In Davies's second absorbing police procedural to feature Det. Inspector Keith Tyrell (after 2001's A Fine and Private Place), the discovery of the body of an unidentified young woman in the grasses of the river Severn leads Tyrell to seek answers in the Forest of Dean, which has a long pagan history and mysterious inhabitants. When the bodies of two more young women turn up and a third goes missing, most suspect a serial killer, but Tyrell's astute observations and forensic analysis lead to the arrest of one murderer and the naming of a second. DCI Richard Whittaker, always ready to degrade Tyrell and thwart his ambitions, has become even more erratic and vindictive. Fearing Tyrell's success, he reassigns him to a robbery case and then to another involving buried infant bones. After solving both cases with his own efficient and somewhat quirky team, Tyrell turns again to the murder investigation. When a hacker breaks into the police computer system, the name of the suspect and the evidence are released for all to see in cyberspace, along with Whittaker's scathing report of Tyrell's supposed insubordination. There's a lot going on here, but Davies pulls it all together in a realistic page-turner that wraps up with an imaginative and chilling conclusion. (Nov. 10)
FYI: British author Davies is also the author of the novel Let Heaven Fall.
