Book Description

Book One in the Carrigan and Miller series. “[A] masterly thriller . . . with [a] complicated and compelling detective duo” (The New Yorker). Jack Carrigan, a promising young musician, is on a post-graduation holiday in Africa with two friends. Driving at night, unsure of their route, they encounter a rebel force high on drugs and their own cruelty. Years later, Jack is now an inspector with the Metropolitan police. The two survivors of the deadly confrontation meet regularly but are unable to talk about the tragedy until Jack unites with young, spirited detective Geneva Miller and the pair begins to investigate the murder of an African scholar studying in London. The case pulls Carrigan and Miller into a London diaspora, a largely inscrutable cauldron of illegal immigrants and fugitives. They soon discover that the scholar was researching African rebel groups and had uncovered the complicity of an African government in a brutal campaign to silence dissent. Carrigan and Miller find themselves caught in a fierce conflict between the obligation to follow evidence wherever it leads and foreign alliances critical to the British government. This combination of a bruising crime investigation competing against the forces of powerful political interests unleashes events that will forever change the lives of both the innocent and the guilty. “The action builds to a jaw-dropping resolution. Readers will want to see more of this convincingly flawed hero.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review) “A clever, multi-layered beginning to a promising new series . . . Sherez does a masterful job with a particularity haunting plot.” —The Daily Mirror (Book of the Week) “A superior novel.” —The Times (London)