Messiah by
Boris Starling
pbk out February 99
(HarperCollins)
at £5.99
A caterer, a bishop and a guards officer are found hideously murdered in their own homes. Nothing appears to link the killings except to complete lack of forensic traces and the silver spoon left in the mouths of the victims. It's the sign that the Messiah is here, a serial killer stalking the middle-class suburban streets of London.
The man charged with catching the killer is Detective Superintendent Red Metcalfe. He's notorious for his ability to empathise with the killers he hunts, and there's good reason for that. For Red is a man haunted by his own past. He's the detective with the brother doing life for murder, not to mention the other secret buried deep in his memory.
As the body count rises, so the pressure inside the murder squad increases until it becomes impossible for any of the team to trust each other. Then Red's past rises to confront him in a dreadful climax that is as terrifying as it is credible. Messiah is an accomplished debut that grips from the first page and doesn't let go. It's a grimly, frighteningly good read.
(
Val McDermid
- Gold Dagger winner & creator of Lindsay Gordon, Kate Brannigan & Tony Hill)
Messiah by
Boris Starling