Borrowed Time

In this formulaic thriller from Mark (A Rush of Blood), Portsmouth, England, resident Adam Nunn, who was adopted as a baby and doesn’t know who his birth parents were, hires PI Larry Paris to help him find out. When Paris’s corpse is found with a huge hole in his skull in an area known as Dead Man’s Vale, because it was once a popular place for mobsters to dump their victims, Nunn, who has a history of violence, becomes a person of interest for a newly created UK police unit modeled on the FBI. The hot-tempered Nunn, who refuses to cooperate, gets locked up for the murder. Meanwhile, an enforcer named Irons, “a monstrous thing; all scars and twisted skin, as if half his face is made from cold spaghetti and cheap leather,” fears the m.o. of Paris’s murder is meant to frame his employers, the Jardine crime family, and undertakes his own investigation into the killing. Readers should be prepared for predictable plot twists and stock characters, notably Irons, who fits the familiar type of the brutal killer who still has a heart. Those seeking novelty will be disappointed. Agent: Oli Munson, A.M. Heath (U.K.). (July)