Old Sins

Complex characters and an intricate plot lift Adams’s excellent sixth mystery featuring Scotland Yard’s Det. Chief Insp. Henry Johnstone (after 2020’s The Good Wife), which centers on the murders of two retired policemen, Walter Cole and Hayden Paul, a week apart in the fall of 1929. Both victims were in financial trouble, and at each crime scene there was a note with the words “old sins.” A decade earlier, Cole and Paul worked on a case that sent an extortionist named Richardson to prison. Richardson has been released in recent months. Could he be bent on revenge, and might Henry, who took part in the Richardson case, be in danger? Thoughtful, introspective Henry and his genial sergeant, Mickey Hitchens, pursue a trail that leads them into the criminal underworld and society’s rarefied circles. The tension rises as Henry is pushed to his limit and the life of a family member is put in jeopardy. Adams effortlessly conveys the police procedures, business practices, and social mores of the period. Fans of golden age mysteries will be delighted. (Mar.)