Song of the Dead

Det. Insp. Ben Westphall, the glum narrator of this haunting series launch from Lindsay (Lost in Juarez), once traveled the world with Britain’s security services until he nearly died in a plane crash in central Africa. Now he’s holed up in the relative quiet of Scotland’s Dingwall, avoiding air travel. All that changes when he’s sent to Estonia (via ferry and car) to investigate claims that tourist John Baden, who allegedly died 12 years earlier on a trip to the Baltic country with his girlfriend, is actually alive. Baden—whose body was found in a lake on the Russian border—recently walked into a Tartu police station and told a fantastical story about being held captive for over a decade and used for organ harvesting and sex by his captors. When Baden’s story checks out, Westphall questions everything about the original investigation, particularly how DNA could match a corpse and a man who’s very much alive. With this richly atmospheric and unrelentingly dark outing, Lindsay solidifies his place as one of the rising stars of tartan noir. (Nov.)