First Published: 2015
A new murder investigation for DCI Janine Lewis.
We are shown certain events the day before the murder. Adele Young is bitterly disappointed to hear the verdict in the lawsuit against Dr Don Halliwell. Adele's teenage daughter is dead, and she feels the doctor is responsible for her death. The girl, Marcie was a heroin addict, and when Adele managed to get her to go to the doctor, Dr Halliwell got her into a methadone programme. Yet, shortly after she started, he decided to reduce her dosage to half, which Marcie thought was too soon. Adele tried to talk to the doctor, but he was adamant. That night Marcie sneaked out of the house, feeling unable to put up with the withdrawal symptoms, and four days later a police officer came to Adele to notify that her daughter was dead after she overdosed.
Adele is not happy and intends to continue her legal battle, and that is what she tells the press. Her partner, Howard, also shares her feelings, and he is more vehement in his feelings.
That same day, Roy is watching over his wife Peggy who is dying. Roy and Peggy met at church after he and his first wife got separated. Their relationship built up with time. Religion was very important for Peggy, but when they finally kissed, she told Roy that she knew they couldn't marry but they would have to live in sin. She was not ready to stop living because of what the church said. They had a happy life, and Peggy got cancer at the age of 60. Peggy dies just a couple of months after her diagnosis.
And the third character we are shown is Norma, Dr Halliwell's wife. Norma tells us about her loneliness, and how she suspects that Don has affairs, but she won't leave him, and neither will he. We also learn that Don has some kind of conflict with a new doctor, Dr McKee, because he is pushy and wants to use new methods Don is disapproving of.
The man whose murder Janine and her team have to look into is Dr Don Halliwell. He is shot dead on the frontstep of the surgery. Norma is notified and she says that Don left that morning as usual. That night something weird happened. A car intentionally crashed into his, so Don reported it.
Janine and her unit talk to everybody in the surgery, but Dr McKee is not there and he doesn't answer on her phone or mobile phones. When Shap and Lisa go to the house, they find it empty but totally ramshacked. Hours later his car is found on the road, turned over, but the doctor is not inside. Then the doctor comes to the station to tell that someone is trying to kill him, and he mentions a band, the Wilson Crew.
Ballistics identify the gun with one that was used before and whose owener is someone called Leo Johnson. Johnson belonged to the Wilson Crew and was released from prison a month ago. Lisa and Mayne go to arrest him, and as Lisa is telling him his rights, he tries to escape but Lisa manages to catch him. Johnson says that he has turned over a new leaf and crime was in the past. When in the station Lisa and Mayne are questioning him, he keeps saying 'no comment', and his solicitor mentions that his client hadn't been read his rights, and Lisa realises that she made a mistake and didn't finish when he tried to escape. Mayne is not happy with this.
Lisa discovers a link between Johnson and Howard, Adele Young's partner. Johnson is Howards's nephew, and they look into it. Adele and Johnson say that they both were at home when Dr Halliwell was murdered, and Adele just went out to buy milk, and from the supermarket CCTV footage they discover that she is telling the truth.
Butchers discovers that the doctor was leading a fraudulent scheme. When checking the patients he visited, he discovers that some of the entries in his diary are incorrect, and he discovers that Halliwell prescribed drugs which he bought himself and never gave the patients. This is a line that they need to follow.
Dr McKee confesses to Janine that he has many debts. He went to a loan shark with links to the Wilson Crew, and he was asked to cooperate in the breakin of the surgery. He would leave the alarm off, and give them a key. The second time they asked him, he refused and that is why they vandalised his home. Janine arrests him for his cooperation with a band.
Apart from the investigation of the police, the book shows us Norma and her memories. She started studying medicine, and it was in medical school she met Don. She wasn't happy because of the way she was treated for being a woman. That made her very unhappy, and she felt she couldn't keep up and was thinking of dropping out. Norma eventually stopped studying, and she and Don married, and one event that marked her was when she lost the baby she was expecting when she was eight months pregnant.
The book also shows us Roy after the death of his wife. He is trying to arrange things. We know that Roy and Peggy also lost a son, Simon, and Roy now burns the photo albums he keeps of the moments with Simon. Roy has also written a letter and posted it, and I wonder what that is. There is nothing yet which tells us that he has anything against Dr Halliwell, so I am curious to know why he is a focus in the novel.
As for Janine and her domestic life, she has some issues. Now her eldest is not living at home, and she is struggling because Eleanor and Tom fight like cats and dogs. Now that her ex-husband has a new child, the children don't see him so often. Yet, the day that Pete is supposed to see Tom, he doesn't turn up. Pete won't take her calls, and when she shows up at his home, he is carrying baby Alfie and tells her that he can't talk now and closes the door in her face. I think that maybe Tina has left and he is run off his feet.
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