The Unquiet Dead

Years ago, the historical Marshall Street Baths in the heart of Soho were full of kids taking swimming lessons and playing in the water. Today they're crowded with addicts, homeless people and, DI Jessie Driver's new boss thinks, a teenage runaway they're trying to track. But when CID searches the decaying building, they don't find Anna Maria Klein--but they do find a man's mummified body buried in the ground in the rat-infested basement. Who was he? How long has he been there? And what happened to him?

Jessie, on the outs with her by-the-book new boss, tackles this mystery from the bowels of the Marshall Street Baths instead of the higher-profile runaway case. She's got the eccentric caretaker of the building to help her, but he seems fixated on the day a young boy drowned at the baths, many years ago. Plus, a local priest seems intent on giving his opinions, which are decidedly more otherworldly than Jessie would like. All in all, The Unquiet Dead is a fresh and pulse-pounding second novel in this streetwise procedural series from up-and-coming suspense talent Gay Longworth.