Fall from Grace

At the start of Weaver’s affecting fifth David Raker mystery (after 2014’s Never Coming Back), Det. Chief Insp. Melanie Craw asks Raker, a London missing persons investigator, for help finding her father, a retired detective chief superintendent. Craw’s father, Leonard Franks, left the remote cottage in Devon he shared with his wife to fetch firewood; minutes later, he had vanished into thin air. Nine months after his disappearance, official inquiries have hit a dead end. His daughter hopes that Raker’s somewhat unorthodox methods can crack the case. But as the former journalist begins delving deeper, including pursuing Craw’s own hunch that the disappearance just might be connected to one of her father’s old cases, neither of them is remotely prepared for the secrets lurking inside this Pandora’s box—or the danger threatening them and their loved ones. As Raker presciently observes at the beginning of this dark journey, which is marred only by a shocking but far-fetched denouement, “Everyone wanted the truth until they got it.” [em]Agent: Camilla Wray, Darley Anderson Literary (U.K.). (July) [/em]