Loosely a follow-up to The Long Firm, although the connection is more tenuous than in your average “series”.

Again follows a variety of characters with many different narrators, different motivations. All warped or twisted, all involved in something unsavory despite their best intentions. There’s a little trick at the end I really liked.

The scenes with Billy in the forest, digging out a bunker, meeting up with the gypsy-types, really really reminded me of another book I dug — I know it’s one of the John Madden mysteries by Rennie Airth although I’m not sure which one.

The previous book was a lot more “social commentary” and “criminal biography” in feel. This one’s focus is slightly different, feels more like a combination of “police procedural” and “investigative reporting”.

One more to go (in this trilogy)! Glad I decided to rescue these off the TBR shelf. Enjoying them.