For this, his twenty-first novel, Connelly resurrects Jack McEvoy, the protagonist of his 1996 Dilys Award winning The Poet.

McEvoy’s glory days as a crime reporter are coming to a demeaning end – not only has he been retrenched, but he faces the added indignity of training his younger, cheaper replacement. Determined to go out with a great story, he digs into the case of a teenager from the projects who has confessed to a drug-related murder that his grandmother (unsurprisingly) believes he didn’t commit.

McEvoy’s investigation into the affair slowly uncovers death and deception going far beyond the original crime, and reunites him with former lover, FBI Agent Rachel Walling, who is fighting to keep her own job. A solid page-turner from a master of the commercial thriller.