The Siren

Cambridge Det. Constable Gary Goodhew runs into a crisis while off-duty in Bruce's solid sequel to 2009's Cambridge Blue. In the midst of a pub crawl with a mate, Goodhew smells fire and rushes to the scene, only to find the flames too intense to allow him to enter the burning house where Kimberly Guyver's two-year-old son, Riley, is believed trapped, along with Rachel Golinski, the friend the boy's mother left in charge of him. While the authorities soon discover Golinski's corpse among the building's charred wreckage, Bruce lets the reader know that Riley is being held captive. The plot has the requisite twists and stock situations, notably a dark secret Guyver and Golinski share that's somehow connected to the disappearance of a man whose corpse turns up in Spain at the book's outset, but Bruce's superior prose elevates this above many other contemporary British police procedurals. (Oct.)