THE CYCLIST

An unconventional British sleuth probes the murder of a drug-taking gym rat.

DS George Cross and partner DS Josie Ottey of the Somerset and Avon police are called to a construction site to examine a recently discovered corpse. The case is challenging and complicated from the start, beginning with the need to appease an indignant contractor and identify the young victim. Cross, who’s on the autism spectrum, exhibits an unflappable nature and Holmesian observational skills that show he’s fully up to the task. Noting the victim’s low body fat, overdeveloped thighs, distinctive tan lines on his arms and legs, and lack of calluses on his hands, he pegs the man as a cyclist, “possibly professional.” The tangled investigative path into Alex Paphides’ murder begins at the Avon Cycling Club and proceeds with evocative precision through multiple locations and persons of interest: the gym where he pumped up, a girlfriend who seems to be missing, and the chemist who supplied him with performance-enhancing drugs. Sullivan’s second DS Cross mystery deftly combines multiple genre tropes. At heart, it’s a police procedural whose focus widens to include Cross’ wrangles with his superiors and his personal life, his caring but somewhat formal relationship with his elderly father, and his escape from the pressures of his job by playing the organ at church. Sullivan’s omniscient narration shrewdly matches his protagonist’s measured, exacting nature, providing both a pace and a distance that will engage the armchair sleuth. Cross’ brusque, dispassionate brilliance regularly frustrates Ottey, who’s cast in the thankless role of apologist.

A compelling character portrait folded into a meticulous mystery.