THE SILENT CONVERSATION

What seems like a quiet death at a high-end Scottish housing complex reverberates with echoes of two more well-publicized cases.

A woman dressed as a police officer is found unconscious by an actual police officer in the beautifully landscaped gardens of Maltman Green, which requires a six-digit code to enter. Constable Martin Callaghan, who announces his discovery of the body of Rachel Sinclair, claims that he entered the enclosed green because he noticed another man following her. Although he and several others try CPR, Rachel dies from unknown causes. The inhabitants of the green, whose numbers don’t include Rachel, are a small but diverse bunch, ranging from the two owners and developers of the huge complex, formerly a brewery and jam factory, to a woman who’s afraid to leave her apartment. When DNA from 4-year-old Johnny Clearwater, who's been missing for four years, is found on Rachel’s face, the episode blows up into a massive publicity nightmare even as it gives DCI Colin Anderson and DI Freddie Costello, of Police Scotland, a chance to take a break from their love-hate relationship and revisit both Johnny’s disappearance and the case of serial killer Eric Manson. They examine a number of related incidents that may provide the clues that lead to Johnny, dead or alive.

With a complex storyline and protagonists to match, this procedural-plus keeps you guessing to the end.