Critical Threat

Starred review from September 15, 2007
Boozing womanizer, maverick, and smart-mouthed insubordinate is how DCI Henry Christies bosses see him, but they have to admit hes a brilliant policeman. Right now, Henrys distinctly unhappy after being assigned to a desk job for failing to solve a murder six months earlier. But things start looking up when Deputy Chief Constable Angela Cranlow takes an interest in him. Warning bells go off in Henrys headshes a beautiful woman, hes a hot-blooded manbut hes secretly pleased when Angela assigns him to find the killer of a sleazy ex-cop-turned-PI. Everyone else on the force is involved in security for the upcoming visit of U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, so the case is Henrys by default, making him all the more determined to solve it to get back in his bosses good books. Oldham, a real-life cop, writes gritty, authentic-feeling prose. Combine that with deviously twisted plotting, genuine suspense, and an engaging, emotionally complex character, and the result is a bookand indeed a seriesthats a gripping, hugely entertaining success.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2007, American Library Association.)