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Review: Detective Constable Gary Goodhew of the Cambridge Parkside Station needs to "bend a few rules" to get to the truth behind the murder of one of two lifelong friends in The Siren, the second mystery in this series by Alison Bruce.

Rachel Golinski and Kimberly Guyver, who have known each other since childhood, always joked that Kimberly always gets the two into trouble while Rachel gets them out of it. But not always. When Rachel's body is found in the charred remains of the home she shared with her husband Stefan, and Kimberly's young son Riley, who Rachel was caring for, goes missing, Kimberly realizes a mysterious event from their past, one they tried to cover up and forget, may be catching up with them. DC Goodhew, assigned to investigate the case, puts her in an awkward position: How much does she reveal about their past, information the police may be able to use to find her son, without incriminating herself about past misdeeds? Goodhew knows she's hiding something — she's evasive and ambiguous in her answers to his questions — but to discover what it is, he'll have to be creative in the manner in which he goes about investigating this crime.

The Siren is a multifarious novel of suspense, one filled with many characters, each of whom seems to have an agenda at odds with another. The reader is never quite sure who is "good" and who is "bad", yet that is part of the appeal here. The murder mystery plot seems to revel in its complexity, with multiple twists and turns, yet remains approachable to the reader in part because certain facts are made known, though not always in what context they are important. The Siren is most definitely an interesting, stylish even, police procedural, but also a rather dark one.

The Siren by Alison Bruce — A Gary Goodhew Mystery

Publisher: Soho Constable
Format: Hardcover
ISBN-13: 978-1-56947-605-5
Publication Date: October 2010
List Price: $25.00