RATING: VERY GOOD
SPOILERS!!!
The ending of this mystery was no surprise. Along the way the police discover a few things.
First, one of the doctors saw a 4x4 car outside the surgery the day before the crime, and the police manage to identify the car which belongs to Neil Langan, the husband of the surgery nurse. When Butchers confronts the nurse, Dawn Langan, she admits that she was having an affair with Dr Halliwell, and she says that she hasn't seen her husband since the day before the crime. Through the records of his credit card the police find out that Neil is staying in a hotel. When they talk to him, they discover that he has spent all this time in the hotel bar, and he admits to having rammed his car into Halliwell's, and he also says that he told Norma about her husband and Dawn.
The next stop for Janine and Richard is Norma. They knock at the door, but nobody answers. Feeling that there is something wrong, they get into the house, and they find Norma unconscious. She has tried to overdose and kill herself, but thankfully, Janine and Richard arrived in time. In hospital, Norma tells Janine that she has been an addict for decades. It started when she was a medicine student, and she weaned off when she was pregnant. And then when she lost the baby, she got hooked again. It is Don who provided the drugs, and that was the police had discovered about his fraudulent dealings.
Lisa decides to go to talk to Aaron Matthews, the man whose gun killed Halliwell. He claimed that he had sold the gun. Lisa finds him battered, and he says that the Wilson Crew beat him up for talking to them. Even though at first he is reluctant to talk, Matthews tells him that he sold the gun to someone called Carter, but he doesn't know his first name. Lisa advises Matthews to go to the police and ask to be included in the witness protection plan.
The police discover that the man Matthews meant. It is Simon Carter, who died after jumping from a bridge, and they are surprised to discover that Simon was Roy and Peggy's son. When Jenine and her unit go to find him, he is gone, and the neighbours tell them that he is at his wife's funeral. Lisa and Jenine go there, and when they approach him, Roy doesn't deny the truth. He shot Halliwell with Simon's gun. Roy felt that Halliwell didn't treat Simon well, and when Roy begged him to send him somewhere where he could be helped, Halliwell refused, claiming that the drugs would kick in soon. Roy tried to find alternative care, but he was late and Simon killed himself. What triggered his anger now was when Halliwell came to fill up Peggy's death certificate and started telling him empty pleasantries.
Roy then produces the gun and points it at Janine and Lisa. Running away from them, he presses the gun against his head and shoots. It is a shock for Lisa to witness that.
As for Janine's family life, the problem Pete has is that Tina is suffrering from postnatal depression, and he confesses that he can't cope with everything. Jenine is generous and tells him that he can bring Alfie whenever he feels like it, and she offers her support.
This is the last Janine Lewis book to date. I hope that at some point in the future there are more books in the series.
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