Paint It Black: The Eleventh Nick Sharman Thriller

Readers will struggle to sympathize with unpleasant, reckless Nick Sharman in British author Timlin’s bleak 11th thriller featuring the ex-cop turned PI (after Pretend We’re Dead). Nick gets a desperate call from his ex-wife, Laura, after their 14-year-old daughter, Judith, goes missing from her Aberdeen, Scotland, home in the company of a friend from the wrong side of the tracks. Of course, Nick drops everything to find Judith, and, of course, he ignores the pleas of his friend on the force, the distractingly named Insp. Jack Robber, to leave the search to the police. The opening section, centered on the hunt for the missing girl, proves to be just the catalyst for the rest of the story line, which unfolds in grim and predictable ways. To Timlin’s credit, he doesn’t try to soften Nick’s rough edges, but it’s too bad he doesn’t allow Nick to show an introspective side that might have made his lead’s actions more plausible and understandable. (Apr.)