The take

The death of Vanessa Parry, the management assistant to DI Joe Faraday, follows a car crash that left her with no chance of survival. Her funeral closes yet another exhausting week on Portsmouth's police front line, where officers are battling a sharp rise in crime.

DS Paul Winter, a detective long thought untouchable and skilled at running a con, is now struck by a blow he never expected. His wife has inoperable cancer and only about three months left. Winter's reaction is raw and reckless, and his grief drives him forward.

Set in the author's home city, the novel is grounded in a strong sense of place and in characters who are flawed yet easy to understand. It is part of Graham Hurley's Faraday series and draws on his close ties to the local police, examining the society people have built around them and the emotional toll of the work.