One Under Book

A man has been chained inside a tunnel and then dismembered and scattered along the railroad tracks. This is the beginning of Detective Inspector Joe Faraday's most gruesome case yet. But is it a bizarre suicide, or the cruelest of murders? Checking the list of missing persons as the police attempt to identify the body, Detective Constable Winter comes across a missing man, someone who stepped out of their ordered life with no hint of leaving. He is not the man in the tunnel; he has simply disappeared, and the only person Winter can find who knew him works in the city morgue. These two very different policeman—one awkward and by the book, the other brash and walking the thinnest of lines—must solve two perplexing unsolved crimes.

Publishers Weekly

Strong characterization and tight plotting distinguish British author Hurley's seventh police procedural to feature Portsmouth Det. Insp. Joe Faraday and Det. Constable Paul Winter. Faraday, unsettled by a recent romantic disappointment, takes charge of a high-profile and extremely challenging case-the death of a man chained to railway tracks in a darkened tunnel. After some heavy digging, Faraday's team manages to identify the dead man as fringe political activist Mark Duley. Before that identification is conclusive, however, Winter fastens on another candidate for the corpse, Alan Givens, who'd worked at the local mortuary. Winter, who almost died of a brain tumor, ends up pursuing a separate investigation that threatens his life and his professional reputation. This entry makes an excellent introduction for first-timers, who are sure to seek out previous books in the series (Blood and Honey, etc.). (Oct.)

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