Impression (DI Gardener 4)

A series of murders threatens to side-line Yorkshire Police’s search for a missing girl.

Sally Summerby charges into a Leeds police station, utterly distraught. Her five-year-old daughter has gone missing, presumably abducted. Yet despite mobilising all of their resources, the police can find no sign of the child.

DI Stewart Gardener gets wind of the case when investigating the murder of a woman in her rented suburban house. She has been pinned to the floor with a bayonet. Yet under her body is a photo of the child.

The mother knows nothing of this woman. And she is clearly shocked when it is established the latter is a sex worker. But as several weeks have passed since the abduction, she becomes more and more desperate.

DI Gardener and his trusty Sergeant Sean Reilly are also getting frustrated. A local businessman linked to the victim’s property has been poisoned. And to add to the detectives’ woes, a neighbourhood weirdo who fancies himself as a private detective and thinks he can solve the crimes keeps bothering them.

Gardener is sure the cases are linked, but the clock is ticking, resources are stretched, and the pressure is mounting to find who is responsible and why.