Street Girls

The mutilation murder of Tom Solden while parked with a young prostitute near a notorious South London council estate kick-starts Regan’s bleak second procedural featuring Det. Insp. Georgia Johnson (after 2011’s Brotherhood of Blades). Detective Chief Inspector Banham, who puts Johnson in charge of the case, also brings in gang expert Det. Insp. David Dawes, since the killing may be the work of Stuart “Yo-Yo” Reilly’s Brotherhood gang. Also assisting are Sgt. Stephanie Green and her 15-year-old daughter, Lucy, who’s getting work experience in the police murder department. Solden’s sordid past suggests possible murder motives, but Dawes’s fixation on Reilly as the culprit creates problems for the team. An underage prostitute’s murder heightens the possibility of gang warfare and further deaths. Regan convincingly portrays life on a violent estate as a sordid survival struggle that can turn even a 13-year-old girl into a hard, calculating schemer. (June)