Hardcastle’s Secret Agent

Set on the eve of WWII in 1939, British author Ison’s suspenseful 16th procedural featuring a member of the Hardcastle family (after 2019’s Hardcastle’s Quandary) focuses on Det. Insp. Walter Hardcastle of Scotland Yard. In the first chapter, an unnamed German spy who has successfully passed for English burglarizes a home in search of secret documents. Meanwhile, Walter gets an unexpected career boost when he’s promoted to a position that puts him in charge of an area of London plagued by a spate of burglaries that includes a factory making covert weapons of interest to German intelligence. A few chapters later, when the burglar is surprised by the unexpected return of the couple who own the home, he guns them down, and Walter has a double homicide to solve. Ison, a 30-year veteran of the Metropolitan Police’s Special Branch unit, makes good use of his experience in crafting a plausible plot. Readers will look forward to further Hardcastle mysteries. [em]Agent: Bill Hamilton, A M Heath & Co. (U.K.) (June) [/em]