Grigoriy Adamovich had hoped that he was safe. The Russian agent who had tracked him down in his new identity as Greg Abimbola, mild-mannered Pittsburgh teacher, had been taken into custody before he could reveal what he found to his paymasters. But when a body seeming to be that of the agent Morosov is washed up in the Allegheny River, it seems that he is nowhere near as safe as he thought.

When Sergeant Rachel Lev from the Pittsburgh police persuades him to help her identify the body, Greg sees an opportunity to find out the truth. Which is essential for more than just his piece of mind as the Russians have tracked him down with clear instructions – find Morosov’s killer or share his fate…

You will remember me almost exploding when I reviewed A Quiet Teacher, the first book in the, um, “Quiet Teacher” series, as to how good it was. Any other month, it would have walked away with the Book Of The Month, but up against stiff competition, I decided to award it elsewhere, because I already had this waiting for me on my Kindle.

It’s a continuation of the previous book but can be read as a standalone. There aren’t any spoilers for the previous book, unless anyone reading that one thought that Greg would be exposed and carted off to Russia at the end of it. No, he’s still living in Pittsburgh, slowly making friends and settling into life.

Again, there are two significant strands here, with Greg dealing with the Morosov situation as well as the “suicide” of a board member of a rival school where his friend is about to take up a post as head of science. It seems the school board was divided on the direction of the curriculum, whether to include, for example, critical race theory.

Oyebanji makes it clear that this is very much set in present-day America, a nation that is divided on a good many issues. None of this is hammered home, and fits naturally into the story, but it gives an extra vibrancy to the story,

There are two mysteries at the heart of this – who killed the board member and what happened to Morosov – and Oyebanji does a beautiful job of weaving the stories together. It has been a while since I’ve been genuinely surprised by the identity of a murderer but when the truth comes out in a fascinating setting for the final exposition, I was definitely caught out.

The series is touted in the blurb as “Agatha Christie meets John Le Carré”. Now, I can’t speak for the Le Carre part, but as for Dame Agatha – clues, a complex plot and compelling characters. Yes, I can go with that.

Two Times Murder is out this Tuesday from Severn House in hardback and ebook. Many thanks for the review e-copy.