This 4th book in the Detectives King and Lane series features another complicated murder case that forces the team to delve into some nefarious activity that happened over 30 years ago.
On a dark night, Matthew and Stacey are coming home -- intoxicated -- and decided to take the long route home. Bad decision. Matthew runs out of gas and leaves Stacey behind in the car while he goes to get help. When the police are called to the scene the next day, Stacey is dead from a gunshot and Matthew is missing. Of course he becomes the prime suspect. Now all the team has to do is find him!
Meanwhile, a body has been found in the garden of a local house that's undergoing some renovation. And still there's more: a local man has gone missing after a night out around Cardiff Bay. After some investigation, it becomes obvious that there must be some sort of link between these cases, but DI King is having a hard time putting it all together. And one member of her team is keeping a secret...
NO SPOILERS
This was a bit slow going and hard to get into for me. Not sure if that was because I was reading this while suffering through a blizzard and power failure, but I couldn't really fall under the spell of the story. I also had a difficult time remembering the characters from the only other book in this series that I've read (#3) and many times when references were made to past events, I had no clue what that was about. I don't think this works as a standalone for that reason and I wish I would have had more detail about the characters and their history. The scars on Lane's face? Coudn't remember how she got them. The other issues in King's personal life -- no recall. So, though it was an interesting police procedural, I didn't find it as compelling as I usually do.
The clues are pieced together, painstakingly, and the case is solved but it seemed to take a long time to get to the reason for it all. I'm sure it's just my own fault having a bad memory of the previous book, but I found it hard to connect to the characters and to get fully invested in their lives.
Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for this e-book ARC to read and review. I know I really liked book #3 so I will definitely be eager to read the next in the series.
This is Book #4 in a series featuring DI Alex King and DC Chloe Lane. Best read in order.
Genre - police procedural/crime thriller
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