team.

Drop Down Dead‘s events take up only one day, and so the book is quite fast-paced. I was honestly surprised it’s 374 pages long when I set this review up, because I could swear it was closer to 250. This is not a complaint, by the way. I’m still enjoying Dylan’s writing and the world he built in the DI Simon Wise series, with the complexity of the characters and the way he plays with the different tropes in crime thriller fiction. The reason Drop Down Dead probably won’t be my favorite (tbf, Into the River Dead was a tough act to follow) is that I spent some of the time being frustrated that the team was not seeing the obvious. Well, what was obvious to me, anyway. And yes, I know there had to be a buildup, and they needed to get there in a roundabout way. And that’s fine. I just thought, if they had considered what eventually turned out to be the motivation behind the murder when looking at options, it wouldn’t have been so glaringly obvious where the story was headed. Then again, not everyone has Investigation Discovery on as a background noise most of the time, so you know, it might not be that obvious to everyone else. And even I got my doubts at one point where Dylan threw in well placed twist. That was well done, but I wasn’t fooled afterall!

All that said, I’m still super invested in the DI Simon Wise series, and Drop Down Dead is another great addition to it. Luckily, it doesn’t seem like Dylan intends to stop writing these books anytime soon, and I, for one, can’t fucking wait to find out what’s going to happen next and what consequences there will be for some of the characters. I can’t recommend it enough if you are looking for gritty crime thrillers, from an indie author as an added bonus!