A Killing, Resurrected

April 19, 2010
In Smith's engaging eighth procedural to feature Broadminster Det. Chief Insp. Neil Paget (after 2009's The Cold Hand of Malice
), Paget looks into a 13-year-old case after new information comes to light. Scrawled notes, written by 19-year-old Barry Grant before he blew his head off with a shotgun, reveal that Barry was the getaway driver for a gang that committed several robberies and killed two people in the last one. Paget directs a finely drawn cast of supporting characters, including Det. Sgt. John Tregalles and Det. Constable Molly Forsythe, as they begin the arduous task of re-interviewing the many victims and witnesses and re-examining evidence and files. The cold case heats up when an arsonist tries to destroy Grant's old home and a potential witness is almost beaten to death. Smith keeps readers interested and in doubt all the way to the revelation of the surprising culprits.

May 15, 2010
DCI Neil Paget (The Cold Hand of Malice, 2009, etc.) probes a stone-cold case that everyone—even the victims' families—would rather see left in the icebox.

When Claire Hammond inherits her next-door neighbor's house, she inherits an unexpected dilemma as well. Before he killed himself 13 years ago, Jane Grant's nephew Barry left a cryptic set of letters admitting his involvement in a robbery that left jeweler Emily Bergman and baker George Taylor dead. DS Thomas Alcott wants the case reopened, but he's distracted by his wife's sudden bout of emphysema. So he leaves it to Paget to interview Taylor's sons, volatile artist David and cagey lawyer Kevin. They consider their father's death a closed book and deny any friendship with Barry, whom they describe as needy and clinging. So do Roger Corbett and John Chadwell, the Taylor boys' childhood pals. Kevin's wife Stephanie remembers Barry as a pest whose crush on her was laughable. And Samuel Bergman, now happily remarried, is prospering in his new shop in the Grand Arcade in Cambridge. So Paget can't get any traction on the case, even when someone tries to set Aunt Jane's house ablaze, nearly killing Claire. It isn't until more corpses crop up that Paget, aided by DS John Tregalles and DC Molly Forsythe, can piece together a motive for a crime as shocking as it is venal.

Smith's quick pacing and clever clueing will delight both procedural fans and cold-case bloodhounds.

(COPYRIGHT (2010) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

June 1, 2010
Thirteen years ago, a teenager committed suicide, and now his letters, which explained his act and implicated his friends in several robberies and a double murder, resurface when his aunt dies. As a result, DCI Paget and DS Tregalles ("Cold Hand of Malice") must reopen the old cases. VERDICT Readers may guess at the outcome, but how Smith manipulates his characters and plot lines is the key here. A terrific series for readers of British police procedurals. [See Prepub Mystery, "LJ" 2/1/10.]

Copyright 2010 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 1, 2010
British procedurals fans who have exhausted their supplies of Grimes, Rendell, and Robinson should be steered toward Smith, whose DCI Neil Paget may not match Jury, Wexford, or Banks in terms of personality but manages to solve intriguing cases with similar dogged determination. When a woman unearths some old letters written by a young man who supposedly committed suicide more than a decade before, Paget is intrigued and revisits the tragedy, discovering direct links to a series of unsolved robberies and murders. Meanwhile, he faces a career decision that will affect the rest of his life and, perhaps, the course of Smiths series. Detail-rich and carefully plotted.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)