English author Steve Higgs has written a trilogy about an aging police detective named Tony Heaton, of which Shadow of a Lie is the first volume. It didn’t blow me away, but it was well-written and intriguing in its way.

Tony Heaton often thinks about the movie cliché where a cop gets killed just as he’s coming up on retirement. He’s coming up on retirement himself, but has no intention of putting himself anywhere near harm’s way. He serves in a small, quiet community in Kent, and though he was a hotshot up-and-comer when young, his career foundered following a mistake, and he’s been coasting ever since.

Then his commander (who loathes him) tells him he’s been assigned to a special project, investigating cold cases. He’s partnered with a young detective named Ashley (male) Long. Ashley is the kind of rising star Tony used to be, and a martial artist to boot. In spite of seniority, Ashley is put in charge of the project, and he steers them to the disappearance, several years before, of a young man in another small town. No body was ever found, so it’s technically a missing person’s case, but Ashley has a feeling about it.

There are, in fact, people out there who know what became of the missing boy, and they will go to any lengths to muddy up the trail. The action will pass beyond raised voices and threats to actual physical battery and shots fired. Tony will find himself closer than he ever imagined to that movie-cliché ending he used to laugh about.

And when the case is solved, a plot twist will arise, impelling the reader to move on to the series’ second book.

Pretty good. I thought some of the action in Shadow of a Lie was a little implausible; on the other hand I never realized before how useful zip ties could be in a fight.

Not a great mystery, but pretty good. A professional job of work. I don’t recall any content that calls for special cautions.