"Closer to the Dead" by Scott Hunter

Detective Chief Inspector Brendan Moran and his team at the Thames Valley Police have been given a cold case, a 40-year-old cold case to be precise. In 1981, a young woman working at a Royal Air Force base was waiting to be picked up for a babysitting job for the family of a senior RAF officer. She never made it; she was stabbed to death and her body found the next day. The police investigation at the time went nowhere.  

A related team, under Moran’s former subordinate Charlie Parker, is trying to find Connie Chan, the murderous villain of The Cold Light of Death was caught at the end of that story but managed to escape from her hospital bed. What Moran, Parker, and their respective teams don’t know is that Chan is out for revenge – against Moran – and has hacked her way into a team member’s laptop – and thus the police system. She’s tracking the inside accounts of the police investigation, as well as private, non-investigation emails, and she knows exactly how she’s going to extract revenge against Moran.

 

What neither Chan nor the police teams see coming is the convergence of the two separate investigations.

 

Scott Hunter

Closer to the Dead is the ninth Irish Detective story by British crime writer Scott Hunter. It’s an action-packed police procedural that, like its predecessors, sees its police team members facing as much physical harm as the murderer’s victims and intended victims. 

 

The “Irish Detective” series includes Black December, Creatures of Dust, Death Walks Behind You, A Crime for All Seasons, Silent as the Dead, Gone Too Soon, The Enemy Inside, When Stars Grow Dark, The Cold Light of Death andCloser to the Dead. Hunter has also published the novels The Trespass, The Ley Lines of Lushbury, Long Goodbyes, and The Serpent & the Slave, and the memoir Rattle and Drum.  In addition to writing fiction, Hunter is an IT consultant and musician. He lives with his family in England.

 

Closer to the Dead maintains the same high quality and fast-paced narratives of the previous Brendan Moran stories. And we see a lead detective struggling with his own personal issues and those of the people he’s coming to care for.

 

Related:

 

My review of Black December by Scott Hunter.

 

My review of Creatures of Dust by Scott Hunter.

 

My review of Death Walks Behind You by Scott Hunter.

 

My review of Silent as the Dead by Scott Hunter.

 

My review of Gone Too Soon and A Crime for All Seasons by Scott Hunter.

 

The Enemy Inside by Scott Hunter.

 

When Starts Grow Dark by Scott Hunter.

 

The Cold Light of Death by Scott Hunter.