"Dismissed from his role as a back-room boffin in the British secret service, Major Boothroyd, AKA Q, returns to his market-town roots in Khan's excellent James Bond spin-off. This Q is currently in his 50s; his backstory includes a fling with Miss Moneypenny, and emotional baggage in the form of his retired history don father. What's drawn him home is the mysterious drowning of his old friend, quantum scientist Peter Napier, who has left him an encrypted note;"
"It's nearly Christmas when Jimmy's old friend Archie Stout is found dead at the site of an archeological dig, felled by a Neolithic stone purloined from the local heritage centre. Suspects soon proliferate: the artist with whom roving-eyed Archie may have been having an affair; teacher and local history enthusiast George Riley; mediagenic archeology professor Tony Johnson, and even the deceased's wife."
Major Boothroyd, the dismissed British secret service boffin known as Q, returns home to investigate the drowning of quantum scientist Peter Napier, who left him an encrypted note. The coroner ruled the death accidental and DCI Kathy Burnham refuses to reopen the case, though Napier's revolutionary research threatens serious consequences. Jimmy Perez and DI Willow Reeves, now on the Orkney Islands with their young son, investigate the Christmas-time death of Archie Stout, killed by a Neolithic stone stolen from a heritage centre. Suspects include an artist, a local history teacher, an archeology professor, and the deceased's wife. Themes include technological peril, heritage ownership and online misogyny, with strong sense of place and moments of unexpected humour.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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