This is a recent title in the Alex McKnight series, which is both popular and critically acclaimed.  It features Hamilton’s usual fine writing, and involves a case from McKnight’s past when he was on the police.

A man who served a long sentence for murder is getting out, and McKnight, who was instrumental in his apprehension and conviction develops some doubt about his guilt.  He manages to get the detective who ran the case to share some of his doubts.  When that detective, who is long retired, turns up murdered, Alex must find out who was the real killer from years ago.

Detroit, what it was and what it has become, has the status of a character in the story.  Hamilton is very good at integrating the setting into the plot.  This is a good book that continues an excellent series.

This is the latest in Box’s Joe Pickett novels.  When one of Joe’s daughters is left in a coma as a result of a beating while hitchhiking, Joe is enraged and determined to find the culprit. Shortly after, his friend and sometime colleague, Nate Romanowski, is ambushed and almost killed.  The core of the plot is whether these two events are related. The apparent causes of each event are not quite as they seem, which becomes clear as Joe investigates.

Box creates several good villains, in  fact a whole family of them, in this story.  And much of the story is spent examining their motivations.  Some may feel that the last death is a bit too convenient, but the plot hangs together well.  Pickett is a believable character whom we come to care about.

Arthur Bryant an John May are senior detectives with the Peculiar Crimes Unit, which as the name implies investigates crimes that are out of the ordinary.  Led by the highly eccentric Bryant, the unit follows its own weirdly unusual brand of problem solving.  The cases are strange, and the paths to their solution are stranger still.

For the fan of off-beat British humor, this is the series for you.  By my count this is the eleventh book in the critically acclaimed series.  For some the plot may seem overly convoluted, but the solution plays fair with the reader and neatly ties up all the loose ends. Those who enjoy the setting of London should definitely look at this book because the city looms large.  Some may find this series an acquired taste because the humor is very dry, some might say parched.  But I would definitely recommend giving one of these stories a try because you might be delightfully surprised.