Off Minor

The author of the Frank Elder Mystery, Body & Soul, delivers a powerful, first-class police procedural (Kirkus Reviews).   Raymond Cooke is looking for revenge, not corpses. It's been six weeks since the gang of four young punks attacked him, since the one with the knife slit open his belly and left him to die on the street. After that Raymond bought a knife of his own, and has spent his nights lurking in Nottingham's worst pubs, hoping for a chance at vengeance. Instead, walking home one night, he encounters a smell that reminds him of his work at the abattoir. It's coming from the body of Gloria Summers.   For over two months, police inspector Charlie Resnick has looked for the missing six-year-old. Now that she's been found, Raymond Cooke becomes Resnick's chief suspect. But to find the killer, the disheveled detective may have to look within the girl's own family.