Reflections of Deviance

After high-powered financial jobs in New York and London, wealthy Marion Cane retires to Newton Heights, a posh village outside Birmingham, England, in Cross’s plodding fourth mystery featuring criminologist Will Traynor (after 2022’s A Dark, Divided Self). Two years later, Cane, a fit 59-year-old, dies alone in her house, apparently of heart disease. Six months after that, the police receive an anonymous note suggesting they reexamine her death. Det. Chief Insp. Bernard Watts and Police Constable Chloe Judd ask Traynor to consult on the Cane case as well as that of a missing 92-year-old man from Newton Heights. Traynor agrees to help, despite having just learned that the remains of his long-missing wife have been located near Oxford. In Newton Heights, as Watts, Judd, and Traynor interview villagers about both cases, it becomes clear they must find a killer before the killer can strike again. Traynor’s affecting psychological struggles make up only in part for an overly familiar plot that winds its way through a lengthy series of forward and backward investigative steps. This one’s for established fans only. Agent: Jade Kavanagh, Darley Anderson Literary (U.K.). (Feb.)