When DI Ben Kitto was an undercover operative for the Metropolitan Police, he made many enemies. One, however, was far worse than the rest – Craig Travis, a gang leader, a cunning, ruthless and dangerous man who was sentenced to life imprisonment thanks to Kitto and his team. That life is coming to an end, but there is someone more than willing to deliver the vengeance that he has been wanting for years…

Kitto, meanwhile, has his hands full on the Scilly Isles, as a body is discovered on a building site, thirty years dead. He was clearly murdered, but surely someone would have noticed someone disappearing from island life? But that’s not all that’s on Kitto’s mind, as his girlfriend is about to give birth. With those distractions though, will he ever see a killer coming?

OK, this is a bit of an odd one, as I got approved for a review e-copy of the next book in the series and then realised that I hadn’t read this one – well, technically, I hadn’t finished it. And I’m not entirely sure why. If I track back to when I bought it, there was life stuff going on around that time, so I must have stopped reading it (and indeed anything else) for a week or so and then, um, forgot about it. Sorry, Kate.

Anyway, when I finally realised this, I dove straight back in. I really like this series, with the characters and location being brought vividly to life. The story of the body is well done, with some serious themes being tackled very sensitively.

The revenge story – as Travis’s daughter, Ruby, stalks the police officers who caused his downfall – is a slightly different kettle of fish. I’m not so sure it works so well as while it starts off extremely gripping, when Ruby gets to Bryher, her second thoughts would garner a little more sympathy if she hadn’t already slaughtered several people. And I know I’m a bear of little brain at times, especially when it comes to emotional themes, but I struggled a little to see how the two stories tied together, bar providing the sort of exciting climax that it’s trickier to do with cold cases.

Regardless, this is a strong series and while this may not be the strongest title therein, readers of the series will not want to miss the developments herein. These are characters that the reader comes to care about and I’m looking forward to the next instalment.