Publisher's Weekly Review
At the start of this unpleasant crime novel from May (I'll Keep You Safe), Spanish police arrest fugitive drug trafficker Jack Cleland on the Costa del Sol after accidently shooting his pregnant girlfriend to death. Cleland blames one officer for the killing, Cristina Sánchez Pradell, and vows revenge, despite her indirect involvement. Scottish investigator John Mackenzie, a socially maladjusted quasi Sherlock Holmes, comes to Spain to transport Cleland to London for sentencing, but Cleland escapes in an attack on his armored transport vehicle. In addition to facilitating a massive drug deal, Cleland intends to make good on his threat to kill every member of Cristina's family, including her blind and deaf aunt. In her limited role as scapegoat, Cristina has little room to prove her worth. That she allows Mackenzie's instincts to inform her police work further diminishes her. May drains any dramatic anticipation he builds. This one's only for the author's diehard fans. (Mar.)
Kirkus Review
A Spanish cop, incurring a crime lord's vengeful and wholly unearned wrath, is saddled with a new partner she's not crazy about herself. Agreeing to take a late-night call to cover for a colleague who wants to go home to his wife and baby, Officer Cristina Sánchez Pradell, of Marviña's Policía Local, finds herself face to face with a man she takes to be an armed intruder. Before he can identify himself as Ian Templeton, who broke into his own house after he forgot his keys, he's startled by a dark figure behind him and fires three shots, killing Angela Fry, the pregnant girlfriend who'd returned with him. Templeton, who's actually Jack Cleland, a British fugitive widely sought for drug trafficking and killing a cop, blames Cristina's presence for Angela's death and swears revenge against her whole family. That includes her husband, Antonio; their 10-year-old son, Lucas; her cancer-stricken sister, Nuri; Nuri's husband, fellow police officer Paco; and Ana, Cristina's deaf, blind aunt, whose role will be pivotal. Cleland's threats ring hollow as long as he's in custody, but on the journey to transfer him to the custody of John Mackenzie, a disgraced ex-cop on his first day as an investigator for Britain's National Crime Agency, Cleland's underlings break him out, killing one cop and shooting Paco nonfatally so that he can relay the news to Cristina. Mackenzie, a Scot who has long-standing issues with authority figures of all kinds, is ready to take the next flight home, but Sub-Inspector Miguel López, the chief of Marviña Station, insists that he stay and help Cristina, who clearly needs all the help she can get, however antipathetic its source. As the unwilling partners track down leads to Cleland's present whereabouts, Cleland, effortlessly outmaneuvering them, zeroes in on one soft target after another. May (I'll Keep You Safe, 2018, etc.) keeps a few surprises in reserve but not enough to prevent you from thinking you've seen this all before. Familiar thrills lashed to a razor's edge. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
May, best known for the internationally best-selling and critically acclaimed Lewis Trilogy, gives us a deep plunge into psychological suspense here, with the cat stealthily moving toward its prey--and another cat stalking the first. A wow of an opening introduces us to a British ex-pat living in Spain who has everything to live for with his new love, who is carrying his child, until she is gunned down in a police raid at their villa overlooking the Mediterranean. The ex-pat is Jack Cleland, who ran drugs and killed a police officer and is now at the top of the list of fugitives wanted by the UK's National Crime Agency (NCA). Cleland, again on the run, vows revenge against the female police officer he blames for his girlfriend's death (the plotted revenge is an elaborate exercise in emotional sadism). The other main character is a depressive, dour Glaswegian with no social skills but a bent for languages and tenacity, assigned to the NCA to track and capture Cleland. A scary twist concerns Cleland's focus on harming the cop through her aunt, blind and deaf since birth, to whom the cop is fiercely attached. The plot excels at delivering split-second timing in this cat-and-cat game. The mood throughout matches the main characters' grim determination. Another May tour de force.
