‘Beautiful skin.’
It begins with a father calling his daughter, but whoever answers is not Pia but his daughter’s killer. He must listen, horrified, to the sounds of his only child being murdered, powerless to intervene as the killer utters two chilling words.
Most men’s thoughts would turn to vengeance but Pia’s father is far more resourceful than most. And he is not the reserved businessman his daughter always believed him to be, but Franco, a notorious London drug lord who will call in all his debts to find his daughter’s killer. Including the one owed to him by DI Tom Bevans.
Only Tom is a man haunted by grief; every unsolved case weighs heavily against his soul. And Tom has heard the killer’s words before.
The ghost of a case left unsolved.
The ghost of a marriage lost to a search.
The ghost of a woman whose only goal is vengeance
The ghost of a man trying to save his daughter
And the man trying to help them all when the ghost from his past calls in a favour.
DI Tom Bevans is The Sad Man, a man weighed down by his own actions and inactions of the past. Now he has a chance to catch a killer he was forced to stop investigating years before, a killer who left who left three girls dead and one seriously injured, a killer he is determined to bring to justice.
Franco has nothing but violence in his past. Having escaped his life once before, he would like to do so again for the sake of his teenage daughter, but someone has other plans, and now his daughter is missing.
The Summer of Ghosts is the second novel in the Dani Lancing series (there are also two accompanying short stories available), and one of those rare occasions where I believe it is best to have read the previous novel, The Last Winter of Dani Lancing, before embarking on reading this. It’s not a must, as what you need to know from the first novel in order to enjoy this one is covered in Summer of Ghosts, but if you want to read the first book later it does prove to be a bit of a spoiler, that said, I also believe that by reading them in order it is far more fulfilling series with greatly enriched characters.
Exploring the devastating effects of grief, the power of vengeance and the impact on the morality of those consumed by such feelings Summer of Ghosts is an interesting read.
Dani Lancing short stories The Ugly Man and The Sad Man, are also available and both are currently free on Kindle.
Life of Cri.me 