Reviewed by Amanda Gillies.
(Read more of Amanda's reviews for Euro Crime here.)
This book begins with a suicide in a hotel room and you get the distinct impression that it isn’t going to be a particularly cheery story. Things go downhill from there pretty quickly for the son of the politician who kills himself and soon there is a missing child to worry about as well. In this latest book from Lee Weeks, we see detectives Carter and Willis once again stretched to their limits as they race against the clock to find the missing boy. Things are made more difficult for them by the way people keep holding back the truth. Toby – the politician’s son, for example, went for a walk with his child on the day of the funeral and came back without him. He forgets to tell the police that the child was left unattended at various points. Forgets or has something to hide?
Willis and Carter follow a convoluted trail that takes them to a small, seaside town in Cornwall. The residents are close and draw even closer together when questioned about their connections with the dead man and his son. Some fairly chilling information leaks out but it is difficult to know for sure if it is the truth or exactly how the past connects to the present.
You, the reader, feel dragged along as many rocky cliff paths as the detectives in their desperate search for answers. As time ticks by, your own anxiety increases and you feel the chances of finding the boy alive getting slimmer and slimmer. COLD JUSTICE has a delicious way of creeping under your skin without you noticing; frustratingly you find yourself wondering how things will turn out, and if the boy is still alive, when you are going about your normal routine but can’t get back to your book for ages. If you enjoy a book that gets into your head then this one is most definitely for you. The ending is simply perfect and the final answers will leave you shocked to the very core.
Highly Recommended.
Amanda Gillies, March 2016.
