Having been so used to reading Martin Edwards' Liverpool stories, usually about private eye Harry Devlin, it took some time to get used to this totally different book, which has London as its locale and not a private eye in sight.
I suppose one could call it a 'psychological thriller', though that can encompass almost anything where the characters' thoughts, emotions and motivation are expressed. This story is really about a control freak whose 'thing' is murder, but as usual a reviewer is rather hamstrung by having to conceal the plot. The book runs two completely different story strands for a long while until they converge. A major law firm, specialising in human rights and civil wrongs related to employment, takes on a paralegal Roxanne Wake, which is a pseudonym for a woman who has been in prison herself and is desperate to conceal her past. A former lawyer and now investigative writer, Nic Gabriel, recognises her, though this happened incidentally when he was primarily concerned with the murder of a friend, who was stabbed during a party. Coincidentally the two events come together and eventually all is made clear.
Martin Edwards writing is as superb as always, but I prefer his Liverpool sagas to this new departure, which feels a little too contrived.