THE WHITE CROW

Second in a series about a strong, principled woman in London’s law enforcement, following When You Are Mine (2022).

Philomena McCarthy, a London Metropolitan Police officer, aspires to be a detective someday. Phil is called to the scene of a crime, but she stops because she sees a 5-year-old girl in pajamas wandering the streets at night. Her name is Daisy, and she says her mom won’t wake up. It turns out that mom Caitlin Kemp-Lowe is dead after her house has been robbed and a plastic bag has been put over her head. Daisy’s father reports the theft of valuable jewelry, but he has serious problems of his own and will be a useless guardian for his daughter. Child Services hits a snag, but Daisy’s godmother is eager to take her in. Meanwhile, Phil has a complicated family—her father and uncles are career criminals. She herself is honest and professional and doesn’t want her father, Edward, to taint her career, but this juicy plot may give her no choice since “the McCarthy brothers were the most notorious criminal gang in the southeast of England.” Edward has never been convicted, unlike his brothers who did hard time. Edward is not a killer but a “property developer,” and someone is sabotaging his properties. Soon he finds himself squeezed hard by a Bulgarian gang that wants to take over a major share in his business in exchange for their paying off his crushing debt. Phil is an intelligent, compassionate protagonist who hates what her father and uncles do for a living, and in turn Edward hates her chosen career. They talk but agree never to discuss each other’s work. In any event, she doesn’t work on the Kemp-Lowe case because she isn’t a detective and because a higher-up in the London PD suspects she’s in league with her father. The dialogue is often witty: “Paddy couldn’t tell a gemstone from a gallstone,” and readers might find some of the gritty language galling. Tension imbues this dark tale, with action reaching a scary crescendo before settling on a quiet note.

End-to-end excitement for crime fans.