★★★★☆ Dead Souls, by Angela Marsons
Moving on to torture a new type of innocent
Dead Souls
Angela Marsons
Moving on to torture a new type of innocent
Angela Marsons's DI Kim Stone mysteries have (so far -- there are 23 novels in the series, and I have read only the first six) all featured Kim as the defender of tormented innocents. In the first five novels the tortured innocents were little girls. Indeed, Kim herself was tortured as a girl.
In novel 6, Dead Souls, we move on to a new class of victims. The villains here are racists, and the victims are innocent immigrants and brown-skinned people. As in previous novels, there are flashbacks to present the graphic violence faced by one of these victims.
We also have some unusual team dynamics in this one. We have previously met Travis, a Detective in a different police district. Travis and Kim don't get along, but they are forced to work together this time. At the same time, Kim is away from her own Halesowen station. As a result her own team is mostly on their own. (That would be Dawson, Bryant, and Stacey -- this "last name for male professionals, first name for women" rule is an old feature of English sexism.) It turns out that Kim's team doesn't function well at all without Kim.
I didn't like the mystery plot as much as those of previous novels. I don't want to spoil, but it felt to me more like a James Bond story than Kim Stone. [spoiler1] Still I enjoyed it, and will continue with the series.
That is, the crimes are committed by a cabal of wealthy, evil supercriminals.