Manchester, and a man walks into a nearly deserted petrol station and sets himself on fire. Not far away, a fourteen year-old girl murders her mother.

DI Ridpath investigates what appears to be open-and-shut cases, apart from the utter lack of motive, but soon begins to notice links between the two incidents. As he looks further he starts to believe that the two deaths are the responsibility of a single individual, one who can kill without laying a hand on his victims.

As the killer looks to finish his work, Ridpath and his team find themselves stretched to stop him before things get immeasurably worse…

Bit of a random one, this. I was sent it by Canelo Crime – always appreciate a free book, many thanks – as I’ve reviewed a few titles for them. I honestly can’t remember if I asked for it, but I’m not averse to a good police procedural, so thought I’d give it a go.

And it’s a pretty good police procedural. It may be book eleven in a series that I’ve not read anything else from, but I didn’t feel that I was lacking in backstory nor drowned in exposition. I did think the cast of police characters was a bit big for my tiny brain to keep straight of who was who, but there’s a real attempt her to make the police stuff feel as accurate as possible while still making it accessible to a fiction reader.

I thought the middle third dragged a little and the dual nature of the killer – sometimes helping, sometimes killing – disappeared around the midway stage. It’s also not really a whodunnit – it’s not trying to be, just to be clear – as when the villain’s name is revealed, I’m not convinced that we’d met them before (it’s a paper review copy so I can’t do a search). Oh, and you have to accept some major failings in the investigation of one of the crimes that should have caught the killer before Ridpath even got involved.

Nonetheless, it’s an decent read with a good climax, and Ridpath and his daughter Eve are interesting characters. When I have time, I might well go back to check out the beginning of the series, as I probably would get a little more out of it knowing more about the side characters.

What The Dark Whispers is out now from Canelo Crime.