10 July 2023.
ISBN: 978-1-73958248-7 (PB)
As Captain Franconi of Westford, Connecticut Police Department leaves a restaurant with his wife, he is shot and badly injured. We learn that the shooter intended to only severely wound him and make him suffer for the rest of his life.A Captain Baxter is brought in from another force to replace Franconi for the time being.
Detective Annie Macpherson and her husband Dave Ellison head the investigation along with Baxter. A security camera shows the shooter has a limp appearing to have one leg shorter than the other.
A few days later Walter Smith an ex-cop, is smothered to death in a care home and when a new member of staff disappears, suspicion falls on him, especially when it is revealed the carer walked with a limp.
On going back over police records, the team discover Franconi and Smith often worked together on cases. Further investigations reveal evidence of a “consortium” at New Haven Prison, relatively near to Westford. It seems to consist of long-term prisoners led by “the boss”, seeking revenge on the police officers responsible for their arrests.
The trouble is the team have no idea of the names of the people involved. Where do they start? When another ex-cop is murdered it becomes even more urgent to find any connection between the three victims.
Who is the perpetrator being hired by the “consortium” wreak revenge on the local police force?
To add to Annie’s concerns, the name of a really violent criminal from her past comes to light. Everyone especially Annie is put on high alert, who will be next?
Another brilliant and absorbing detective novel
from Barbara Fagan Speake involving Annie Macpherson and Dave Ellison. Highly
recommended.
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Reviewer:
Tricia Chappell
Barbara Fagan Speake was born and brought up in Connecticut, on the eastern seaboard of the USA. She moved to the UK in 1972 following her marriage and had a varied career as a research psychologist, clinical psychologist and senior manager in the NHS. A previous author of non-fiction books, she turned her attention to fiction writing in 2001. Barbara creates her characters from both the US and the UK and draws on her experiences of both countries as well as on her professional background. A fictional city in Connecticut, Westford, was the setting for her standalone debut novel, Secrets Only Sleep (2005). She continued to use the setting for the novels in her Scottish Detective and has now written seven further books in the series featuring Detective Annie Macpherson
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