Ash and Bone by John Harvey

Ash and Bone is the second in the Frank Elder series by John Harvey. Frank is a retired Nottinghamshire Police Detective Inspector. He remains in touch with his friends on the force, as he was just brought in as civilian consultant in the first book Flesh & Blood.

Maddy Birch is a female officer attached to the SO7 Serious and Organized crime unit, part of a tactical firearms team raiding the warehouse home of a criminal kingpin. Detective Superintendent Mallory is in charge of the operation. The target is involved with armed robbery, extortion, money laundering, drugs, conspiracy to murder, with a dozen arrests and only one conviction - he must know the right people to remain so safe. In the action of the raid, he is fatally shot and Mallory is the hero, it's time for the unit to celebrate. Mallory seems always there to receive the accolades.

Maddy is plagued by doubt he was shot in self defense, something is not right. She is commended in the resulting inquiry but cannot raise questions, she is outside the old boys club. She also begins to feel stalked, perhaps her flat broken into, but, she's not sure enough to report it.

It's been three years since Elder retired and his marriage to Joanne ended, but they come together to help their daughter Katherine after the horror of her kidnap at the hands of a deranged psychopath in the first novel. She may never be the same, and having a new boyfriend doesn't quell their fears, as he seems a controlling dirtbag. Her arrest for heroin possession is alarming, but not surprising given what she has been through.

As a newcomer, and a black female, Detective Chief Inspector Karen Shields is also made to feel an outsider when she joins the high profile case of a Nottinghamshire police officer being assaulted and killed. When Elder reads of the death in the newspaper, and remembers the officer from his own past, he contacts the SCD1 Homicide team. Karen and Elder form a tentative partnership, growing into friendship, with perhaps a kiss of possibility there.

While they begin interviewing past lovers, friends, and colleagues on the force, another female officer begins to feel stalked, her home broken into - there is a sexual predator ramping up his activity.

We are not forgetting the initial case, where Mallory killed criminal James Grant. Shields and Elder's investigation is about to turn up a history of buried secrets, involving the underworld, robberies, and young girls.

Ash and Bone is another top crime novel from John Harvey. It is best to read them in sequence, as the characters continue to build. A pleasure to read as there are so many layers, with great rounded characters, even down to the hapless young DC's. Maureen Prior and Charlie Resnick also have cameos, and Joanne has a larger role.

This novel is more procedural than the last, but offers a tight puzzle for crime fans.

Recommended.

Also reviewed by John Harvey:

Flesh & Blood (Elder #1)

Darkness and Light (Elder #3)

Body & Soul (Elder#4)

Other British crime novels I have reviewed:

Inspector Rebus by Ian Rankin

Knots & Crosses, Hide and Seek, Tooth and Nail, Strip Jack, The Black Book, Mortal Causes, Let It Bleed, Black and Blue, The Hanging Garden