March 1, 2021
Scottish coppers Anderson and Costello have their hands full. First, a young woman is pulled from the River Clyde, and the detectives suspect she was murdered by her former boyfriend. Then Costello finds her elderly neighbor Vera with a serious head wound, and it looks like someone tried to rob her. Then the detectives are called to a brutal murder scene where a man has been tortured to death in his attic. Suddenly, Anderson and Costello are pulled off all three cases to investigate a 40-year-old murder. Does their boss know something he's not sharing? The plot is fast-moving and complex; the characters are quirky, with plenty of foibles; and the outcome is both satisfying and surprising. Readers new to the series may find the plethora of characters and their relationships puzzling at first, but those who stick with the twisty tale will be rewarded in the end. Fans of British procedurals who don't know Anderson and Costello should remedy that situation quickly.
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October 11, 2021
Set in Glasgow, Scotland, Ramsay’s engrossing 13th procedural featuring Det. Chief Insp. Colin Anderson and Det. Insp. Freddie Costello (after On an Outgoing Tide) effectively juggles multiple plotlines without straining credulity. Four years after four-year-old Johnny Clearwater’s 2017 disappearance, the child’s fate remains unknown, leading his mother to make another public appeal for information. Though Anderson suspects the boy is long dead, he’s forced to reconsider after traces of Johnny’s DNA are found on the face of murder victim Rachel Sinclair. Sinclair, a former flight attendant, was attacked by an unknown man while she was dressed in a police uniform. An off-duty cop, who saw a man fleeing the scene, tried to revive the unconscious Sinclair rather than give chase. The assault was witnessed by Carol Holman, who passed out while calling the police and kept quiet about what she saw. Holman is revealed to have survived being victimized by the so-called Night Hunter, a serial killer who was caught by Anderson and Costello. Ramsay shifts perspectives among investigators, witnesses, and victims to keep readers guessing. This is an intelligent nail-biter. Agent: Jane Gregory, David Higham Assoc. (U.K.).
October 15, 2021
Ramsay offers another outstanding entry in her popular British procedural series featuring detecting duo Anderson and Costello. This time, the two detectives must deal with three challenging cases: the reopening of two cold cases--the disappearance four years ago of little Johnny Clearwater and the horrific Night Hunter case, with women kidnapped and held captive by a deranged madman--and a new crime, the death of a woman dressed as a police officer. The woman's body is found in Maltman Green, a former jam factory turned upscale apartment block, whose residents are both eccentric and mysterious. The pressure on Anderson and Costello to solve all three cases is intense, but as the investigation progresses, there's frustration at every juncture, with reluctant witnesses, few leads, and little useful evidence, until, finally, Anderson and Costello find surprising links between the three cases. This is both an outstanding police procedural and a complex and intense psychological cop drama, with danger and dark humor that also shows the vulnerability and resilience of human beings in the face of unspeakable tragedy.
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October 1, 2021
What seems like a quiet death at a high-end Scottish housing complex reverberates with echoes of two more well-publicized cases. A woman dressed as a police officer is found unconscious by an actual police officer in the beautifully landscaped gardens of Maltman Green, which requires a six-digit code to enter. Constable Martin Callaghan, who announces his discovery of the body of Rachel Sinclair, claims that he entered the enclosed green because he noticed another man following her. Although he and several others try CPR, Rachel dies from unknown causes. The inhabitants of the green, whose numbers don't include Rachel, are a small but diverse bunch, ranging from the two owners and developers of the huge complex, formerly a brewery and jam factory, to a woman who's afraid to leave her apartment. When DNA from 4-year-old Johnny Clearwater, who's been missing for four years, is found on Rachel's face, the episode blows up into a massive publicity nightmare even as it gives DCI Colin Anderson and DI Freddie Costello, of Police Scotland, a chance to take a break from their love-hate relationship and revisit both Johnny's disappearance and the case of serial killer Eric Manson. They examine a number of related incidents that may provide the clues that lead to Johnny, dead or alive. With a complex storyline and protagonists to match, this procedural-plus keeps you guessing to the end.
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