These are my latest two reads.

Shadow over the Fens is the second in the Detective Nikki Galena series.  The mystery surrounds what at first seems like a data gathering assignment, during the lull the team investigates a spike in suicides in their area.  The case becomes personal when the latest suicide is a neighbor of Nikki’s.  The first case becomes entwined with Joseph’s past and some brutal new crimes which are being committed.  Lots of tension and twists and turns.  In this book, we see more exploration of Joseph as a character and his past and how he connects to Nikki, as a boss and now as a friend. Very well paced, the story moves quickly and smoothly to a good, if slightly predictable conclusion.  I really enjoyed this and will be reading the next in the series.

Still Missing by Denise Mina is a very current feeling police procedural.  You have a family, who seems to be targeted for some “unknown” reason.  They receive some poor treatment initially from the police due to concerns of radicalization.  Threads of religion, family, and culture intertwine with the plot of this mystery.  The most interesting parts of the story to me are Aahmir’s reactions to his kidnapping and thoughts during the events.

The police are battling without and within.  This is a high media attention case due to political/community tension and on top of that DI Morrow has difficulty getting along with anyone.  She resents her superiors and at the same time keeps secrets from them so they are not making informed decisions.  I read this through to the end because I wanted to see the conclusion, but it didn’t really grab me.  I didn’t care for DI Morrow and I thought it was pretty obvious what had happened from quite early on.