Fatal Promise
Angela Marsons
Not Kev
Fatal Promise is the ninth novel in Angela Marsons's Kim Stone detective series. Novel 8, Dying Truth, ended with Kevin Dawson's death. He nobly sacrificed himself to save the life of a schoolboy in a dramatic (if physically implausible) way. So now Kim's team are trying to cope with the loss. They ain't doing it well. That's really what Fatal Promise is about -- Kim's team dealing with the loss of Kevin.
There are, of course, mysteries to be solved. Two of them. They're not very satisfactory mysteries, in my opinion. Both are elaborate and implausible. You are not going to read Fatal Promise and think to yourself, "Yeah. I believe that is something that could really happen." What's more, one of the mysteries is mostly spoiled by the Prolog and short interpolated chapters told from the point of view of the murderer -- these give too much away.
But the lousy mystery plots are sort-of OK, because, as I say, they're not really what the book's about. It's about the consequences of Kevin's death. Kim suffered a broken leg in the events at Heathcrest. She's been out of action for six weeks. While she was away, Bryant and Stacey were seconded to other offices. The doctor removes her cast and tells her to take it easy. Being Kim, you know how well she obeys that instruction. She goes back to work immediately and gathers her team.
That team consists now of Kim, Bryant, Stacey, and Penn. We have met Penn before. He worked with Kim's team on a previous mystery. He's competent and a good coworker. Kim, Bryant, and especially Stacey resent him for not being Kevin. They are unforgivably nasty. Stacey, for instance, nicknames him Not Kev. Kim makes it clear at every plausible opportunity that she intends to send him on his way after a week. Bryant, as you might expect, is basically decent to him. But Bryant is working through some issues of his own.
Penn accepts the nastiness with implausible equanimity. [spoiler1]
This was not unentertaining, but it was far from the best of the Kim Stone novels I have so far read. The strengths of the series were muted, and the weaknesses over-emphasized.