BEYOND THE PALE

Chiaroscuro, the art club run by suave Brit Bruce Foxon and noisy American Sophie Neuman, is the top drawer of London chic, enticing sophisticates like Lebanese Suki Nadhouri with luminaries like Ken Tyler, noted expert on Asian ceramics. But when their latest lecture ends with the discovery of Suki’s corpse, knifed and then scalped, lying alongside her Ferrari, all hell breaks loose. Dispatched to the scene, Detective Chief Inspector Charlie Flood instantly runs into retired DCI Ralph Arnott, who’s been hired to look into some petty theft at the club. Arnott’s former sergeant, Judith Pullen, is also on the scene, not in an official capacity (since Arnott’s departure, she’s moved from Homicide to Serious Fraud) but because her sister Pixie invested in a membership in Chiaroscuro for her—complete with a Chiaroscuro-sponsored tour of Bath—as a Christmas gift. To Foxon and Neuman’s immense relief, the investigating officer doesn’t cancel the trip; Judith’s boyfriend, Laurence Erskine of Special Branch, assures Flood that the murder is part of a terrorist plot to retaliate against Suki’s brother for his support of the Palestinians. But Arnott goes along to Bath anyway, partly in his role as security officer, partly to probe deeper into the connection between Suki—who was holding a significant amount of cocaine the night of her death—and any other high-fliers who might be heading for a smash-up.

Armstrong (Rewind, 2001, etc.) handles multiple threads deftly as she weaves an arresting tale of love, betrayal, and murder.