THE DEAD SIT ROUND IN A RING

A London detective battles personal demons while unraveling a complicated crime puzzle.

Police Sergeant Stella Mooney is investigating the odd death of elderly nonconformist sisters Joanna and Caroline Deever, found in their flat along with brother Conrad and another unidentified male corpse. The Deevers, all in poor health, evidently carried out a suicide pact including odd man out Jimmy Stone, a petty criminal who trafficked on the Internet in “murderabilia,” souvenirs and artifacts from high-profile convicted killers, not a career likely to win friends. A fourth Deever sibling, Henry, seems to know more than he’s telling, but he takes a fatal header off the building’s roof before Stella can elicit any useful information. Her probe includes the seamy world surrounding Stone’s business, a prostitution ring, and the London arm of the Serbian mafia. Her most colorful discovery is street hustler Billy Whizz, whose pet Barbary ape—the latest status symbol among the local underworld—tries to take a chunk out of Stella’s neck. On a gentler note, Stella’s lived with kindly George for over five years, though she’s never told him about her vivid recurrent nightmares or about the psychiatrist she visits regularly to expunge them. Now she’s pursued by Delaney, an investigative reporter bent on solving her case.

Brash, complex, and beautifully written. An auspicious series debut with the compellingly flawed Stella at its heart.