Monday, 29 June 2026

138 Main Street by Gavin Bell


A number of reasons have led to today's post coming out much, much later than originally planned but I'm delighted to be sharing my thoughts on one of my favourite books of the year so far. There is also a wee Q&A with the author further down the page. 

Regular visitors to the blog may know that I'm a big fan of Gavin Bell's work. But if the name isn't immediately familiar, search the blog for Mason Cross, MJ Cross and Alex Knight. All of these are pen names that Gavin has used in the past, and I think most of the books have been reviewed here. It's been over four years since the last Alex Knight book as Gavin has been working on other projects. But he's back with a fantastic new book, 138 Main Street, a high concept thriller published under his own name by Simon & Schuster UK. Family commitments meant I couldn't be at the Glasgow launch event on 6th May but I met up with Gavin a few days before, and also saw him at an event on 14th May. My thanks to to him for sending me an early review ebook - I have since bought my own hardback copy.


The Blurb

AN ADDRESS TO DIE FOR…

There is a killer on the loose.
And he is targeting one specific address – 138 Main Street.
The problem? There are over 7,000 Main Streets in the USA.
And no clue which one will be next.

For FBI Special Agent Ben Walker and his rookie colleague, Officer Zoe Hill, the pressure to solve the case is unimaginable. There aren’t enough police officers to cover every house, and vigilante residents are attacking anyone who rings their doorbell. Main Street might be one of America’s most popular addresses, but for those living at number 138 it comes down to fight or flight.

Then a manuscript is sent to the New York Times, purporting to be the manifesto of the Main Street Killer and demanding radical social change. The killer demands that Wall Street be shut down for a day. The financial implications will be huge, but unless it happens he will escalate to bombings. Soon it won’t just be whoever lives at 138 Main Street who is at risk, but entire residential blocks.

As the effect of the terror campaign takes hold across the nation, Ben and Zoe find themselves in a race against time to stop the killer. But with their target always several steps ahead, and almost 3,800,000 square miles of ground to cover, they'll have to find him first…


Purchase Link






My Review

Woohoo! Been so excited for this one - it's been a long time coming! 

The premise is brilliant. Murders are taking place across the US, seemingly unconnected - no links between the victims, different MOs. Until after three or four the realisation hits that all the crimes have taken place at the same address - 138 Main Street. The trouble is, there are an awful lot of those across And and nobody has any idea where will be hit next. 

Zoe Hill is one of the first attending police officers at an early crime scene and impresses FBI guy Ben Walker with her observations. Now all they, and the rest of the team, including analyst Matthew Brodie, have to do is work out who is committing these crimes, where he or she might hit next -  from thousands of potential targets - and how to stop that happening. They have an overwhelming task ahead of them. 

I loved this! As well as following the FBI investigation, we meet some of the people living at various 138 Main Street addresses, and learn a little of their lives and their thoughts around the whole thing. The characters are great and beautifully written. I particularly loved Zoe. Coming from a small town police department to a national FBI case, she's understandably anxious but determined to get the job done.  And Ben seems like a real stand up guy. They make a great team, especially when you add Brodie, with his puppy dog excitement and enthusiasm and sideways way of looking at things, into the mix - very different people, different skills, a formidable team. We see their frustrations as they fail, their thought processes and analysis as they pick themselves back up and carry on. 

138 Main Street is a complex, well thought out and beautifully written novel that fully satisfies - great characterisation across the board, brilliant scene setting, from one horse towns to big cities, plenty of tension and dread, unexpected twists and an explosive conclusion. So glad Gavin is back and has arrived in style! 




Q&A with Gavin Bell

Where did the idea for this book come from?
A couple of different ideas coming together. I was living in a house in one of those new build estates on the fringes of the suburbs where you're miles away from anything. We were at the farthest edge of the estate, over our garden fence it was just woods and fields. It was the kind of place where people forgot to lock their cars or even their front doors at night. I started to wonder what would happen if somebody came here and walked around trying doors in the middle of the night. What would happen if they wanted to do something worse than steal your car keys?
The other idea came from a different book I was writing. In one scene, the characters find a scrap of paper with an address on Main Street and one of them says, "Well that doesn't narrow it down. Which main street?" And it got me thinking about a killer who targeted that specific street name, when there are thousands of them.

Who is your favourite character and why?
Probably Zoe, because she's the character that goes on the biggest journey in the book (figuratively and literally). In the beginning, she's kind of set up to be more of a supporting character, but as the story progresses, she finds herself inexorably drawn to the centre of the narrative. I quite like all the characters though, even the less heroic ones.

Which character is most like you and why?
Brodie. He's a guy who is very into data and spreadsheets. He's also British, which means some people have asked me if he's a self-insert, but he's kind of got a little of Simon Pegg in Mission Impossible about him. He does not have an irresistible urge to put himself in dangerous situations, which I think makes him pretty relatable. There's a little of me in all the characters though, but I think that's always the case.

Normally I would ask for three songs of pieces of music that would be on the soundtrack if your book was made into a movie, but you've put together a whole Spotify playlist, haven't you? Can you give us the link so we can have a listen?
I often compile a playlist while I'm working on a book that will include songs that are thematically relevant, and some of them appear in the text itself. For this one I actually had a playlist of every song I could find with 'main street' in the title, which ran into the hundreds. I included some of the better ones on the 138 Main playlist along with some others that fit the mood of the book. You can listen to it here: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/20S2IAjqJ5CgTYn2yGAaRY

Are you a planner or a pantser?
A little bit of both, but I'm probably more of a plotter than I used to be. Before I start I like to sketch out a three page outline, which I know will change a lot, but it gives me something to work with. I definitely couldn't start writing without having a reasonable idea of where I wanted to end up. Before I do anything, I write the back cover blurb, which will tell me a lot about the book in two or three paragraphs, and then I can flesh things out from there.

Can you tell us a bit about your day job and how you balance it with your bookish commitments?
I'm the system admin for a large database of third sector organisations, which is very different from writing, so it gives me a good balance. It involves some travelling about, and it's always good for a writer to go to different places and meet new people, so that ties in well. I tend to write at night as I'm more awake at that time of day than in the morning, where you won't get anything intelligible out of me until about 11am and at least two cups of coffee. So being a writer is very much a night job for me.

What book festivals are you appearing at this year?
I've just done Capital Crime for the first time, and have Bloody Scotland, Bute Noir and Chiltern Kills to come. Really looking forward to getting out there and meeting readers. I'll also be at Harrogate in July of course, along with the rest of the crime fiction world.

Can you tell us anything about what's coming next?
The next one is another standalone thriller. This one is about a guy who works in a US Government department devoted to coming up with worst case scenarios... and then he realises he's facing his own worst case scenario.



The Author

Gavin Bell is a thriller writer and author of the Carter Blake series published by Orion under the pseudonym Mason Cross. The first, The Killing Season, was published in 2014 and was longlisted for the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year award. It was followed by four further novels in the series, including the Richard and Judy Book Club selection The Samaritan. He has also written standalone thrillers as Alex Knight, including Hunted and Darkness Falls. He lives in Glasgow with his wife and three children. 

Photo by Scarlett Bell



And, finally, here is my 138 Main Street granny square for my crochet book blanket project. I crocheted this square back in March or April and there were already a fair few squares then - there's a big pile of them now! If I can get caught up, I'll do a half year update in a few days. 


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138 Main Street by Gavin Bell

A number of reasons have led to today's post coming out much, much later than originally planned but I'm delighted to be sharing my ...