🌟 Review Note:
This review is provided as part of the Virtual Book Tour hosted by Zooloo’s Book Tours which runs 13 – 19 October 2025. Follow along with the Book Tour Schedule. This review encompasses all three books Tom Naylor Trilogy.
My sincere thanks to Zooloo’s Book Tours and Inkubator Books for inviting me to be part of this book tour and for providing a digital copy of the Tom Naylor Trilogy by Trevor Negus.
As always, this review reflects my honest thoughts.
About the book
Tom Naylor – a good cop with a deadly skill.Nottingham 1990. Ex-paratrooper Tom Naylor is a sniper in the Special Operations Unit, the dedicated firearms response teams of the Nottinghamshire Police.
Each book in this gripping trilogy focuses on a single case –In Two Wrongs, Naylor’s unit combats the warring drug gangs who are fighting for control of the city.
In The Root of All Evil, Naylor infiltrates a lethal gang of armed robbers, some of
whom are also ex-military.In The Cause, Naylor plays a deadly game of cat-and-mouse with an elite IRA sniper who is on a mission to strike at the very heart of the British establishment.
Written by a former police firearms specialist, the Naylor trilogy is a must-read, combining absolutely riveting storytelling with an insider’s eye for authentic detail.
The Tom Naylor Trilogy by Trevor Negus
Published 21 September 2025 by Inkubator Books
You can find the book on Amazon and Goodreads
Who is Trevor Negus?
Trevor Negus is a retired Police Officer who spent 30 years working with Nottinghamshire Police. He worked both inner city and rural beats in uniform and spent the entire duration of the Miners’ Strike of 1984 on a Police Support Unit.
He then spent six years as an authorised firearms officer and was a sniper on the force’s Special Operations Unit. The last eleven years of his Police career were spent as a detective on the CID, where he was involved in numerous murder enquiries. During his time on the CID he was trained as a specialist interviewer, involved in the planning and interviews of murder suspects.
Trevor’s website can be found at https://www.trevornegus-author.com/
You can follow Trevor on social media over on Instagram and Facebook
My Review
The Tom Naylor Trilogy is, without doubt, one of the most authentic, gripping and consistently tense crime series I’ve ever read. From the very first chapter of Two Wrongs, I was pulled straight into Nottingham’s criminal underworld in the late 1980s, and I could feel the realism running through every page. Trevor Negus writes with the kind of authority that only comes from lived experience, and that insider knowledge gives the whole trilogy a credibility that sets it apart.
Tom Naylor, an ex-paratrooper now working within the Special Operations Unit, is a character I connected with immediately. He’s steady, capable and quietly intense – not some overblown action hero, but a professional who carries the weight of his role with conviction. The supporting cast and wider operational network are just as convincing, and although the detail is extensive, it never feels unnecessary. At first, I thought it might be a lot to take in, but I quickly realised how much it added to the depth and realism. Once I settled into the rhythm, I found it fascinating and completely absorbing. The sniper scene in book one proved just how precisely Negus can write – I was actually holding my breath.
The second instalment, The Root of All Evil, picks up seamlessly, continuing the story into December 1987 without breaking stride. Stepping back into the world of the Special Operations Unit felt effortless, and because the groundwork had already been laid, I found the detail even easier to appreciate. Nothing is retread or recycled – fresh storylines emerge, the stakes shift, and the tension builds in new directions while remaining firmly tied to what came before. The writing style stays grounded, measured and utterly believable, and again I was struck by how much thought and authenticity goes into every layer of this world. It also made me think more deeply about the real people behind roles like this – the officers living on that edge every day, and the families who carry the weight of it alongside them.
By the time I reached The Cause, the final part of the trilogy, I was fully invested – and it somehow managed to be the strongest and most intense of the three. The story drops you straight back into the rising pressure surrounding Tom Naylor and his team, and the threat level feels higher than ever. The realism never once slips, and the quiet tension threaded through every chapter made it impossible to put down. The danger, the planning, the anticipation – it all feels frighteningly real, and that made it even more powerful. This final part also brought a stronger emotional undercurrent, and I found myself thinking constantly about the people who do these jobs in real life. The sacrifices, the risk, the lack of recognition – it’s staggering when you really sit with it. I don’t know how they do it, protecting people who often have no idea they were ever in danger.
As a complete work, the Tom Naylor Trilogy is outstanding.
The continuity is seamless, the tone never falters and the pacing tightens with each instalment. The characters feel real, the operational detail is pitch-perfect and the writing has a quiet confidence that makes everything land with impact. What initially seemed like a lot of information became one of the series’ biggest strengths – it builds immersion, tension and authenticity in all the right ways.
This is an easy five-star read – and if I could give it more, I would. The storytelling is exceptional, the realism is unmatched, and it left me with huge admiration for the real-world counterparts of characters like Tom Naylor. An absolutely brilliant trilogy and one I’ll be recommending wholeheartedly.
This review may also appear on my social media and selected book platforms. All links are correct at the time of posting.
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