Barlow Laid Bare

In McAllister’s solid third police procedural set in early 1960s Northern Ireland (after 2015’s Barlow by the Book), Sgt. John Barlow has more than one murder to investigate. At a council house in Ballymena, Barlow is examining the body of elderly Mrs. Cosgrave, the mother of a high-ranking New Scotland Yard officer who died of cancer a few years earlier, when he gets a call to go to a farm where a crew of firemen, responding to a burning hay rick, have discovered another body—this one with a knife in his neck. The victim turns out to be Ezekiel Fetherton, a local dairy owner who’s due to go on trial for supplying contaminated milk to schools. Barlow fears that vindictive District Inspector Harvey will try to pin Fetherton’s murder on him for no good reason. More killings follow. Barlow’s fraught personal relationships—with teenage daughter Vera, romantic interest Louise Carberry, and Maggie, the wife who left him—lend human interest. Readers will root for Barlow every step of the way as he overcomes all obstacles. (Aug.)