In this book, The Missing Heiress, the fifth in the DCI Buchanan series, DCI Buchanan is asked by his good friend Sir Nathan Greyspear if he could help his friend Amal Barazani with a private matter. Sir Nathan takes Buchanan to his club meet Amal Barazani. Amal Barazani explains that his daughter, Ziliini, heiress to the Mastrani fortune hasn't been seen since the previous Friday evening. First indications are that it could be a case of a spoilt brat having a tantrum and Buchanan asks if she has done this before. Amal says yes but it was always to stay with friends. Buchanan suggests that her friends are contacted. They have been, Amal Barazani tells Buchanan, but none of them have heard from her since the middle of the previous week.
Could it even be a case of kidnapping for ransom, or is there more sinister reason for her disappearance?
When a dismembered body, presumed to be that of her boyfriend, is discovered buried in a construction pit in the village of Westham, the indomitable team of DCI Buchanan and DS Street set out to discover why he was killed the whereabouts of Zilini Barazani the missing Mastrani Heiress.
Review :
Mr Willis is a polished writer who knows a thing or two about police procedure. Buchanan's area of operations is in the seaside town of Eastbourne on the Sussex coast of England. His area of expertise is murder. And there is no shortage of that in Eastbourne.
The story kicks off with the discovery of a severed pair of hands discovered in two different locations. To complicate matters, Buchanan is asked to investigate the disappearance of a young woman. The missing heiress is 18 year old Zilini, Barazani, daughter of a wealthy computer program developer working on important government projects. Needless to say the severed hands and the missing heiress are intimately connected. I'll leave the intricacies of the plot for the reader to savour
Mr Willis is a humane and compassionate writer. He shows sympathy not only for the victims, but for the villains too. He understands the complexities of human nature and sees clearly the thin line that separates good from evil. Like all of his other work The Missing Heiress is filled with excitement, humour, tenderness and doubt.
The Missing Heiress is a novel well worth reading.
As usual, Alex Willis tells an intriguing tale in this his latest DCI Jack Buchanan novel, the fifth in the Buchanan series. The story starts with the heiress to a local family dynasty going missing. Pretty soon a pair of dismembered hands turns up. (And I for one immediately jumped to the conclusion that the two events were somehow linked.) The plot continues to thicken with several twists and turns, and each time I think I know where the hands are from (and who is responsible for their dismemberment, and why). And each time I was wrong! It isn't until the last few pages that once again Jack Buchanan and his earstwhile sidekick DI Jill Street solve the case. (And I have to admit that I didn't see where it was going to end and who the culprit was.) A great read!
