Final account Book

4 Stars. Have you noticed how many titles of mysteries and thrillers are double entendres? Open to different interpretations or a play on words? Especially as one looks a second time at the title from the perspective of having read the book? No better example than "Final Account." Detective Chief Inspector Alan Banks in Yorkshire, where some of my distant relatives still reside, is called to the scene of a murder which appears more like a gangland slaying in Al Capone's Chicago. Accountant Keith Rothwell, has had his head almost blown off by a shotgun wielded by professionals who waited patiently for his return home. The police can't understand it, and neither can the family of this meek and mild man. Banks has a relatively good department in Eastvale, and the hidden life of the victim slowly reveals itself with steady, but unspectacular, police work. It continues to the surprise ending! Were he and Robert Calvert one and the same? Is London correct in saying he was connected to a corrupt dictatorship in the Caribbean? Let's see, I can count four ways to understand the title. PS: the book has two titles, "Final Account," and "Dry Bones That Dream." (June 2020)