Adam Colclough lives and works in the West Midlands, he writes regularly for a number of websites, one day he will get round to writing a book for someone else to review.
A businessman is killed by a single punch in a fight outside a football ground, seemingly the victim of an act of mindless thuggery. As they investigate the crime DI Westphall and his team uncover links to Russian money with shady origins. To find the killer Westphall must unravel a web of shameful secrets and family intrigues, whilst also struggling with the legacy of his past life as an MI6 operative.
This is the third Westphall novel from the prolific Douglas Lindsay and more than matches the standard set by its predecessors.
The setting, Scottish Highlands as a backdrop is evocatively realised. The bleak scenery serving to blur the line between reality and the phantoms of memory raised in the darker watches of the night - in a most unsettling way.
Westphall makes for a fascinating central character, a man haunted by his past. There is a tension between the crimes he investigates and those he committed with the sanction of the state that sings like a telephone wire in a high wind.
Lindsay ties off the ends of a plot featuring art forgery, financial chicanery and personal betrayals with the skill of a master of the Golden Age. Unlike them he does so without resorting to comforting clichés.
This is the sort of book that is so well conceived it reminds you why writing at its best is spoken of as being a craft. It also establishes Douglas Lindsay as someone deserving to be spoken of as a master.
