Blood Never Dies (Bill Slider)
The consistently strong Harrod-Eagles pulls another rabbit out of her hat with the latest entry in her respected DI Bill Slider series. Slider’s latest case has him and his team investigating the death of a mystery man found in the bathtub of his down-market apartment with his throat slit, and nothing left in the apartment except the furniture—no papers, no photos, no cell phone. It’s clear the man was murdered, but who is he and why was he killed? The more Slider and his team learn, the less they know. Then another murder occurs, and there are enough similarities between the two to have Slider uttering the dreaded words serial killer. Dogged work—days of checking CCTV cameras, verifying alibis, conducting door-to-door interviews—eventually leads to a startling conclusion. Clever, engaging, and well plotted, this is a fine example of the British police procedural and sure to be a hit with genre buffs and Anglophiles. --Emily Melton