THE NOTHING JOB

DCI Henry Christie is relegated to the role of bounty hunter.

When the car he commandeers in an effort to pursue the man who knifed a prostitute turns out to have another dead girl in the boot, DCI Henry Christie (Crunch Time, 2009, etc.) is once again the bane of the Lancashire constabulary. Chief Constable Fanshaw-Bayley saddles him with Operation Wanted, a perfunctory attempt to close three cases by apprehending three escaped criminals. Henry finds 6’8” murderer Anthony Downie in Blackpool, lurking around gay clubs, but the hunt for Paulo Scartarella leads to Cyprus, where the trail takes him, along with beautiful Cypriot copper Georgia Papakostas and FBI legal attaché Karl Donaldson, to a Mafia connection. Surprisingly, the link to organized crime tails back to Merseyside and an old case involving the police shooting of Johnny Motta, a trafficker in drugs and Albanian prostitutes. Local DS Shafer and DS Anger, Henry’s personal Lancashire nemesis, seem determined to obscure the facts. Before matters can be resolved, there will be more death, a fire, a wild car chase and a nifty plot twist that puts Henry in line for a commendation from Fanshaw-Bayley.

A splendid British procedural, with complex storytelling, much hugger-mugger and some amusing lustful jealousy on Henry’s part.