FLESH AND BLOOD

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.