Dead in the Water

The Prosecutor Fiscal, Sheila Milne has requested that a 1985 cold case be reviewed.  DI Fleming is tasked with it; but it has some issues for her in that her late father and her current boss were involved in the investigation.

Fleming plans on questioning the family of the dead woman.  Fortuitously the former boyfriend of the victim is in the area preparing to do one of the TV series in which he stars.  However, it appears that he has a solid alibi.  The interviews with the mother and brother of the victim leave Fleming wondering more about the situation at the time the girl died.

Shortly after this, late in the evening, the TV star is attacked with a knife at the door to his house.  Could this attack be linked to the cold case?  Fleming is surprised when the footprint specialist informed her that there could well have been a second, smaller person nearby at the time of the attack.  Were there people lining up to attack the victim?

When a fatal knifing occurs, Fleming's hands are full.  She faces a dilemma, how is she to handle it all?

Author Aline Templeton has done a superb job with this murder mystery.  She presents several potential suspects, and slowly eliminates them.  The reader is alway left wondering until the last minute.  She also gives real human frailties to Fleming, which plague her along with the cases she has to deal with.  All in all, a very good read, which was hard to put down.  I'm looking forward to the sequel.