Cold, Cold Heart

In 2006, novelist David Lockman, the focus of Cross’s outstanding fifth mystery featuring forensic psychologist Kate Hanson (after 2017’s Something Evil Comes), was convicted of the murder of 30-year-old Della Harrington. Ten years later, his appeal to have the verdict overturned for insufficient evidence is granted, and the case is assigned to the city of Birmingham’s Unsolved Crime Unit. Kate’s job is to reinterview surviving witnesses, profile the killer based on a reexamination of the crime scene and forensic evidence, and find new leads that may have escaped the original police officers, who soon settled on Lockman as their prime suspect. She and her team discover that key witnesses weren’t completely honest for a variety of reasons, including covering up unsavory wrongdoings of their own. Lockland’s accusation of wrongful conviction against the police department ratchets up the pressure. Cross, herself a forensic psychologist, plays fair with the reader right up to the surprising conclusion. Agatha Christie fans will be enthralled. Agent: Camilla Wray, Darley Anderson Literary, TV and Film Agency (U.K.). (Dec.)