Deep Cover: A Harry Vicary Novel

Turnbull’s solid if low-key second Harry Vicary police procedural (after 2010’s Improving the Silence) begins with a disturbing discovery: the frozen body of Michael Dalkeith, an unfortunate young man who’s apparently been done in by the unusually frigid London winter. Even more chilling is that Dalkeith is lying on top of a shallow grave containing the savagely beaten remains of a young girl. Det. Insp. Harry Vicary and his enormously capable team, including an astute pathologist, visit Dalkeith’s scruffy rooming house, where they find some extremely nervous boarders and, in Dalkeith’s room, the emaciated, brutally strangled body of another young girl. The owner of the home, an ostensibly reputable and highly successful businessman, is shocked. The fully realized detective characters, who show intense loyalty to the job, keen and energetic minds, and an unusually strong moral code, make up for the minimal suspense. (Nov.)