Stone Cold, Stone Dead

August 6, 2018
The release from prison of Julian Mannering, the arch nemesis of British agent Ingrid Langley and her husband, Patrick Gillard, a National Crime Agency officer within the Avon and Somerset Police Organized Crime Unit, drives Duffy’s tired 21st mystery featuring the sleuthing duo (after 2017’s Murder.com). As their MI5 contact explains, “It seems that he’s consorting with serious criminals, possibly with a view to making money by illegal means. And that suggests to us that he’s thinking of using his considerable fortune, previously accrued by fair means or foul... to either buy his way into what I’ll call an existing crime set-up or is planning to start something of his own.” This sort of expository dialogue is typical. Meanwhile, a nasty couple is harassing Ingrid and Patrick, their five children, and Patrick’s recently widowed mother. Could there be some connection with the Mannering case? This entry will satisfy established fans, who have trudged along with Patrick and Ingrid through the years. It will be less scintillating for newcomers. Agent: Vanessa Holt, Vanessa Holt Ltd. (U.K.).

August 15, 2018
A daring sleuthing duo's wish for a peaceful life is not to be.Patrick Gillard and his wife, Ingrid Langley, have been together since their teens. Patrick, an army veteran, has worked for MI5 and the National Crime Agency. More recently, he's been embedded with the Avon and Somerset police in order to be near the home he shares with Ingrid, their five children, and his recently widowed mother. Ingrid, an author with an uncanny knack for uncovering crimes, works as a police consultant. The couple's relatively quiet interregnum ends when MI5 informs Patrick that a nasty case from their past (Murders.com, 2017, etc.) is coming back to haunt them in the person of Julian Mannering--formerly Sir Julian, until he was involved in murder and other crimes--who's now thought to be taking up new criminal enterprises. Patrick's mother, Elspeth, still reeling from her husband's death, is harassed by a couple, claiming to be involved with a London-based church group, who want to move into her house, a former church property attached to Patrick's home. When Mannering is found dead, the supercilious DI on the case assumes he died of natural causes until the pathologist confirms Ingrid's suggestion that he was shot three times. The harassment of Elspeth blossoms into vandalism and attacks on Patrick's children. Are these connected to the police suspicions of Mannering and a former MP who may have joined his criminal enterprises? Since nothing rouses Patrick to anger more than attacks on his family and friends, he and Ingrid set out to untangle the ties between harassment, murder, and Mannering's criminal activities. Murder and mayhem ensue when they start digging, but Patrick welcomes the chance to take down the ruthless criminals whatever the cost to him and his family.Fans will enjoy the excitement and action of the clever pair's newest cases and be very surprised indeed by some of their solutions.

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September 15, 2018
Readers might want to refresh their memories of Dust to Dust (2016), to which this new entry in the Patrick Gillard and Ingrid Langley series is a direct sequel. Julian Hardy, the man who orchestrated the murder of Patrick's boss at the National Crime Agency, is out of prison and living under an assumed surname, Mannering. MI5 has been keeping tabs on Mannering, and its agents have come to believe that he is planning some sort of criminal activity, and that Patrick might be in some sort of danger. When Mannering turns up dead, Patrick and his wife, Ingrid, are determined to find out who's responsible and what sort of criminal enterprise the deceased was hoping to orchestrate. Meanwhile, and perhaps not entirely unrelated to the Mannering case, some people are trying to force Patrick's mother out of her home, and they're using some heavy-handed techniques. This is another strong entry in the Gillard-Langley series, and it's sure to be a real treat for series fans.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)