Retired DCI James Munro is recovering from some hefty heart surgery, and his friend and former subordinate Charlotte West has rented a cottage for him to recuperate. Munro’s definition of “recuperate,” however doesn’t match West’s nor his doctors’. And his old boss has asked him to look into a nearby cold case, the widow of a postmaster who went missing some years back.
West and her team are investigating the death of a young woman whose body has been found in a swimming pool. She didn’t drown; in fact, she was mercilessly beaten to death. He flat has been ransacked as well; someone has been looking for something and apparently didn’t find it. At the scene, West pulls up a kitchen floorboard and finds a safe; the combination is inside the locket the dead woman was wearing. But then the question becomes, how did a young recreation center worker come to have a huge amount of cash?
Pete Brassett
When Munro reappears at the police station, much to West’s consternation, the two cases are discussed – and with a few suspect names in common, it becomes clear that the missing postmaster’s wife and the dead woman in the swimming pool are part of one case.
Penitent is the ninth novel in the DCI James Munro series by Pete Brassett, and it is every bit as good as its predecessors. Brassett has an exceptional ear (and hand) for police team banter, jargon and all, and part of the pleasure of reading the DCI Munro stories is the dialogue. The intriguing mystery is almost an add-on to the fascinating conversations between Munro, West, and West’s two assistants.
Brassett, a native Scot, has published 10 novels in the Munro and West series, as well as several general fiction and mystery titles.
Related:
Rancour by Peter Brassett.
Some Thursday Readings
Murders for October – Jeremy Back at The Critic Magazine.
Nazi-looted Monet returned to heirs after FBI traces it to New Orleans – Catherine Hickley at The Art Newspaper.
Booknotes: Robert E. Lee’s Reluctant Warrior by Sheridan Barringer – Civil War Books and Authors.
No comments:
Post a Comment