THE LOOSE END

The discovery of mummified remains in a house under renovation triggers a new investigation into old crimes and brings together a most unusual detective duo.

The West Midlands Police are short of personnel, so DCI Steve Thompson reluctantly accepts the suggestion of his boss, Supt. Graham Holdsworth, that he team up with Prof. Teigan Craft, a researcher in forensic psychology at Central University, to solve the murder of Emma Matheson, the middle-aged estate agent who was strangled and hidden in her residence at 3 Forrest Road, Birmingham. In no time at all, Craft has linked the murder to two other assaults on younger women in the area shortly afterwards, only one of whom survived and is in no condition to testify about it. None of this is good news for Thompson, who likes his cases straightforward and tidy. But he gets nowhere when he tries to curtail the inquiries of the neurodivergent Craft, who insists that the cases are connected, demands access to the crime scene, and persuades Thompson to join her on an expedition that discloses the remains of yet another victim. With the help of police data analyst David Brown, Craft, whose domestic life is just as messy as her professional life, painstakingly constructs a portrait of the killer and toils to secure fresh evidence. When Holdsworth announces that she and Thompson have only a week to make an arrest before they’re taken off the case, it’s no surprise who identifies the culprit and sets a trap for him—nor is his identity much of a surprise, either.

A promising debut for a sleuthing pair who go at it hammer and tongs.