Her Cold Eyes: A DI Bob Valentine Mystery

At the start of Black’s dark, disturbing fourth and final Scottish police procedural featuring Det. Chief Insp. Bob Valentine (after 2019’s Summoning the Dead), an unidentified teenage girl is raped. Meanwhile, Valentine and his team are called out to a traffic accident in which a teenage girl—naked except for a pair of tennis shoes—has been fatally hit by a truck. The shocked driver says the girl “was bloody running for her life” when she raced out into the road. During the course of the investigation, Valentine uncovers evidence of satanic rituals, cannibalism, murder, torture, and, of course, a giant cover-up that reaches to the highest echelons of society. Valentine’s ability to communicate with the dead serves merely to supply information he doesn’t have to work for. His one-note, whiny wife soon grows tiresome. Bleaker than its predecessors, this entry will leave readers feeling exhausted and grateful that the series is over. [em]Agent: Donna Pudick, Parkeast Literary. (Jan.) [/em]