Brighton Police Commissioner Bob Watts, often above the fray,
can’t resist the lure of a sophisticated case.
Watts’ former lover DI Sarah Gilchrist (These Who Really feel
Nothing, 2014, and many others.) is much from happy along with her present weight loss program of one-night
stands. As she ponders her issues, a name from her erudite detective
sergeant, Bellamy Heap, plunges her and Watts right into a twisty homicide case. A person
has been discovered stabbed outdoors the Salthaven Lido, which is the middle of a
battle between developer Alice Sutherland and people making an attempt to save lots of the Artwork Deco
constructing. Pathologist Frank Bilson identifies the person as Roland Gulliver, a homosexual
man with whom he typically swam. An post-mortem exhibits that Gulliver drowned earlier than
he was stabbed and his physique was moved. Gulliver as soon as swam the English Channel,
and Heap’s girlfriend, radio reporter Kate Simpson, is in coaching to take action—as
is Bob Watts. Gulliver was engaged on the Save the Lido marketing campaign, however committee
chair April Medavoy can’t think about that his involvement offers a motive for
homicide, and there’s all the time the opportunity of a hate crime. Watts and Kate are
in a follow race within the Lake District run by Dolphin Smile’s Derek Neill when
one of many swimmers dies, ostensibly of a coronary heart assault. In one other qualifier
for a Channel swim, rich Christine Bromley additionally drowns. Each deaths prove
to be something however accidents. Choosing up some hints from Watts and Sarah, who
are deeply concerned within the long-distance swimming scene, the police chase clues
as distant as Thailand. Seemingly unrelated folks and occasions prove to have
sudden connections that present a lot of the solutions.
Cleverly nuanced sleuths remedy a sequence of knotty crimes with
daring and panache.
