cover image A Long Way Down

A Long Way Down

Ken McCoy. Severn, $28.99 (240p) ISBN 978-0-7278-8730-6

McCoy’s complicated sequel to 2016’s Dead or Alive finds Det. Insp. Septimus “Sep” Black assigned to the West Yorkshire Police Cold Case Unit after a brief stint as a private detective. It’s in his nonofficial capacity that widow Sandra Boswell consults him. When Sandra’s investigative reporter husband, James, was murdered in a seedy hotel four months earlier, the local police put it down to a dispute between a prostitute and her client. The skeptical Sandra asks Sep to investigate. Sep sees a link between James’s death and that of a successful entrepreneur, and soon the death count rises and Sep becomes a target. Assisted and occasionally rescued by his lady friend, computer whiz Winnie O’Toole, Sep recklessly races into dangerous situations alone; consistently lies to suspects, witnesses, and colleagues; and recovers miraculously from being shot, knifed, and hit by a speeding van. There is, though, some nice banter between Sep and the intelligent, appealing Winnie, and the plot offers a few entertaining twists. (Nov.)