Ex-detective Charlie Priest left the Met ten years ago, retrained as a lawyer and now has his own small, specialist law firm, employing three trusted colleagues. As the story starts he and his team are in court to defend a libel case against The Real Byte, a small magazine which claims to have evidence, based on information given by Simeon Ali, an ex-employee of the charity, that the Elias Children’s Foundation, set up to help children affected by war, domestic violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation, has been diverting funds to a terrorist cell in northern Turkey. The magazine article also claims that Alexia Elias, the founder and CEO, was complicit in the diversion of funds, accepting bribes from the terrorist group, an accusation she vigorously denies. However, when Ali fails to turn up in court on the day the trial starts, and is subsequently found murdered, it becomes clear that with the star witness dead, the future of the trial is in jeopardy. Convinced by the accusations, and keen to ensure that justice is done, Charlie and his team must work quickly to investigate and try to ensure that the case isn’t thrown out of court. However, a second death means that their investigations expose something which is much bigger than the original investigation into the charity’s fraudulent activity.
Although this is the second book starring Charlie Priest as the main character (the first was “Mayfly”) I found that there were enough clues about his history to make this easy to read as a stand-alone novel. However, as he is such a complex character, with a complicated family history, there were moments when I did find myself wishing that I had read “Mayfly” first. His brother is a convicted serial killer, currently serving his sentence in a hospital facility for the criminally insane. He suffers from dissociative disorder, a condition Charlie also struggles with; it is one which exposes him to random, unpredictable episodes when he feels that neither he nor the world around him is real, when he suffers from terrifying hallucinations and out-of-body experiences. However, he feels that he is luckier than some other sufferers because, most of the time, he is still able to function and, frightening though the episodes are, they seldom last more than a few hours.
Although Charlie is the eminently likeable, main protagonist in this story, much of my enjoyment came from his interactions and relationships with colleagues and friends. There’s Georgie Someday, a newish addition to the team but, with her quick intelligence, she is already proving herself an invaluable member; obsessional Simon Solomon, brilliant as a forensic accountant but hopeless at the everyday niceties of social interactions; Vincent Okoro, a great bear of a man with a brilliant legal brain; friend and ex-colleague DCI Tiff Rowlinson, called upon to provide information and to share details about the police investigation; his on/off relationship with Jessica Ellinder, a woman he met when investigating the murder of her brother; Elinor Fox, a persistently determined reporter; his long-suffering sister Sarah; Tilly, his niece; his ex-wife, a senior police officer and last, but by no means least, his collection of lionfish – you’ll need to read the book to discover their significance! I loved the fact that each one of these characters (apart from Tilly and the fish!) is in some way flawed and yet their interactions are central to the compelling dynamics of the story.
The plotting is convoluted, it is sometimes hard to know who can be trusted and, although at times it does require a degree of suspension of disbelief, it is very well-paced, alternating between some high-octane action and periods of calmer reflection. With murder, torture and child abuse as central themes, there are times when the story-telling is very dark, but the author did manage to inject some wonderful moments of lightness and humour – something I very much appreciated! The theme of fraud and other misconduct in well-established charities felt particularly pertinent in view of recent scandals! Part of the story is set in coastal Norfolk and I enjoyed the way in which the author used the atmospheric nature of that part of the world to enhance the tension in the story.
I think this is a series it is going to be very easy to become addicted to – I have already ordered a copy of “The Mayfly”!