Kirkus Review
Quirky community, quirky crimes. Thankfully, McAvoy's on hand to solve them. Ishmael Piper, 51, lives in County Durham, on the North Sea, in drug-fueled disarray with his girlfriend, Heloise, their 7-year-old daughter, Delilah, multiple cats and a hectoring inner voice that plagues him no end. So addled is he that he doesn't even notice the inferno that consumes him. Months later, a disturbed man kills a woman whom he identifies as a witch, dragging her into his cottage. Meanwhile, after a dangerous case that "nearly killed them both," DS Aector McAvoy and his boss and best friend, DSU Trish Pharoah, are on extended sick leave. McAvoy is comfortably ensconced with his wife, Roisin, and their children. He contemplates the upcoming 70th birthday party of his distant mother, Cecilia, with dread. The festivities are indeed unpleasant, with McAvoy feeling like a dismissed 10-year-old and Roisin insulted by a drunken guest. But it's also where McAvoy gets an earful and then some from ebullient Big Harry about the death of Ishmael, the troubled son of rock legend Moose Piper and the best friend of McAvoy's annoying stepbrother, Felix Darling. Something about the story he's told feels off, and McAvoy can't help but investigate. Shaggy plotting and sly, discursive storytelling are part of this long-running series' charm. Witness transcripts, multiple perspectives, and even a book review are woven into McAvoy-focused chapters, delivering pieces of the puzzle through full-bodied characters and the anecdotes that accompany them. All the while, the engaging chemistry of Aector and Roisin, a series trademark, is on full display. An irresistibly charming detective cracks another colorful case. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Mark's book is a unique, complex murder mystery with themes of violence, greed, revenge, prejudice, and the occult. A child of divorce, Aector McAvoy lived on the bleak moors of northeast England with his father until his mother, who had remarried into wealth, came to claim him. The next thing McAvoy knew, he was being brutally bullied by his stepbrother, Felix, and enrolled in a posh boarding school, where he learned to keep quiet and keep his head down. As an adult, he fell deeply in love with a Romany woman, married her, and settled down to a normal life, becoming--to everyone's surprise, including his own--a respected, successful policeman. Then, out of the blue, he receives an invitation to return to the moors for a surprise birthday party for his estranged mother. Curious, he decides to go, little knowing there's a hidden motive behind the invitation--his stepbrother, Felix, wants him to find out who killed Ishmael Piper, son of a famous rock musician and Felix's good friend. Danger, brutality, madness, violence, and hair-raising, head-spinning, sometimes hard-to-follow plot twists figure in this dark, creepy, twisted mystery that will keep readers awake far into the night.
