Far Cry

March 29, 2010
Det. Sgt. Helen Walker and Det. Insp. Will Grayson hunt for a missing girl in this worthy sequel to Gone to Ground
from Cartier Diamond Dagger–winner Harvey. In 1995, pubescent Heather Pierce and her friend Kelly Efford disappear while on holiday in Cornwall. An eccentric Good Samaritan saves Kelly; searchers find Heather dead at the bottom of an old mining engine house, the apparent victim of a misstep in the fog. In present-day Cambridge, Heather's half-sister, Beatrice, who's about the same age as Heather was in 1995, vanishes. Is Heather's tragic history repeating itself, or is Beatrice the victim of something even darker? While Walker examines Heather's still unresolved death for a link to Beatrice's disappearance, Grayson becomes obsessed with a recently released pedophile, whom he suspects of committing terrible, undetected crimes. Harvey isn't afraid to let his characters grow in this thoughtful, complex thriller.

Starred review from March 15, 2010
When Londoners Ruth and Simon Pierce's ten-year-old daughter Heather dies in an apparent fall while on a camping trip with a friend's family on the Cornish coast, they are devastated. Divorced, Ruth moves to Cambridge, remarries, and has another daughter, Beatrice, who at the age of ten disappears on the way home from a class. Meanwhile, a convicted pedophile is released in Cambridgeshire, and DI Will Grayson is convinced that he may have committed other crimes and even be threatening Will's own children. DS Helen Walker goes to Cornwall to investigate the death of Ruth's first daughter, while Will pulls out all stops in trying to find Beatrice. Harvey skillfully weaves these threads together to reach a wrenching conclusion that fully illustrates again his complete mastery of plot and character. Grayson and Walker first appeared in "Gone to Ground", but Harvey's reputation was built on his Charlie Resnick series. VERDICT Any reader seeking an excellent author with a long track record of the very best of contemporary mystery fiction must become familiar with Harvey's considerable body of work. Highly recommended. [See Prepub Mystery, "LJ" 2/1/09.]Roland Person, formerly with Southern Illinois Univ. Lib., Carbondale

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