“Rancour” by Pete Brassett

On an island just off Scotland’s northwestern coast, a young woman leaves her friends and attempts to climb a local mountain. She’s not dressed for it and leaves too late in the day. And, no surprise, her body is found. It looks like a case of accidental death, until traces of a date-rape-like drug is found in her system. Because it’s under her jurisdiction, DCI Charlotte (“Charlie”) West and her team investigate. 

Meanwhile, an old friend asks retired DI James Munro to help find his daughter, who supposedly went to a concert with her best friend. Neither girl has returned home. Munro does find the girl alive; she was found unconscious outside a bar. Thought by police to be drunk, she was locked up. As it turns out, she was drugged. Her friend is eventually found – dead and with a date drug in her system. Both girls had had a tattoo roughly scratched io their backs – a Roman numeral signifying bad luck.

 

Pete Bassett

As Munro, working as an unpaid consultant to the police, and West’s team realize they may be dealing with similar cases, they come across an elderly Italian man known for his seductive charm who seems to have known all of the victims – and left a similar trail of victims in Italy. Maybe.

 

And Munro has discovered he has a heart problem, as in needs-a-triple-bypass heart problem.

 

Rancour (we’d spell it “rancor” in America) is the eighth Munro and West novel in the series by Scottish author Pete Brassett, and it’s as enthralling a story as its seven predecessors. Brassett has a way of putting words in his characters’ mouths that keep you smiling throughout the rather grim stories. And Rancour also shares a series of unexpected twists that keep the reader guessing until the very end.

 

Brassett, a native Scot, has published 10 novels in the Munro and West series, as well as a number of general fiction and mystery titles.   

 

Related:

She by Pete Brassett.

 

Avarice by Pete Brassett.

 

Duplicity by Pete Brassett.

 

Terminus by Pete Brassett.

 

Talion by Peter Brassett.

 

Perdition by Peter Brassett.

 

Some Thursday Readings

 

The Tragedy and Triumph of The Killing Fields – Bradley Birzer at Law & Liberty.

 

The War on Genius: Literature and its systems – Ross Barkan at Political Currents.

 

Have We Lost the Essential Practice of Deep Reading? – Michele Morin at Living Our Days.