AFTER THE WEEPING

DI Aector McAvoy investigates a cold case, unaware of the international intrigue that surrounds it.

DCS Trish Pharaoh intermittently regrets sending McAvoy to reopen an inquiry into the murder of Davey Hawksmoor, found beaten to death in a local cemetery nearly 15 years ago, without revealing the real reason for her quest: trying to get a lead on the current whereabouts of reporter Vicky Dexter, who’s disappeared in Romania while documenting the trafficking of Roma children by Davey’s father, self-styled “Dark Angel” Rab. Mark’s thriller-cum-police-procedural offers its share of moral complexity. Not only are Trish’s motives conflicted, but Rab himself is a controversial figure, hailed by his fellow Brits for rescuing children from terrifying conditions in Romanian orphanages, but reviled overseas as stealing these children, whose families surrendered them only under severe economic duress. But moral complexities are a sideshow here. The main attraction is red meat: clinically detailed descriptions of brutal fights between men bent on inflicting horrific physical injuries on each other. Even McAvoy becomes a target, with the pounding rain, the mud, the blood, and the gore prominent features at every turn. McAvoy’s wife, Roisin, a Traveller whose father is head of an important clan, has every reason to fear for her husband’s safety, and the constant presence of their charming young daughter, Lilah, makes McAvoy’s plight all the more harrowing.

Strictly for fans who like their murders bloody.