Cast Iron

Starred review from August 21, 2017
Set in France in 2011, May’s excellent sixth and final mystery featuring forensic expert Enzo Macleod (after 2011’s Blowback) finds Enzo looking into another cold case, the strangulation of 20-year-old Lucie Martin, who went for a walk on the estate of her well-to-do parents one day in 1989 and never returned. That night, her parents found a letter in her room from Régis Blanc, a recently released convict whom she was helping readjust to society at a charity in Bordeaux. Blanc was revealed soon after to be a serial killer, but no evidence ever linked him to Lucie’s murder. Enzo sets out from Paris for Bordeaux, where he picks up the thin trail of clues at the Martin family home. As time passes, the investigation spins out into a web that enmeshes members of Enzo’s family, all distinctive characters. May expertly plants nicely misleading red herrings; every time the reader thinks the plot will fall into predictability, the ground shifts and the direction changes. The end comes as a satisfying surprise, built as it is on clues that were subtly in place all along.