The King’s Justice: A Maggie Hope Mystery
In this ninth book of the Maggie Hope series, Maggie is no longer a spy but is defusing German bombs in a London suffering during World War Two. Maggie is suffering, too, emotionally raw and living recklessly. She is drinking too much, smoking too much, rides a motorbike and revels in the danger of defusing live bombs.
She attends the sentencing of Nicholas Reitter, a serial killer whom she has shot and injured while capturing him. She feels some relief when he is sentenced to death. But he is replaced by another, far worse serial killer known as Jimmy Greenteeth, who kills young men, packs their bones in suitcases and throws them into the Thames.
Maggie is asked to help discover the identity of this new killer, but she refuses. However, when she is asked to help find a stolen Stradivarius violin, she accepts and finds an apparent link between the two cases. There also appears to be a link between Nicholas Reitter and the new serial killer. As Reitter awaits execution in the Tower of London, he offers to help the search for Jimmy Greenteeth, but only if Maggie visits him in prison.
Reluctantly, she agrees, and tension mounts as he offers only scraps of useful information, making heavy emotional demands on a drained Maggie. The date of his execution draws closer. More and more suitcases full of bones are turning up on the banks of the Thames. Still, the link between Reitter and Jimmy Greenteeth remains obscure.
The author builds emotional and physical tension steadily to a dramatic and unexpected conclusion. Her description of London and its frenetic, numbing wartime activity and the petty prejudices of a frightened people are uncomfortably true to life. This is a multi-layered book, powerful on many levels.
