Wildfire

In Oldham’s intricately plotted 26th Henry Christie thriller (after 2018’s Bad Cops), the retired Lancaster policeman who runs “a pub and country house hotel out in the wilds of the Lune Valley” decides to check on John and Isobel York to make sure they’re safe from the wildfire that’s sweeping the countryside. At the couple’s house, Christie finds Isobel’s naked, decapitated body in the bathtub and John’s dismembered body arranged on the snooker table. When he calls Det. Constable Diane Daniels to report the deaths, he learns that Daniels has her hands full with a crime spree that includes murder, a machete attack, arson, and gang warfare. In fact, the local constabulary has so much on its plate that Christie is hired to help investigate the York murders. Oldham smoothly unfurls the fast and furious action and seamlessly stitches together the various threads to form a satisfying whole. Henry’s reflections on aging lend a nice touch. Fans of contemporary British police procedurals will be rewarded. [em]Agent: Olav Wyper, SMA Talent (U.K.). (May) [/em]