Blacklight Blue

Blacklight Blue is the third book in the Enzo Macleod Investigation series by Scottish journalist, screenwriter and author, Peter May. It all happens very quickly: a nasty prognosis from his oncologist, an attempt on his daughter Kirsty's life, then he and Kirsty are mugged, and their credit cards stop working. The gym of his daughter Sophie's boyfriend is burnt down, and then Enzo is arrested for murder.

Of course, Enzo has not murdered anyone, but there is trace evidence and his alibi falls apart. Whoever is trying to frame him, though, hasn't counted on the loyalty of his family, close friends and his star student, Nicole. And when he learns how the victim was killed, he understands that the murderer is the perpetrator of another of the unsolved cases from Roger Raffin's book.

To keep those he loves (and their attachments) safe, Enzo moves the whole group to a vacant alpine house in Miramont owned by a woman who picked him up in a bar. From there, Nicole uses her tech skills to learn more while Enzo connects with the retired police commissaire and gets to examine seventeen-year-old evidence. Using modern technology, a voice recording, a bottle of pills and human secretions on a sweater provide information previously unavailable.

What follows for Enzo is quite a lot of travel, to Paris, London, Spain and southern France, as he traces a 1992 assassination to a 1986 identity theft to a 1970 kidnapping before a dramatic climax at a cable car station in a deserted ski resort. As well as demonstrating the title technique, May gives the reader a peek into the workings of the French Foreign Legion, and shows how expertise in spoken language can pinpoint the speaker's origins.

While he is no doubt feeling a little sorry for himself at the time, Enzo does allow himself to be rather easily led by his male appendage, and even though he finds the murderer, if not the motive, in a third case from Raffin's book, it seems there are now two parties with Enzo Macleod in their sights, so there's plenty of scope for further books in the series; fans will be looking forward to #4, Freeze Frame.