Deadly Virtues
Every village has its eccentrics. In Norbold, England, it’s Gabriel Ash, known locally as “Rambles with Dog.” Usually speaking only to his therapist and his dog, Patience, Ash is, at best, an unreliable witness to a beating in a police holding cell. Law student Jerome Cardy’s last words—“I had a dog once. Othello”—were spoken to Ash. The party line is that Cardy was in the wrong place at the wrong time, beaten to death by a violent cellmate. It’s only new police recruit Hazel Best who believes Ash when he says that Cardy told him he was going to die in that police station. Against the advice of the revered chief superintendent, John Fountain, Best investigates and finds ties to Nobold’s last-standing Mob boss and Fountain’s nemesis, Mickey Argyle. Ash is a broken man whose body keeps shuffling along even though his heart and soul were crushed years ago. His heartbreaking backstory is cleverly teased out over the course of the novel. Bannister departs from her Brodie Farrell mysteries (Liars All, 2010) in this captivating stand-alone thriller. --Karen  Keefe