The New York Timeshails David Mark’s police
thrillers as “in the honorable tradition of Joseph Wambaugh
and Ed McBain.” In Taking Pity, Detective Sergeant
Aector McAvoy returns for another darkly enthralling
installment of this internationally acclaimed
series.
It's been three months since
Detective Sergeant Aector McAvoy returned home, or to what
was left of it after a horrific tragedy. All that remained
was charred masonry, broken timbers, and dried blood--a
crude reminder of the home invasion and explosion that tore
his family apart. McAvoy's wife and daughter are safe, he's
been assured; he just wishes he knew where they
were.
As McAvoy wrestles with his guilt, self-hatred,
and helplessness, trouble persists in stormy Hull. Organized
crime emerges as the city's latest threat, with two warring
factions leaving plenty of bodies for Detective
Superintendent Trish Pharaoh and her unit to clean up. Now
more than ever, Pharaoh needs her sergeant to return to work
and be a policeman again. She gives McAvoy a case that's
supposed to ease him back into the game: a reinvestigation
of a rural quadruple murder that was put to bed fifty years
ago. But what was supposed to be a cut-and-dried job quickly
unravels as McAvoy digs up new evidence and witness
testimonies, steering closer to some of the most notorious
criminals in northern England.
Fast-paced, noir-ish,
and fresh off the heels of Sorrow Bound's violent
finale, Taking Pity is the latest page-turning
installment in the gripping Detective McAvoy series. Hailed
by The New York Times as being "in the
honorable tradition of Joseph Wambaugh and Ed McBain," David
Mark's police procedurals are smart, dark, and above all,
wholly captivating.