A FRAGILE MERCY by Doug Sinclair

4* Another good book in this series, that ideally does need to be read in order.

This book doesn't have harrowing detail of the murder, but the deed is fairly gruesome and I'm not sure when the killer's identity is revealed, that they'd actually have known to carry out the vindictive attack they did. I'm using "they" so as not to Spoiler the tale, ss there didn't appear to be an abundance of suspects to me. 

The tale loses 1* for me because at the end, someone with clout jumps on a bandwagon and goes #MeToo, unconvincingly. I was left wondering if justice would get done for the victims, because there was more than just one, especially financially. I hope that gets picked up as an aside in the next book, when things go to court.

Malkie has very little time for his loved ones because of the murder and because of pressure and bullying by the CI aiming to become a DCI off the back of this high profile case. And I LOVED how he turned the tables and called out the bully and how his immediate superior only went through the motions of reprimanding him. I suspect there'll be more from the bully but I think the guy's chances at DCI have been more than a little dented because of Malkie and Malkie's team standing up for him. I thought that the disrespect showed by the CI was something from the days of Gene Hunt style of policing, not on 2026 and DEI that we have in the UK.

ARC courtesy of NetGalley and Storm Publishing for my reading pleasure. 

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