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Book 5 in the DI Jack MacIntosh series, this was the first in this series that I had read, and I found it worked well as a stand-alone mystery. (A few blanks, though, would definitely have been filled in more fully with a reading of the entire series).

When we meet Jack in this edition, he is somewhat of an enigma – unmarried, forty-seven years old, with a “kind, if slightly careworn and tired face” . Jack, a hard-working and dedicated cop, is haunted by an unresolved case staining his career, as well as the tragic childhood loss of his mother. It’s hard to get to know Jack – and he likes it that way.

With an extensive cast of characters to support him, Jack’s supporting team of “regulars” is well-drawn and complex – spanning his colleagues in policing and CSI, a forensic psychologist, the cold case unit, as well as a doggedly nasty reporter for the Daily Mail.

In this edition, Jack and his team have their hands full, professionally, with a grisly discovery under the London Bridge that soon escalates into what appears to be a series of horrific murders, twenty years apart (one disturbingly involving an eight year old child).

As the plot deepens and the unanswered questions begin to pile up, links to an ancient botched child murderer case appear to surface, and Jack finds himself facing the raw and rough of his internal demons, channeled unflinchingly into his drive to correct and convict a killer long overdue for justice.

To make things even more interesting, a long-running backstory involving Jack and his brother Stuart (known as “Mac”), as well as Mac’s fiancé, Isabel, along with a recurring plot line involving a mysterious “arch-enemy”, interweaves the story, providing additional texture to the highly charged world Jack inhabits as it unfolds across the series.

A dark and intricately plotted mystery, layered with regular characters who will likely become even more interesting with more books over time, this book is a treat for British crime lovers everywhere.

My stop today on the @zooloosbooktours #blogtour for #HangmansEnd @QuestionMarkPress @authorKidd

A great big thank you to the author and the publisher for an ARC of this book. All thoughts presented are my own.