Yet another excellent offering from Leigh Russell. Her Geraldine Steele/Ian Patterson stories are unmissable every time. There is something about each of these characters individually which reaches out across the page with a compelling persona. Geraldine is the stronger and more dominant personality, her strength and her integrity have never been in doubt, but a wrong move, for the best of reasons, has brought her to a place of doubt. Her demotion means that she no longer trusts her instincts as well as she used to and she is having to recognise, and deal with, the fact that her superior officers don't have the same trust in her instincts which they would have previously. Despite it all, her integrity remains intact and she recognises that she will have to work hard to regain their trust. Despite the reinstatement of the working relationship between Geraldine and Ian, and the fact that he is now her boss, Ian has become more of an incidental character, although it will be interesting to see where that goes in the future.

Despite Geraldine's reservations about her instincts she still follows them with scant regard for her own safety. That really could come back to bite her at some point.

There was a whopping great clue hidden in plain sight and I didn't pick up on it as soon as I should. When I did, it was with a resounding thud! I am guessing that I am not the only reader who overlooked that one.

This is another compelling episode in the saga of Geraldine Steele and I was glad to see that the author has more of them in the pipeline and eagerly await the next one.