Stealth

December 10, 2012
Contrived circumstances and bloodless prose mar Duffy’s uninspired 16th mystery featuring married ex-MI5 agents Patrick Gillard and Ingrid Langley (after 2011’s Rat Poison). Having assumed a new role helping the Serious Organized Crime Agency, the pair find themselves in Cannes attending an international writers’ festival, both to further author Ingrid’s connections and to gather information on another mystery novelist, Clement Hamlyn, who’s suspected of committing crimes outside his fiction, including rape, assault, and the fatal strangling of an elderly woman. Further investigation suggests Hamlyn and the woman’s neighbor, Hereward Trent, may be linked to a series of unsolved mob killings and to gangster Daniel Coates, with whom Ingrid has a disturbing encounter. Meanwhile, Patrick deals with his lingering guilt over using vigilante tactics in a previous adventure, even as the story line reveals an off-putting lack of concern for its victims. After several violent encounters, the various plot threads are wrapped up in an implausible package. 

December 15, 2012
The connubial crime fighters Patrick Gillard and Ingrid Langley find themselves yet again in hot water. Patrick is a former MI5 officer who now works for the Serious Organized Crime Agency, with Ingrid as his part-time assistant. Ingrid's career as a crime novelist gives her the cover to attend a writer's festival in Cannes so that she can check out Clement Hamlyn, a foulmouthed giant of an author with a dodgy background and a serious drinking problem who's been meeting with wanted criminals. Back in England, the couple investigates the death of an elderly lady who's written to the police about her neighbor, Hamlyn's friend Hereward Trent, whom she suspects of dirty dealings. The police and SOCA have accorded her theories a lot more respect since finding her strangled at the bottom of her staircase. It soon becomes apparent that Hamlyn and Trent are involved with a dangerous group of gangsters likely to be involved in drug and arms peddling and perhaps murder as well. The stakes are raised when Hamlyn catches Ingrid snooping and beats her. Upon arriving on the scene, Patrick is captured as well, and they're both thrown out of a speeding van on the M40. Feeling lucky to escape with their lives, they're even more determined to find out who's running the dangerous crime ring. Duffy (Rat Poison, 2012, etc.) once more spices her police procedural with Bond-like thrills, this time adding a closer look into the angst-ridden mind of Patrick, who has to kill more often than he'd like.

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November 1, 2012
The husband-and-wife team of former MI5 operative Patrick Gillard and crime novelist Ingrid Langleythey work as consultants for SOCA, the Serious Organized Crime Agencyreturn in this tenth installment in the series. When another novelist, Clement Hamlyn, is suspected of using an international writers' conference as cover for some nefarious goings-on, SOCA sends the pair to Cannes, where they will pose as conference-goers and try to find out what Hamlyn is up to. But when the tipster who alerted authorities to Hamlyn turns up dead, what seems like a simple observe-and-report assignment turns into something rather more life-threatening. Langley is a likable and intelligent narrator, and, as always, the story nicely balances crime and character. There are violent aspects to the story, but the violence mostly occurs off the page, leaving the focus on the narrative. Another solid series entry.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)