LOW PROFILE

A current and a former cop cross swords almost without crossing paths as they chase a gang of crooks who prefer to leave no witnesses.

The Lancashire countryside doesn’t offer DS Henry Christie (Judgement Call, 2014, etc.) a lot of bloody murders. So when his sister Lisa asks him to see what’s got her old friend Percy Astley-Barnes’ knickers in a knot, he doesn’t expect to wander in on a hit man who’s slowly and painfully executed Percy and his girlfriend, Lottie. Meanwhile, Steve Flynn had hoped Gran Canaria would be far enough for him to live down the disgrace of being booted off the Lancashire CID for corruption, along with his partner, Jack Hoyle. Now Flynn spends his days taking tourists out for marlin on the Lady Faye 2. But Scott Costain jawbones Flynn into taking him out to Gui Gui to spy on the pleasure boat Destiny. When shots fly off the Destiny’s bow, Costain fires back, and the Faye is lucky to make it back to the dock in one piece. No wonder the Spanish police throw Flynn in jail when Costain and his girlfriend, Trish Mason, turn up dead. News of Flynn’s plight filters back to Henry, whose inquiries about who’d want to snuff out old Percy focus increasingly on the Costains. Nor is Christie sorry to hear that Flynn’s in the slammer. Flynn and Christie both need to find out what Costain was looking for aboard the Faye and how his quest in Gran Canaria is connected to the murder of a Lancaster businessman—and of course, each one wants to make sure he finds out before the other.

If you don’t mind graphic descriptions of grisly killings, Oldham offers a nicely tangled knot to unravel.