‘Without Trace’ by Leigh Russell

Published by No Exit Press, 
31 August 2023. 
ISBN: 978-0-85730-475-9 (PB)

Detective Inspector Ian Peterson has already told Geraldine Steel, his partner and fellow Detective Inspector in the York Police, about his concern for one of his teammates at his Five Aside Football team whose girlfriend, Lucy, has disappeared. This means that when a young woman is discovered unconscious and severely injured, with no immediate way of identifying her, Geraldine is prepared with a possible identification. Sadly, the young woman dies in hospital, but Geraldine is proved correct, the young woman does prove to be Lucy.

Ian’s friend, Jason, is the prime suspect, especially because Lucy was discovered close to the house they shared. The only other potential suspect is a former boyfriend of Lucy who she had recently met for a catch-up before he was due to emigrate to Australia. However, the police team soon establish that it was the former boyfriend who had dumped Lucy, which lessens his motive, and they then discover that the boyfriend had already left the country when Lucy disappeared, which means that Jason is their only option.

The police assume that Jason was jealous because Lucy had met with her former boyfriend but Jason denies this. Nearly everyone that the police interview insist that Jason is a pleasant, even-tempered young man and that he adored Lucy, and their relationship was sound. The only person who contradicts this is a neighbour who makes wild accusations about a violent quarrel, during which Jason had threatened to kill Lucy, however Geraldine thinks she is an attention-seeking, unreliable witness. Nobody can be certain why Lucy was found covered in soil, and they can only assume that her attacker had attempted to bury her but they do not know how Lucy escaped from this makeshift grave or the location of the original crime scene.

Geraldine knows she has to follow procedure and she can understand why her superior officer, Binita, is focused on trying to get enough evidence to charge Jason and keeps urging Geraldine to persuade him to confess. However, Geraldine is a detective who relies heavily on her instinct and this single-minded pursuit of Jason makes her feel uncomfortable, although she is aware that her attitude may be influenced by her fear that this investigation threatens to damage her relationship with Ian, who is not involved in the case but believes that Jason is innocent.

Even though a few young women have disappeared from York in the last few months nobody has linked these disappearances together. Soon after Lucy’s death, another young woman vanishes, and her student friends insist she would not have gone off without a word. Geraldine is deeply uncomfortable with her fellow detectives’ attempts to connect Jason with this new disappearance, added to which her intuition, honed by years of investigative experience, leads her to suspect that other people she has encountered during the investigation know more about the disappearances than they are admitting to the police. As the police pursue this investigation, more innocent people become collateral damage and one of Geraldine’s colleagues is taken hostage and is in imminent danger of dying at the hands of a dangerous, desperate man.

Without Trace is the twentieth book in the series featuring Geraldine Steel, a detective who often finds her finely-honed intuition in conflict with the official procedure and the attitudes of her superiors and colleagues. One unique feature of the Geraldine Steel police procedurals is that the author takes the reader into the minds of other characters, wrongdoers, suspects and victims, all of whom add different aspects to the narrative, which means that the reader knows far more than any of the protagonists. Without Trace is an intriguing, complex novel, which I thoroughly recommend.
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Reviewer: Carol Westron

Leigh Russell studied at the University of Kent gaining a Master’s degree in English and American literature. Formerly a secondary school English teacher, with the success of her Geraldine Steel series, Leigh now writes full-time. Her debut novel, Cut Short, was published in 2009 by No Exit Press in the UK, followed by Road Closed, Dead End, Death Bed, Stop Dead, Fatal Act and Killer Plan, all featuring detective Geraldine Steel, and Murder Ring will be published in 2016. Leigh also writes a spinoff series for Geraldine's sergeant, Ian Peterson. Cold Sacrifice, Race to Death and Blood Axe.  Leigh recently signed a three-book deal with Thomas and Mercer for a new series featuring Lucy Hall. Leigh Russell is married with two daughters and lives in Middlesex.

 leighrussell.co.uk/

Carol Westron is a successful author and a Creative Writing teacher.  Her crime novels are set both in contemporary and Victorian times.  Her first book The Terminal Velocity of Cats was published in 2013. Since then, she has since written 6 further mysteries. Carol recently gave an interview to Mystery People. To read the interview click on the link below. 

https://promotingcrime.blogspot.co.uk/2017/11/carol-westron.html www.carolwestron.com
http://carolwestron.blogspot.co.uk/

To read a review of Carol latest book click on the title
Death and the Dancing Snowman