Past Life

October 11, 2021
British author Mark’s fine ninth police procedural featuring Hull Det. Sgt. Aector McAvoy (after 2019’s Cold Bones) opens with psychic Dymphna Lowell providing a reading for a taciturn stranger who shows up unexpectedly at her isolated house. She can tell just by looking at him he doesn’t have a promising future. After calling her a charlatan, the man bashes Lowell’s head with one of her crystals, strangles her with her necklace, cuts out her tongue, and sticks a crystal shard into her rib cage. The m.o. reminds McAvoy of a case he handled 12 years earlier as a new copper that he thought was closed. Palm reader Eva-Jayne Puck was strangled in her flat by someone who drove something sharp into her torso. The Puck inquiry has a personal dimension for McAvoy, as her niece, who was seen fleeing the scene of the killing, is now his wife. Mark’s experiences as a Hull crime reporter pay off in his realistic portrayals of both cops and civilians, and he presents his lead’s inner life in a nuanced way that doesn’t interfere with the pace and suspense of the dramatic plotline. Ian Rankin fans will be pleased.

Starred review from October 1, 2021
Aector McAvoy fans, rejoice! The highly regarded Hull police officer is back in a searing expos� of buried secrets. When a fortuneteller is found murdered and mutilated, Detective Superintendent Trish Pharaoh and her team catch a case which, for Aector, turns into a devastating replay of the past. Twelve years ago, Aector's future wife, Roisin Teague, an Irish Traveler and the apple of her powerful father's eye, was staying with her aunt, clairvoyant Eva-Jayne Puck, to keep out of the way of a vicious feud between her family and a rival clan. When someone killed and mutilated Eva-Jayne in her own apartment, Roisin barely escaped. Aector learned from a CCTV image that Roisin, whom he'd been unable to forget after having "half killed" some men who'd raped her several years earlier, was a witness to Eva-Jayne's killing. Instead of turning her in, he searched for her, and she helped him survive a vicious attack by the hired killer known as Cromwell. Now married to Roisin, a conflicted Aector lives with the false belief that his father-in-law killed Cromwell. Roisin, who knows better, has recurring nightmares she refuses to discuss with her husband. Now Cromwell's come for revenge, using Aector and Roisin's children as bait. Aector goes rogue to protect his children, who are caught up in a case that has become ever more complex and brutally dangerous. Polished prose, lovable recurring characters, and a stunning revelation make this a mystery to savor.

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