Death's Grip: Buch 2

Southend CID which includes DCI “Nasty Nick” Cleaves, DS Sean Campbell and DCs Chey Carter, Nadia Chakrabarti, Rachel Hamilton, Oscar Perez and Anna Kaczmarek have been joined by DI Victoria Orange and DC Martin Brown after the demise of DI Tony Hunt in the last story. Tomek is still plagued by feelings of guilt that he chose to chase a multiple murderer rather than try to save the dying man. Now suspended whilst under investigation for both this and a false accusation of sending indecent photos of himself to a teenager, his misery is compounded by the arrival of a hitherto unknown thirteen-year-old daughter Kasia. And things are a little fraught to say the least – she’s never had a father, only a drug addicted mother who is now in prison, and he has no idea how to look after her. It’s going to be a huge learning curve for both of them.
In order to return to work, Tomek does a deal with the devil but is almost instantly relegated to the sidelines of their new investigation due to a blatant racist. A nine-year-old girl has been kidnapped from outside her home on Canvey Island. Is it coincidence that her teacher who witnessed the abduction is the very same person to discover the child’s body some days later? Or could it be something to do with the overly protective uncle, the same person giving Tomek and Sean so much hostility? Events become more complicated when a second girl goes missing but it’s a strange case as the two victims are very different in every way except their identical deaths. The detectives are baffled and are making little headway as more people disappear. Will Tomek and the team be in time to prevent further deaths?
Tomek’s home life and problems run alongside this bizarre case as he battles to make progress on both fronts and we learn more about the rather complex character of the man and the events which have shaped his life. Victoria and Martin certainly prove to be great additions to the already strong and very likeable team, and there are lots of little moments of humour in this story to balance out the grim nature of their work. With an ending I didn’t see coming, this is an engrossing addition to the first story and I am already looking forward to reading book 3, Death’s Touch, out very soon.