RED LIGHT

A rash of sex trafficking murders leads an Irish detective to suspect that someone’s out for revenge.

When the first body is found with hands cut off and two bullets to the brain, DS Katie Maguire is determined to find the culprit. With all the hard work she’s put in to become a female detective in the small city of Cork, Katie’s fresh off a victory after solving a series of gruesome murders (Broken Angels, 2014), and she has an early lead in this case. A young woman, apparently brought from her African homeland for the sex trade, was found with the body and may be able to give the detective more information once Katie figures out the girl’s native tongue. Meanwhile, Katie’s hard at work on Operation Rocker, a long-term investigation of sex trafficking in the Cork area. She hopes to be able to stop the crimes at their source, which she thinks she’s pinpointed as the slick and smooth-talking Michael Gerrety, despite his insistence that the women who work for him do so willingly. A sudden switch in her supervisors leaves Katie unsure whether she can continue her work on this operation, or even whether her colleagues are in on the subterfuge. If only she could confide in her boyfriend, John—but he’s been out of sorts ever since he decided to stay in Ireland for Katie’s sake instead of moving to the U.S. to pursue a dot.com career.

Although Masterton continues to grow in this crime-focused series, his horror themes can seem rote and routine, while his romantic episodes are tinged with soft-core pornography.