CRIME
THE CURATOR by M. W. Craven (Constable £16.99, 384 pp)
THE CURATOR
by M. W. Craven
(Constable £16.99, 384 pp)
This third outing for the two magnificently eccentric analysts from the National Crime Agency, Washington Poe and Tilly Bradshaw, firmly underlines what superb creations they have become.
They’re asked to investigate three apparently different killings in Cumbria — although all three victims have two of their fingers amputated, which are left to be discovered while their bodies remain hidden.
What links them, and why did they each take two weeks off work three years earlier?
Poe’s disregard for authority makes him an even more interesting detective, while the supremely geeky Bradshaw is a fine foil for his rebelliousness.
Their search eventually leads to a remote island off the coast of Cumbria and a man placed in witness protection.
The plot twists and turns at an ever-increasing rate as the pair race to track down a killer who leaves almost no trace and hides behind a strange hashtag.
CUT TO THE BONE by Roz Watkins (HQ £12.99, 384 pp)
CUT TO THE BONE
by Roz Watkins
(HQ £12.99, 384 pp)
TWO years ago, I warmly welcomed DI Meg Dalton in Watkins’ debut. Now in her third outing, she has developed into a memorable detective with attitude, pounding Derbyshire’s Peak District with commendable fortitude.
A young social media star — famous for cooking sausages on a barbecue wearing only a bikini — goes missing from her job at an abattoir on a summer’s night.
Traces of blood and hair are found in one of the pig troughs, but there is no sign of the victim. Has she been killed?
Even more importantly, what on earth was she doing working in an abattoir in the first place?
Have animal rights protesters harmed her, or is there something more sinister at work? Has she fallen prey to the ghost of the Pale Child who, legend has it, announces death if once seen?
Subtly plotted, and with a delicate sense of place, it confirms Watkins in the front rank of British crime writers.
WATCH HIM DIE by Craig Robertson (S&S £8.99, 416 pp)
WATCH HIM DIE
by Craig Robertson
(S&S £8.99, 416 pp)
THE exceptionally talented Robertson brings the mean streets and hard men of Glasgow’s underworld to the surface.
But here he adds another dimension to his storytelling, weaving the discovery of a body in LA into DI Rachel Narey’s search for a missing young woman in Scotland’s second city.
The LA victim not only has a collection of serial killer memorabilia in his house, but also has a live computer feed of a young man chained to a radiator somewhere, who is clearly being starved to death because someone likes to watch his torture.
It transpires that the watcher could be in Glasgow, and so the two stories coalesce.
Robertson’s skill in matching the atmosphere of LA with that of Scotland is mightily impressive, as is his ability to maintain the suspense that lies at the heart of the search for a dying man. This is truly difficult to put down.