Whitehavens

In this middling crime thriller from Bilal (the Drake and Crane series), Brodie, a hired killer who works for Donny Apostolis, the head of a Greek organized crime family based in London, follows his boss’s murderous instructions without question. Brodie is tasked with taking Donny’s grown nephew, Zephyr, along on a visit to Karima Coogan, an accountant who once cooked the books for the Apostolis crime empire, but Donny now wants her dead. But when Brodie and Zephyr arrive at her Derbyshire home, the assassin gets a call from Donny, informing him that he needs to murder Zephyr as well. Zephyr manages to seriously wound Brodie before Brodie fatally shoots Zephyr. Then, instead of fleeing and leaving Brodie to bleed out, Karima takes him to a doctor friend to be stitched up, beginning an unconvincing partnership as both go on the run from Donny and his other hit men. Bilal’s making Karima an attractive woman telegraphs some of what follows. There’s nothing memorable about the premise or its execution. Crime fiction fans can safely take a pass. [em]Agent: Euan Thorneycroft, A.M. Heath (U.K.). (July) [/em]