Sycamore Gap 3 - The End (Pages 98 - end)

 

RATING: OKAY

SPOILERS!!!

I enjoyed the book, but I found some of the facts too far-fetched and simplistic. The baddies were too theatrical for my taste.

Ryan and his team start to focus on Colin Clarke, the man who found Amy's remains. He turns out to be Clare's neighbour, and he is said to have pressed Clare to go out with him. He is brought for questioning, and Ryan finds photographs of Clare on his computer. Then Ryan and Frank go to the prison to question Edwards. The man is creepy and tries to egg Ryan on, but thankfully, he keeps a cool facade. Edwards admits to having had a sexual relationship with Amy, but she didn't seem to like it, and she broke it off. There is someone who took her from him, but Edwards refuse to say his name. He also admits that he has kept correspondence with Colin.

When Ryan and Frank go back to the station, Colin has been let go thanks to his lawyer. Ryan says that they will go after him the next day, but he has someone keeping watch. Ryan is also worried about Anna, because he has realised that the common element between the crimes is him, and he fears that Anna is in danger. So he arranges for her to have a patrol waching over him, but he doesn't tell her.

The next day Colin is gone and his mother has been murdered. It seems he ran out from the back garden. Ryan and Frank go after Colin, but they know that they also suspect that the murderer could be close to them. Ryan comes up with an idea to use MacKenzie and Jack Lowerson. I think at this point of the novel I am not sure why Ryan suspects the man he goes after. The thing is that MacKenzie pretends to be one of the women who write to Edwards and goes to see him. She has confirmation that he isn't the killer, and then MacKenzie goes to Dr Donovan's house. Donovan is the psychologist, and she claims to need to talk to him. She has been wired and injected some drug to offset the one the killer uses. Donovan turns out to be the killer who tries to kill MacKenzie, but she hits him and then Ryan and Frank get there in time to arrest him.

The next day they discover that Donovan has committed suicide but it does not seem believable. Gregson, who had the instruction to kill Jack Lowerson, chickened out the night before, and that morning after Donovan killed himself, he suspends Ryan for his failure to meet protocol. It is clear from his look to the desk sergeant that Donovan was killed, and we can guess that Donovan was also part of the Circle. I find this quite difficult to believe. It seems that too many people belong to the cult and do everything to pervert justice.

At the end of the book Colin and Edwards  get together, and we discover that Colin did kill his mother, following Edwards' instructions, and it seems that they are going to keep working together from then on.