DON'T SAY A WORD

Multiple miscreants plague a Northumberland cop who’s already struggling with personal demons in a second case that weaves horror, history, and conventional detection into its police procedural foundation.

Several characters are dealing with the detritus of police officer Salome Delany’s debut in When the Bough Breaks (2024). Sal successfully exonerated her stepfather, Wulf Hagman, who’d been accused of the murder of her mother, Trina. But she struggles with loss, the demands of her children, and accelerating harassment by her boss, Magda Quinn. Hagman is equally distraught as he struggles mightily to re-enter society. He’s become close friends with vengeful Theo Myers, similarly adrift since his recent release from a prison sentence for a murder he didn’t commit. The kinetic plot shuffles these components in short, punchy chapters that pinpoint each location and time, adding grisly new crimes and using the characters’ anxiety to amp up the adrenaline level. A prologue depicts an anonymous man tortured by a “creature.” Later, Sal has a traumatic encounter with a man near death, “like an electrified cadaver.” Is this the same person? Keep reading. Shocks are delivered by a “chamber of horrors” and Blindworm, a medieval torturer rooted in history and revived in a cosplay game that Theo’s obsessed with. The wildly discursive plot links Sal’s kids and surrogate mother, Dagmara, the solicitor responsible for Hagman’s exoneration, to a far-flung web of other characters. It’s all held together by Mark’s urgent, rhythmic prose and incisive character portraits. Those who persist will be rewarded with the long-awaited solution to Trina’s murder.

A compulsively readable police procedural adorned with Grand Guignol trappings.