One Half Truth

The murder of Jordan Radley, a journalism student at Peterborough College, drives British author Dolan’s well-plotted sixth police procedural featuring Detective Inspector Zigic and Det. Sgt. Mel Ferreira (after 2020’s Between Two Evils). The month before, Jordan published his first article, which was about the closing of a Peterborough factory four years earlier and its emotional toll on former employees who belong to a working men’s club. Zigic and Ferreira discover that the article made some club members unhappy and that the factory’s last owner, Marcus Greenaway, sold the factory to a German company that shut it down within weeks. Marcus died in a helicopter crash ruled an accident about the same time, and his brother-in-law, a construction company owner, is now developing the site for housing. The suspense builds as the detectives, despite threats from the chief constable to get off the case, plunge ahead and uncover an extensive web of deceit involving shady deals, corruption, and other killings. This realistic, granular view of a murder investigation and the lives of those affected by it is sure to win Dolan new fans. Agent: Philip Patterson, Marjacq Scripts (U.K.). (July)