With three leading characters, one a policeman, two concerned professionals, Jo Bannister has cleverly combined the police procedural with the amateur sleuth. Brodie Farrell finds things for a living, such as a special piece of antique furniture or the right house for a client. What she does not do is find people. So it takes the intervention of friend and cop, Jack Deacon to make her consider seeking the sister of a brutally murdered woman. For without Constance Ward, her young nieces will have to go into care. After all, their father is on the run accused of killing their mother.
Fortunately, Brodie knows just the person to help the girls through their trauma - her friend, Daniel Hood, who well understands what it means to be thrown to the lions. He is a gentle, complex and unusual male character whom the reader enjoys getting to know better. Then the simple murder of an unfaithful wife starts to stop looking so simple. And Brodie and Daniel are drawn in, much against Brodies's better judgement, to the imploding family. More than innocent victims, the children prove a gateway to a larger and more horrific crime.
This is a novel that plays on the tangled web of relationships at its heart.
One of its strengths is that it is as interested in the psychology of its detectives
as the victims. Indeed, it is the interplay of the crime stricken family and
sleuth that is at the heart of the story. In trying to understand a peculiarly
dark crime, all three leading characters are themselves changed. Moreover, their
own delicate relationships are put under unbearable stress. It is Jo Bannister's
skill in exploring the living texture of this trio that makes this book a striking
addition to her exceptionally well drawn series
. ----
Susan Rowland
Other books in the series are Echo of Lies, True Witness and The Depths
of Solitude