Kid's Stuff: An Inspector Nick Trevellyan Mystery

In the latest in this superior procedural series, Detective Chief Inspector Nick Trevellyan, last encountered in Hope Will Answer, plumbs the depths of child pornography and abuse to find a killer. In the English town of Hopbridge, Trevellyan arrests Arturo Bottone in the process of selling photographs of children in sexual situations. When Bottone is soon found hanged, Trevellyan suspects that he may have been murdered by his customers, even though the official judgement is suicide. Developing a fondness for Bottone's widow and five young daughters, Trevellyan slogs away on the closed case despite his superior's disapproval. Accompanied by a reporter assigned to write a sympathetic portrait of police work, the detective follows up on two arson cases, one involving the home of a man arrested with Bottone. Meanwhile, Trevellyan's long-term relationship with Alison Hope develops complications, although it is she who provides the information that helps the sophisticated, sympathetic detective carry the case to its tragic, ambiguous conclusion. (Dec.)