Bad Samaritan

August 22, 2016
Readers will sympathize with Det. Insp. Ray McBain in Malone’s hard-hitting third outing for the Glaswegian copper (after A Taste for Malice). Ray suffers from traumatic stress disorder manifested in panic attacks and sleep-depriving nightmares. His emotional distress is interfering with his efforts to find the murderer of 21-year-old Aileen Banks, whose body was found in a narrow lane propped up between two dumpsters with semen on her clothing and human tissue under her fingernails. Trying to support Ray are his lover, Maggie; a colleague, Det. Constable Alessandra Rossi; and a close friend, Kenny O’Neill. Despite their efforts, Ray is drawn into a quagmire that threatens to destroy his career, ruin all his relationships, and perhaps even cost him his life. Meanwhile, a ghost from his childhood, a serial killer dubbed the Stigmata, is hunting Ray, piling up corpses en route to a showdown with him. The fast-moving plot builds to a horrifying ending.