Never Die in January

Burly London copper George Macrae, last seen in the excellent Thief Taker , is beset here by a maelstrom of dire events whose impact is exacerbated by his inability to maintain any emotional distance from the women in his life. Macrae has a soft spot for a dead bookie's wife, but now a thug claiming to be the widow's business manager is demanding the return of a sizable chunk of cash the policeman once foolishly borrowed from the deceased. Taking a handout from a known felon is just the kind of thing Macrae's ambitious superior would love to nail him for, and Deputy Commander Scales forces Macrae's reluctant young partner Leo Silver to launch a secret investigation. Meanwhile, a mysterious woman moves into a ground-floor flat just below one of Macrae's former wives and immediately fixates on the recent suicide of a previous tenant. To these already sufficient goings-on, the author deftly adds the widow of Macrae's loyal driver, who battles teenage thugs in a housing estate. Like his earlier novel, Scholefield's latest dazzles with detail and subtly nuanced characterization. (Aug.)