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Summary
Summary
IN THE RED-HOT FINALE TO PETER MAY'S CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED ENZO FILES, ENZO MACLEOD WILL FACE HIS MOST CHALLENGING COLD CASE YET.
"ENDS MACLEOD'S QUEST WITH A FLOURISH." ---MARILYN STASIO, THE NEW YORK TIMES
"A SATISFYING SURPRISE." -- PUBLISHERS WEEKLY (STARRED REVIEW)
"THE LAST SHALL BE BEST." -- KIRKUS REVIEWS
Western France, 1989 A weeping killer deposits the unconscious body of twenty-year-old Lucie Martin, her head wrapped in a blue plastic bag, into the waters of a picturesque lake.
Lot-et-Garonne, 2003
Fourteen years later, a summer heat wave parches the countryside, killing trees and bushes and drying out streams. In the scorched mud and desiccated slime of the lake, a fisherman finds a skeleton wearing a bag over its skull.
Paris, October 2011
In an elegant apartment in Paris, forensic expert Enzo Macleod, now fifty-six years old, pores over the scant evidence of the sixth and final cold case he has been challenged to solve. The most obvious suspect is Régis Blanc, a former pimp already imprisoned for the murders of three sex workers, who may have been Lucie's lover in the months before her disappearance. But Régis has a solid alibi, and Enzo has a feeling the real explanation might be more complicated. In taking on this old and seemingly impossible-to-crack case, Enzo puts everything and everyone he holds dear in terrible danger--and in ways even he never could have imagined.
Author Notes
Peter May has written several standalone novels and three series: the critically acclaimed Enzo Files, featuring Scottish forensic scientist Enzo Macleod, set in France; the Lewis Trilogy ( The Blackhouse, The Lewis Man, and The Chessmen ), all three volumes of which were internationally bestselling novels; and the award-winning China Thrillers, featuring Beijing detective Li Yan and American forensic pathologist Margaret Campbell.
One of Scotland's most prolific television dramatists, May garnered more than 1,000 credits over a decade and a half spent as scriptwriter and editor on prime-time British television. Before quitting TV to concentrate on writing novels, he was the creator of three major series, two of which were the highest rated in Scotland. May lives and writes in France.
Reviews (5)
Publisher's Weekly Review
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. (Oct.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
Forensic detective Enzo Macleod solves a challenging cold-case murder that dates back more than 20 years.The impressively rendered sense of place and the keen character insights author May has shown in his books set in the Hebrides and in China are richly in evidence in this novel set in France. In what is billed as the last case in the Enzo Files series, the reader follows Enzo Macleod, aging (56) and sometimes weary, as he determines to find the killer of Lucie Martin, who was strangled and dumped into a lake in the west of France at age 20. Although the killer was never found, evidence pointed to Rgis Blanc as the culprit even though this pimp had a "cast-iron" alibi for his whereabouts at the time of the murder. Lucie had met him while working at a rehab center for ex-convicts after he served nine months for assault, and her spurned boyfriend suggested that Lucie and Rgis become lovers. Rgis' subsequent murder of three prostitutes, for which he was sentenced to life in prison, cast further suspicion on him as Lucie's killer. But Macleod has doubts that Rgis killed Lucie. His misgivings come into sharp focus during a powerful scene in which Macleod interviews Rgis in prison. Macleod is on the case, but he realizes someone wants him off it: a man attempts to kill him as he searches a dark chteau. Meanwhile, in a suspenseful subplot, thugs kidnap Macleod's daughter and her lover, Bertrand, threatening their lives unless Macleod gets off the case. Struggling to maintain equilibrium, Macleod reminds himself that he deals with "real people, with real lives and real sorrow," an observation that also befits May's full, insightful rendering of Macleod's ex-wife, his current paramour, and his family. Though some early scenes with Macleod's family seem extraneous, they tie perfectly to the surprising reveals that come in the book's swift second half. All this plays out against sharply sketched scenes of Paris and Bordeaux in late fall. The last shall be best. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
This is the sixth and final installment of the Enzo Files series by award-winner May. In each book, expat forensic expert Enzo Macleod attempts to solve one of the seven notorious murders documented in a Parisian journalist's book on cold cases. (The project began after Enzo wagered with the author that he could solve them all.) This time he must unravel the murder of a 20-year-old woman whose bones were exposed during a drought. Readers of the earlier books will have the advantage here, as much of this case turns out to involve others previously investigated. Many elements of Enzo's complicated relationships are also deeply rooted in the past. The loose strings of Enzo's personal and professional life are neatly tied together at story's end, and his compelling character, with all of his strengths and weaknesses, will be missed. Bonne chance, Enzo. Recommended for tartan noir fans, including the works of Christopher Brookmyre and Stuart MacBride, not to mention Enzo's personal favorite, Val McDermid.--Murphy, Jane Copyright 2017 Booklist
New York Review of Books Review
Under her new name, Milly, Annie is in the care of a psychologist, Mike Newmont, and his family, who are none too even-keeled themselves. Mike's wife, Saskia, is emotionally fragile and his daughter, Phoebe, is a vicious brat. What's more, Mike is secretly writing a book about Milly. Despite all this, the notion of masquerading as a normal kid is irresistible. If only Milly weren't so terrified of turning into her mother, so "scared of finding out who and what I might be." Milly is intellectually and psychologically miles ahead of the grown-ups who keep underestimating her, but living in her head isn't easy. When she isn't analyzing herself for violent tendencies, she's anxiously denying the guilty secrets that might slip out when she testifies against her mother. In her yearning to be good, she cuts her own flesh "to bleed out the bad." But there are times when "it feels good to be bad," and you really don't want to be around for those times. Land is a mental health nurse who has worked with traumatized children, and her portrait of Milly has a powerful sense of authenticity. Her excursions into the twisted psyche of Milly's mother - or, rather, into Milly's keen memories but conflicted feelings about her mother - are less realistic, but more distressing. The harrowing scene in which they meet in court, with only a screen between them, harks back to a disturbing exchange between Milly and her only friend. After mentioning a story about "a girl who was so scared she prayed to be given the wings of an eagle," Milly is asked what the girl was so frightened of. Maybe, she thinks, "The person who was telling the story." AS A WISE old teacher notes in John Sandford's DEEP FREEZE (Putnam, $29), "There is a lot of potential violence in class reunions." But when someone murders the "Girl Most Likely to Succeed" in Trippton High School's class of 1992, following a planning session of the 25 th class reunion committee, no one suspects the "Funniest Boy in the Class of '92" of being the killer. "I can't believe it," someone insists. "It's -f like saying a duck did it." Virgil Flowers, the most laidback agent in the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, arrives in midwinter, when everyone is either ice fishing or having illicit sexual adventures, aided by the naughty toys in the back room of Bernie's Books, Candles 'n More. While people are happy to tattle on their friends and neighbors, no one will help Virgil find the "outlaw heroine" who's supporting a lot of poor folks by making pornographic Barbie and Ken dolls. Desperate times demand desperate measures. SCANDINAVIAN CRIME NOVELS don't get much darker than Jussi Adler-Olsen's Department Q police procedurals. In William Frost's translation of THE SCARRED WOMAN (Dutton, $28), the Copenhagen detective Carl Morek and his eccentric colleagues in the cold case division are conducting two investigations, neither of them very interesting, when Rose, their normally efficient colleague, has a breakdown. Although the details of the childhood trauma that caused her crackup are impossibly lurid, Rose proves far more likable than the stock female victims in this noir series. Lest we think AdlerOlsen is getting soft, he also introduces us to Anne-Line Svendsen, a caseworker in the social security office who has developed a seething hatred for "those damn young women who totally cheated society" by drawing benefits they don't deserve. Unfortunately for her, she commences to attack the most irritating of her clients, Michelle Hansen, at the precise moment when Michelle and another of Anne-Line's clients are plotting to kill her. ONCE UPON A TIME, Peter May began a series of mysteries featuring Enzo Macleod, a forensics expert who took a bet with a Parisian journalist named Roger Raffin that he could use his modern-day skills to solve seven cold cases of homicide, including that of Raffin's wife. CAST IRON (Quercus, $26.99) is the last book in this series and it ends Macleod's quest with a flourish. I would have been happier with less flourish and more forensics, which seemed to taper off drastically after the early cases. Science barely figures in the current book because the victim, Lucie Martin, wasn't found until her bare bones were discovered in a lake bed that had been exposed during a severe drought. Macleod explores the possibility that Lucie was murdered by a man she met while doing social work with recently released felons. But the harried sleuth has so much personal baggage to wrap up - the vindictive ex-wife, the uncertain paternities, the infidelities, the new girlfriend - that he has little time for a proper investigation. MARILYN STASIO has covered crime fiction for the Book Review since 1988. Her column appears twice a month.
Library Journal Review
Years ago, forensic scientist Enzo -MacLeod made a bet to solve a series of French cold cases highlighted in a colleague's book. Now only two chapters remain, and an aging Enzo cakes on the 1989 case of Lucie Martin, whose body was dumped in a lake in western France. No one was charged with her murder since the prime suspect, a former convict Lucie knew through her work at a rehab center, had a cast-iron -alibi. Enzo soon spots a clue that will shed new light on the case but will also impact his family and friends. Enzo is an irascible, complex protagonist, with more than his share of personal loss, often masked by bravado. VERDICT This is the sixth and final book in May's gripping series-and one of the best. It is helpful but not necessary to have read the previous books. Fans of forensic mysteries will prefer following Enzo through all his cases.-ACT © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.