DCI Rachel King, divorced from Alan with two teen-aged daughters, works for East Manchester CID along with several other team members. This crime mystery begins with a call out to Hawthorne Lodge Nursing Home where an elderly resident, Francis Baslow, has been found murdered -- he was suffocated and his ring finger has been removed. In addition, confetti has been spread all over the tiny room. When the officers go to make the notification and bring in Baslow's daughter to ID him, she stuns by saying that the dead man is not her father. It's on! And a complicated case this turns out to be with links to a previous investigation involving human traffickers and the criminals responsible for that illegal activity. There's a lot going on in this police procedural with Rachel unsure of whom to trust and Jed McAteer has skipped town. Can the team unravel this murderous mess and solve their case? NO SPOILERS.
This is typical fare that has all the standard elements of this genre, including a female detective who is really starting to annoy me. She doesn't listen to anyone, has her own opinions, steamrolls over people and makes mistakes while trusting her "instincts." I'd like to get to know the other team members a bit better, especially DCI Mark Kenton and DC Elwyn Price. To be honest, the whole case wasn't really that interesting and it seemed drawn out and convoluted with some of them working at cross purposes, withholding information, etc. and though I've read and enjoyed the previous 2 books in the series, I was hoping that Rachel would have gotten her act together both personally and professionally by now. I'll give the series another shot with book #4, however, as things might be changing for Rachel given the last sentence in this book.
Thank you to NetGalley and Joffe Books for this e-book ARC to read and review.
This is the third book in the series and they should be read in order.
Genre - Crime thriller, police procedural
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