Freeze Frame

Starred review from January 11, 2010
May’s excellent fourth Enzo McLeod mystery (after 2008’s Blacklight Blue
) takes the Scottish forensics wizard, who impulsively bet his daughter’s boyfriend he could solve seven cold cases, to the Ile de Groix off the coast of Brittany, where he may finally meet his Waterloo. The quaint island is the site of the notorious 1990 slaying of tropical disease specialist and entomologist Adam Killian in his study. For two decades the crime scene—and the cryptic hints Killian supposedly left to identify his killer—have remained as undisturbed as an insect frozen in amber. Can Macleod, distracted by personal dramas that involve his sometime lover, Charlotte, and a menacing stalker, decipher the message—and stay in one piece? With its intricate plot, compelling characters, and bombshell denouement, this unsettling Enzo Files installment is a must-read.

Starred review from January 15, 2010
Eighteen year ago, a man ordered his daughter-in-law to preserve his study as he had left clues to help his son to identify his killer. An hour later, the man is shot to death, and his son dies shortly thereafter. The police identify a local suspect but lose the case in court. Having boasted that he could solve seven cold cases written up in a best-selling book, forensic specialist Enzo Macleod travels to a small island off the Brittany coast to crack this fourth crime (after the cases solved in "Extraordinary People, The Critic", and "Blacklight Blue"). VERDICT The author of the much acclaimed "China Thrillers" surpasses himself here in misdirection, placing clues in plain sight and leaving the reader anticipating the fifth entry in this outstanding series. [See Prepub Mystery, "LJ" 11/1/09; large print: ISBN 978-1-59058-695-2.]

Copyright 2010 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 1, 2010
Prolific Mays fourth book in the Enzo Files series (Blacklight Blue, 2008) finds the forensic scientist on one of the small Channel Islands, which are more like his home country of Scotland than his current home in Southern France. Enzo uses a deft combination of cutting-edge forsenic technology, his own insight, and traditional detecting to solve his latest cold case, which involves an elderly man dying of cancer, shot in his own study, whose will stipulates that nothing in the study be touched until his son arrives home to receive a secret message. But the son dies soon after the father, and when Enzo arrives, the room has sat virtually untouched for nearly 20 years. Enzo is a fascinating character in his own right, and his complicated personal life only adds to the appeal. Readers new to the series may not be entirely sure why Enzo is dedicated to solving a series of cold cases, but since the majority of the book and the entirety of the mystery stands alone, anyone who enjoys forensic mysteries should be able to leap right in.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)