There are all kinds of protagonists, but the two featured in this novel (after first appearing in “Ritual”) are very different. Jack Caffery and Phoebe (“Flea”) Marley carry pretty heavy baggage from their past, but they get the job done somehow in this thrilling police procedural, despite their individual quirks and iconoclastic attitudes.
DI Caffery is engaged in two separate investigations which somehow become intertwined with an escapade in which Flea is involved. As a result, he has to weigh whether or not to expose Flea’s efforts or to keep silent. One case involves a series of strange deaths, initially thought to be suicides, although Caffery believes them to be murders. Another has to do with a missing person, a woman who may or may not also be such a victim, but no body has been found.
Marley is a police diver and the descriptions of her efforts, especially in the opening scene, are especially gripping, as Flea is seeking the body of the MisPer in a flooded quarry, diving deeper and deeper beyond recommended depths and apparently seeing a supernatural sight. Both she and Caffery think there is a “Tokoloshe” in the area, a creature out of African witchcraft.
This sequel is so tightly written and absorbing one can hope that the author can follow up with more such unusual efforts in the future. Recommended. [It should perhaps be noted that the author’s newest book, “Gone,” will be published simultaneously by Atlantic Monthly Press in hardcover.]
