DAY OF THE DEAD

The final novel in the bestselling Frieda Klein series has an incredible number of plot twists and an explosive final dénouement, where fast action combines with psychological subtlety. A young mother shopping on Hampstead's Heath Street with her children witnesses what seems to be a ram raid as a car lodges itself in the plate glass window of the Mamma Mia boutique, leaving two people dead and others injured. Two strangers help Charlotte then melt into the background, but we shall meet them again. It soon emerges that the driver, who disappeared from home a few days earlier after attempting to wipe the search history on his laptop, had been strangled. The recovered search history leads DC Quarry to a detective called Malcolm Karlsson, the psychologist Frieda Klein and their long cat and mouse game with psychopath Dean Reeve. Meanwhile Lola Hayes, a student in the criminology department of London University, is researching a dissertation on the elusive Klein. As she gets caught up in the net between Klein and Reeve she realises forces are at work that she is unable to control. An electrifying and satisfying read. 404pp. Remainder mark.