THE HEIGHTS

The new investigative partnership of two former Met detectives is strained by some personally painful cases.

The discovery of a severed head aboard the London Underground sets the city abuzz. Calil Drake, a former inspector with the Metropolitan Police and now a private detective, immediately connects the event with the disappearance of Zelda, an informant who’d been helping him build a case against crime boss Goran Malevich. A torso washed up on the beach in Brighton four years ago, and Drake’s instinct tells him that the recently discovered head belongs to that torso and is Zelda’s. As he presses former police colleagues to investigate, guilt and remorse about Zelda thrust him into bitter memories and compel him to probe feverishly on his own. Meanwhile, Drake and his partner, Dr. Rayhana Crane (The Divinities, 2019), clash over whether to investigate the disappearance of young Kuwaiti student Howeida Almanara. The chief sticking point is the obnoxious personality of the potential client, fulsome television celebrity Marco Foulkes. Drake finds him unctuous and suspicious; what’s his relationship to the young Howeida? Crane, who knew Foulkes as a child, can’t disagree but is intrigued by the case and pursues it. Crane also feels compelled to look into some financial irregularities involving Edmund Crane, the elderly father with whom she’s always had a difficult relationship. She’s amazed to learn that this path leads back to Foulkes. While Crane’s probe follows white-collar crime among the upper crust, Drake delves the lower depths and the most cutthroat criminals. Might the two possibly be connected as well?

Bilal’s stylishly written second Crane and Drake mystery offers complex portraits of the detective duo.