Dust to Dust

June 6, 2016
In British author Duffy’s solid 19th Patrick Gillard and Ingrid Langley mystery (after 2015’s Ashes to Ashes), the couple tackles a highly personal and sensitive murder investigation. The victims are Patrick’s mentor, Richard Rowallen, the Earl of Hartwood, and Rowallen’s bodyguard, who were shot in the earl’s Sussex castle, despite heavy security precautions. Rowallen, a senior official in the National Crime Agency, was working on restructuring the NCA. Patrick, an NCA adviser, soon finds himself at odds with Rowallen’s successor, Marcia Lindersland, and decides to go after the killer himself. Patrick’s immediate boss, Cmdr. Michael Greenway, tells him that a man Patrick tangled with before, civil servant Nicholas Haldane, might be involved in the murders. Meanwhile, Rowallen’s wife, Pamela, must contend with Lindersland as well as a dodgy American claimant to Rowallen’s title and the American’s lawyer. Brash Patrick and restrained Ingrid must deal with corrupt police, false identities, and various thugs on their way to the explosive conclusion.

June 1, 2016
Patrick Gillard and his wife, Ingrid Langley, take on what may be their most difficult and dangerous case.When Richard George Rowallen, 14th Earl of Hartwood, "one-time army colonel, ex-MI5, a senior official of the National Crime Agency," is murdered along with his minder, Patrick vows to find the killers. Patrick and Ingrid have long worked as advisers and consultants to the NCA (Ashes to Ashes, 2015, etc.), but rarely has Patrick become so obsessed with finding the truth as in the death of the old friend who was professionally known as Richard Daws. Trouble arrives in the person of bossy Marcia Lindersland, who's temporarily taken Daws' place. Patrick earns her enmity when he ignores her orders and continues his search, which he thinks may involve an old enemy recently released from prison. Nicholas Haldane, a crooked former civil servant, had tried in the past to get both Daws and Patrick killed or disgraced. Patrick and Ingrid end up spending considerable time at Hartwood Castle, where the earl's wife may be in danger from Haldane and his minions, two of them perhaps pretending to be an American who claims to be the earl's heir and his lawyer. Although there are plenty of clues in the present, there are also links to the past that must be explored before the complicated case can be closed.Nonstop action and tangled clues make this one of the best cases for the seldom daunted husband-and-wife team.

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