The English village of Castlemere is being rocked to its roots by a series of deaths. In the first, Detective Inspector Alan Clarke is a victim of a hit-and-run. Also gravely wounded is Detective Sergeant Cal Donovan. Donovan is convinced that this was no accident but rather a cold-blooded murder planned by mobster type Jack Carney and he becomes obsessed with trying to pin the crime on Carney. Detective Chief Inspector Frank Shapiro finds a replacement for Clarke from a neighboring precinct, Liz Graham. The dynamics of the relationship between Graham and Donovan are difficult, but they ultimately end up respecting one another.Shortly after Graham assumes her new duties, a young nurse, Kerry Page, is brutally killed by a shotgun blast to the head. Has she been killed by her husband who was at the scene? Or by Carney who may mistaken her for her husband? Before the answer can be determined, a respected female surgeon, Maggie Board, is also shotgunned. It appears that a serial killer is at work which is reinforced by the murder of an anesthesiologist who also worked with Page and Board.As Graham and Donovan investigate the hospital records, they uncover the perpetrator (a little too easily). It would have been easy to make this person evil incarnate, but that was not the case. The person had a warped justification for the acts that were performed, one which the reader had to agree with.The book comes to a rousing climax, and Graham and Shapiro puzzle over some of the decisions that were made to reach resolution. Bannister did an exceptional job of characterization, and the plot was well developed. This was a one-sitting book, and one which I heartily recommend.
