WATCHING YOU

Deceptively small pieces of evidence gradually come together to create a portrait of a Scottish serial killer.

When pro footballer Dale Abnay is dispatched with a single blow to the back of the head, 30-something Edinburgh DS Christie Salter and her veteran mentor, DS Sam Lively, Scotland’s “most irascible detective,” are called in to investigate. Although Fields, author of the popular DI Callanach series, doesn’t skimp on character descriptions and writes with graceful precision, this crisp procedural unfolds like an episode of Forensic Files, in short, datelined chapters. The detective duo remains in the mix, but the story’s focus is wide, including the associates and families of victims as well as the jauntier police duo of dogged Dr. Connie Woolwine, a forensic profiler, and agreeable Brodie Baarda, who together reenact murder scenes. Several chapters come from the perspective of The Watcher, a character stalking his targets: surgeon Beth Waterfall, whom he calls “his plaything,” and her daughter, Molly, the victim of a devastating cybercrime a year earlier that still weighs heavily on her mother’s mind. Beth, meanwhile, embarks on a relationship with DS Lively. Disparate pieces of the puzzle converge as the body count eventually rises to eight. Plot developments and surprises continue at a rapid pace. Readers can decide whether this adds excitement or confusion. A bonus for the author’s fans: While this is pitched as a standalone novel, the lead detectives have appeared in other Fields mysteries.

A brisk, twisty procedural, long on forensics.