Friend Of The Devil by Peter Robinson

 

In this edition, the team are working on two different murders of women.  Annie Cabbott has been seconded to another police station for a few weeks so she catches the first one.  A woman from a nearby nursing home, paralyzed and in a wheelchair, has been taken to a nearby field and cliff.  Her throat is cut and of course she can do nothing to stop it.  It becomes even more interesting when it turns our that this was the wife of the serial killer DCI Banks had caught several years ago.  Although he always suspected that the wife was a partner in the killings a case never was made especially after the woman dove through a window to evade capture and ended up helpless.

Back home, another woman has been killed.  This one was killed in the maze of alleys and deserted buildings after the pubs had closed.  She had gone in there on a dare but never emerged.  Even worse, as the investigation proceeds, it hits home close to Bank's team as another murder occurs.  Can these cases be solved?

This is the seventeenth novel in the DCI Alan Banks series.  This one is interesting for its look back to a prior case that shaped the team in many ways and for the hubris that ends the life of one of the team.  Outside of that, Annie takes a new lover she isn't sure she was wise to engage with and those around her are worried about her state of mind.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.