A Killing Coast: A DI Horton Mystery

In Rowson’s slow-moving seventh contemporary procedural featuring Det. Insp. Andy Horton (after 2011’s Footsteps on the Shore), Horton and his fellow Portsmouth police officers investigate what at first appears to be the accidental death of a woman found floating in the English Channel. Two teenage girls and a 40-year-old woman from the area have been reported missing, but the autopsy reveals that the deteriorated body, which must have been in the sea for some time, is not one of them. Meanwhile, Horton looks into his own mother’s disappearance in 1978, though one has to wonder why it’s taken him so long to pursue this highly personal cold case. Meticulous police work leads Horton to a “particularly callous and ruthless killer” as well as theft and blackmail. Stock supporting characters do what’s necessary to further along the plot, which includes a few unexpected twists. (June)