A Song for the Brokenhearted

Starred review from November 23, 2015
Set in 1969, British author Shaw’s superb conclusion to his crime trilogy (following 2015’s The Kings of London) finds the recently wounded Det. Sgt. Cathal “Paddy” Breen convalescing at the family farm of his former police partner, Helen Tozer, in Devon. Breen, eager to get back to police work, agrees, unofficially, to look into the murder of Helen’s 16-year-old sister, Alexandra, which occurred almost five years earlier, when it’s discovered that Alexandra had an affair with a wealthy—and married—peer of the realm. Helen and Breen uncover a plot that leads to Africa during the Kenya Emergency, a real event that involved the torture and murder of those suspected of being part of the Mau Mau uprising. Shaw picks up multiple plot threads, expertly weaving them into a complex story that explores the darkest parts of the human psyche and the erosion of one man’s humanity, while balancing the delicate and awkwardly sweet relationship between the traditional Breen and decidedly untraditional Helen, as well as her relationship with her still grieving parents. Shaw perfectly captures the end of an uneasy era, and the utterly terrifying final scene will leave readers breathless. Agent: Karolina Sutton, Curtis Brown.

November 15, 2015
A cold case involving a former police officer's sister becomes linked to a current series of gruesome murders in 1969 London. After taking a bullet to the shoulder in The Kings of London (2015), DS Cathal "Paddy" Breen recuperates in the Devon countryside with ex-DC Helen Tozer, his onetime colleague who left the police to help out on her family farm. Going slowly stir crazy without his work and the hustle of London, Breen distracts himself by unofficially looking into the unsolved case that's haunted Helen for five years: the rape and murder of her 16-year-old sister, Alexandra. Breen discovers missing pages in the police files and learns that there was a coverup involving a sergeant who's conveniently since transferred to the Met's Drug Squad and a wealthy landowner, James Fletchet, who was having a secret affair with Alexandra. Returning to London for the full story, Breen looks up his old friend DS John Carmichael, also part of the Drug Squad, who tells him that the former Devon copper, Sgt. Bill Milkwood, is the golden boy of the squad. As Breen digs deeper, uncovering potential ties between the years Milkwood and Fletchet spent in Kenya during the 1950s and the bloody times known as the Emergency and Alexandra's murder, Milkwood goes missing, and Breen fears that whoever killed Helen's sister is at it again. Despite the fact that he's on sick leave for most of the novel, Breen is the most active, engaged, and compelling that he's been thus far in the series. In this conclusion to a thoroughly gripping trilogy, Shaw draws incisive attention to little-known historical events and crafts a wholly satisfying thriller.

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Starred review from December 15, 2015
In the 1960s, Paddy Breen, recuperating from a gunshot wound, is staying at former partner Helen Tozer's family farm. Both Paddy and Helen yearn for the hustle of London and the urgency of unsolved crimes. After weeks of skirting the elephant in the room, Helen asks Breen to take a look into her teenage sister's gruesome murder four years past. It's clear that the locals worked the case diligently, but they came nowhere close to finding Alexandra Tozer's killer. All 14 of their suspects were cleared, but Breen is troubled that the file on Alexandra's married lover, Lord James Fletchet, is missing. Then Fletchet's close friend from their days fighting the Mau Mau in Kenya is tortured and killed in the same way as Alexandra, and Breen is certain that Fletchet is the key to both killings. Shaw raises the bar with each entry in this series, which explores the tension between traditionalism and the 1960s social-justice movements, this time drawing clever parallels between English farms and the violent land disputes in Kenya. Against a backdrop of taut suspense and occasionally raw violence, Paddy and Helen continue trying to work out their feelings for each other, which deepen in fits and starts with each novel. A genre-bending psychological thriller, perfect for those who like Elizabeth George's Lynley novels.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)