THE DEPTHS OF SOLITUDE

Now that she’s wrung every last drop of suffering from math teacher Daniel Hood, equal-opportunity Bannister turns her attention to Daniel’s friend Brodie Farrell.

Following their little disagreement over whether Daniel should have killed the murderous Daws children (Reflections, 2003), Daniel has cut all ties with Brodie, put his shack up for sale, and vanished. At least Brodie, coming at last to her senses and realizing how much his friendship means to her, hopes he’s disappeared on his own initiative. It’s ironic that Brodie, sole proprietor of Looking For Something?, can’t find Daniel. While she’s searching for him with one eye and getting on with her life with the other, things mysteriously start to go wrong. A brick is tossed through her windscreen; her handbag is pinched from a tearoom; her car is set afire; a lift she steps into is sabotaged. When she can’t think of anyone who’d nurse a grudge against her, Det. Supt. Jack Deacon, no big fan of Daniel’s, suggests she think of him. Could Daniel be involved with all Brodie’s troubles? Could he be responsible for them himself? Brodie will suffer the fate she’d feared was Daniel’s before Bannister springs the last of her many surprises.

An object lesson in how many different kinds of suspense, from whodunit puzzles to moral dilemmas to races against the clock, can be squeezed within a single binding.