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Detective Inspector Bill
Quinn is found murdered on the grounds of St Peter’s
Convalescence and Treatment Center. He was the victim
of a crossbow attack, the bolt penetrating his heart.
The case is assigned to Detective Chief Inspector Alan
Banks. Early in his investigation Banks uncovers some
photos of the deceased in the company of a young lady
and they appear to be involved with one another.
Banks smells blackmail.
With the prospect of impropriety hanging over the case,
Joanna Passero, a Professional Standards officer is assigned
to work with Banks and he’s none too happy with
an internal watchdog looking over his shoulder.
While
investigating past actions of Detective Bill Quinn,
Inspector Banks finds a link to an unsolved six-year-old
missing persons case that Quinn had been assigned to.
The trail takes him to where the missing girl, Rachel
Hewitt, was last seen in the city of Tallinn in the
Baltic State of Estonia. Banks tries to reconstruct
the last movements of Rachel Hewitt right up to her
disappearance. And then there’s the matter of
finding the mystery woman who was photographed with
the murder victim.
Back
in the city of Eastvale, England, Banks old partner
Annie is investigating a migrant labor/human trafficking
network that appears to be linked to the case that Banks
is following. Both probes seem to share certain characteristics.
I
would say, from the colloquialisms that this book was
targeted primarily for British audiences. I had trouble
with a few terms but they were explained by context.
Robinson
deserves all five stars for his plotting. He has woven
no less than four stories seamlessly into this novel
and each one compliments the other to form a complete
parcel. It’s a well done puzzle.
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