Breaking Point

DCI Neil Paget investigates a missing-persons case in this workmanlike entry in Smith's police procedural series (Acts of Vengeance, etc.). Mark Newman, a jack-of-all-trades who aspires to be a journalist, vanishes after a covert meeting in a generic English pub about a potential story. When Paget learns that Newman's informant, Mickey Doyle, has also disappeared, he concludes that someone attempting to conceal the secret that Doyle stumbled onto has killed them both. Paget's team's efforts soon come closer to the truth than the National Criminal Intelligence Service would like, triggering a jurisdictional dispute that threatens to prevent justice for the missing men. A prologue detailing Newman's failed surveillance of a secluded farmhouse leaves little suspense about his fate. In addition, instead of Paget's uncovering the story Newman was pursuing, an NCIS official simply recounts it to him late in the book.