Summer Of Ghosts

"...he can see why Detective Superintendent Tom Bevans has that nick name - he looks as if he is filled to the brim with life's pain, like the figure in Edvard Munch's painting The Scream. His hair is white, his skin looks like shattered porcelain that has been painstakingly glued back together, but it is his eyes that make the biggest impression, they appear to burn in some unfathomable way; mineshafts to some inner hell that has corroded him, etched pain into his physical being" The Summer of Ghosts is the second novel in the Dani Lancing series by British author, P.D.Viner. After a six-month leave of absence, The Sad Man, Detective Superintendent Tom Bevans is back on the job. The ghosts of three murdered girls plague his dreams: a cold case abandoned four and a half years ago when the pathologist on the case was disgraced and Tom's team temporarily suspended. His boss denies him the chance to reopen the case, but Tom is tenacious, and recruits help from a surprising quarter. After twenty years of daily conversations, Jim Lancing no longer has his daughter, Dani's ghost keeping him company, and, even though his wife, Patty and his psychiatrist insist that believing in her is crazy, he misses her. But is she gone forever? There is another murder, a girl viciously attacked in the same way, and notorious London drug lord Franco believes the victim is his daughter, Pia. He calls in a debt from Tom, a debt owed for a very long time. This Dani Lancing novel adds another layer of complexity to the story and the (already multi-dimensional) characters who populate the first novel and the novellas. It could possibly be read as a stand alone, but would certainly be enhanced by reading The Last Winter of Dani Lancing and the novellas, The Ugly Man and The Sad Man. Certainly, it should not be read before TLWODL, as there are spoilers for that novel in this one. This is murder mystery with twsts and surprises and a heart-thumping climax (or two). As well as having the reader think about the ultimate destination for the proceeds of crime, Viner touches on the concept of tailored drugs for hedonism, on torture/snuff films and the ubiquitous presence of violence, on friendship and loyalty, on love and betrayal, and on revenge. He manages to include tubes of super glue, machine guns, a research lab and focus groups, a land-mine, a secret passage, hallucinogenic drugs and a You Tube clip that goes viral. Viner also treats the reader to some lovely descriptive prose: "......a Native American tribe (who) had been deathly afraid of the trains that came to their country as they believed the human soul could only travel at the speed of an animal. Anything that sped faster than a horse, disengaged the soul from the body and left it behind, like a giant streamer flailing behind. When the body stopped moving the soul was reeled in at the speed of the horse, but for those hours or even days that the body and soul were cleaved apart, the man or woman is left amoral. With no centre and no control, they are free to do whatever evil they want" and "Grief dries and hollows you out..." are examples. Succinct observations also abound: "Sometimes it is just impossible to match a dead face to a photograph. So much of who we are is our vitality, the twinkle in the eye and the smile on the lips. Drain the life away and she could be any one of a hundred blond teenagers". Some editions also include as a bonus the 100 page Dani Lancing novella, The Sad Man. Readers who enjoyed The Last Winter of Dani Lancing will not be disappointed in this excellent offering from P.D. Viner.