Publisher's Weekly Review
A too-elaborate plot hampers Mark's 11th procedural featuring British Det. Sgt. Aector McAvoy (following 2022's Blind Justice). After a man who could be his twin is violently assaulted , McAvoy receives a call from his colleague, checking that the detective hasn't been wounded. McAvoy learns the assault occurred outside the home of his boss, Trish Pharaoh, and the victim was her boyfriend, Icelandic cop Thor Ingolfsson. The resemblance makes McAvoy wonder whether he was the intended target, and Pharaoh muddies the waters by slipping away from the crime scene before she can be questioned. A theory emerges that the attack might have been organized by serial killer Reuben Hollow, whom Pharaoh put behind bars. Most of Hollow's victims were "dealers and people-traffickers; sex pests and wife-beaters," but two were hard-to-explain one-offs--or so they appeared. As McAvoy digs deeper into the case, long-buried secrets from Pharaoh's past threaten to violently erupt. An exciting climax can't salvage the contrived, convenience-riddled plot that comes before it, and some lines (one character's boots make a noise "like a horse chewing mint") land with a thud. This entry comes in well below the standards Mark has set for the series. (June)
Kirkus Review
DS Aector McAvoy comes back from the dead, sort of, to nail his would-be killer. A pair of contrasting prologues set a wry and gritty tone and foreshadow the crimes to come. First, elderly ex-cop Tom Spink, lonely in his retirement, is murdered by a hulking figure with designs on Trish Pharaoh, Tom's surrogate daughter. Then an inappropriately bubbly true-crime podcast makes passing reference to superwoman Trish, the veteran Yorkshire Detective Superintendent. Meanwhile, Trish herself is in flagrante delicto with Icelandic cop Thor Ingolfsson, with whom she is head-over-heels smitten. A loud bang lures Thor outside and into a near-fatal ambush. Arriving paramedics at first think the victim is DS McAvoy, as does the anonymous hit man, so uncanny is the resemblance. But Aector McAvoy is on a well-deserved vacation two hours north in Gamblesby with his wife, Roisin, and his two children. In his 11th McAvoy novel, Mark again delivers both breadth and depth, depicting not only the intricacies of investigation, but the nuances of human relationships. Trish's entire team, from relative newcomer PC Matt Paul to experienced Ben Neilsen to DC Andy Daniells, is shaken. The assassin, whose chapters are written from his warped perspective, has vowed to kill everyone close to Trish. Trish at first thinks the attack was a car theft gone wrong, but McAvoy links it to a hit-and-run of another man who's been close to her. The reign of terror that follows will engulf Trish's daughters, Sophia and Olivia, before it's ended. An involving, nail-biting police procedural from a masterful storyteller. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
