Deadly Force
-
- Pre-Order
-
- Expected May 5, 2026
-
- $19.99
-
- Pre-Order
-
- $19.99
Publisher Description
A police officer is murdered, found washed up on the banks of a canal in this gritty, page-turning mystery set in London and featuring DCI Bill Slider – “one of Britain’s most engaging coppers” (Booklist)
'When it's one of your own, you pull out all the stops.'
DCI Bill Slider and his team are plunged into a city-wide manhunt when the body of a police officer is found dumped in a canal. Murder is always treated seriously, but when the victim is a serving copper, the killer is going to find the whole London force on their tail – and there will be no let up until they're caught.
Colleagues say PC Peter Bentley was a quiet bloke who kept himself to himself. But as Slider and Atherton dig deeper, it becomes clear that this likeable bobby had secrets. Was he involved in something that got out of control or had something from his past come back to bite him?
Soon, the hardships of ‘the Job’ and the office politics at play make for an intriguing mystery that, this time, feels too close to home . . .
This critically acclaimed British police procedural series is a great choice for fans of Catherine Aird, Ann Cleeves and Peter James. If you haven’t met Bill Slider and his team, why not start now?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
British detective chief inspector Bill Slider probes the death of a colleague in the sturdy latest installment of Harrod-Eagles's long-running series (after Easeful Death). Well-liked Notting Hill police constable Peter Bentley has been found dead with his head bashed in near a canal on Slider's turf in the West London suburb of Shepherd's Bush. Slider enlists his sidekick, detective sergeant Jim Atherton, to help investigate, and they find no shortage of possible explanations. The absence of Bentley's wallet suggests he may have been the victim of a robbery, but the brutality of the crime points to a more personal motive. Slider and Atherton cast suspicion on Bentley's adulterous wife, Sandy, while also considering a well-known local criminal and digging into the tragic death of Bentley's sister a decade earlier for possible clues. Harrod-Eagles's evocative prose (one of Slider's superiors displays a smile "like sunlight glinting off a coffin lid") and skill at capturing policemen's fraternal humor (London beat cops call members of the detective branch "bananas, because they were yellow, bent and went round in bunches") elevate the familiar plot. It's a diverting whodunit.
