The Dentist by Tim Sullivan

 

DS George Cross has the highest clearance rate on the Bristol police force.  He is also one of the most irritating men to work with.  Cross is on the spectrum and that means he is like a terrier with a bone when he is working a case.  He doesn't really care about making friends at work or even doing what his bosses tell him to.  Once he latches onto a case, he will work it until it is solved.

The latest case seems like it will be an easy one.  A homeless man has been found dead, signs of a fight and the victim being intoxicated established.  It seems like a case of two homeless men fighting and one dying.  Until Cross discovers that this homeless man was a dentist before he went on the streets.  And that the man's wife had also been murdered shortly before he fell apart.  Cross's boss wants the easy solution but Cross is sure that the two murders are connected and the wife's case was never solved.  He is determined to solve both.

When Cross first started on the force, he was bullied unmercifully by his superior officer.  Now he finds that the same officer was in charge of the wife's murder and the case had a terrible investigation.  While Cross has no fond memories of the man, he was a competent police officer.  Why didn't he solve the wife's murder?

This is the first book in the DS George Cross series.  George lives with his father whom he gets along with.  He loves organ music but refuses to play for others.  He drives his partner, a single mom nuts and intimidates the new female hire but he does include them in the investigation and works with them.  His partner helps him recognize social clues that would normally go past him.  Readers will be fascinated with the way George's mind works and how he never gives up on a case.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.