THE FRIEND - Charlie Gallagher
Avon Books, UK
ISBN-13: 978-0-00844-552-2
April 1, 2021
Mystery

Kent, England- The Present

Danny Evans, well-known locally as a football player and coach, is separated from his wife Sharon and son Jamie. His fifteen-year-old daughter Callie is comatose in the hospital due to a drug overdose. A child molester had blackmailed her and four of her friends into taking intimate photos of themselves. He has been drinking too much, and a man who claims he is a private investigator working for another client tells him that Marcus Olsen is the man who abused his daughter. He inveigles Danny into killing the child molester. Soon more bodies are found.

Detective Inspector Joe Norris had been off work for a month. His boss, Superintendent Debbie Marsden, brings him back to begin an investigation of a headless body found on Dover's beach. Then the body of policewoman Hannah Ribbons is found. Detective Sergeant Lucy Rose is assigned to him, but she shows little respect believing he doesn't have the background for such an investigation. Their investigation is also hampered by the dysfunction between police departments. Plus, another man, Richard Maddox, whose wife died, has also been deceived into committing murder and becoming another dupe to use by the real murderer.

In THE FRIEND, author Charlie Gallagher, a policeman himself, has written an intricate mystery while sharing viewpoints from both some of the crime perpetrators and from the small investigative team. DI Norris has the mind and talent of an exceptional investigator despite DS Rose's initial skepticism. Even learning the grotesque crimes some characters have committed, the reader will still develop empathy for the problems those characters have faced. The further the reader gets into the story, the more compelled they will be to complete it. If you enjoy crime novels, you need to read this one.

Robin Lee