Fighting for the Dead: A Detective Superintendent Henry Christie Novel

In Oldham's fast-paced 18th Henry Christie novel (after 2012's Instinct), the Lancashire detective superintendent pursues two cases: the murder of an unidentified Eastern European teenage girl; and the disappearance of Jennifer Sunderland, a businessman's wife, who later turns up floating in the River Conder. Sunderland's death appears to be either suicide or simple misfortune, until two armed Russian thugs invade the mortuary to search Sunderland's effects. Faced with a conspiracy reaching from Cyprus to England and into the police force itself, a conspiracy willing to shed lives like dry leaves, Christie and his reluctant ex-copper ally, Steve Flynn, do well just to stay alive. While the bad guys' inability to finish off either Christie or Flynn can extend to silly lengths, at least their physical injuries don't vanish from scene to scene. For those who like a healthy dose of brutality in their crime fiction. (Jan.)