A Song for the Brokenhearted

by William Shaw

Overview

The earthshaking decade of the 1960s comes to a sweeping and dangerous close, as William Shaw's detective duo battle the most powerful members of London society.

After being wounded in the line of duty, Detective Sergeant Breen recuperates on the family farm of his former partner, Helen Tozer. To fill the long and empty hours, he reviews the open case file for a murder that has haunted Helen for years: that of her younger sister. Breen discovers that the teenage victim had been having a secret affair with James Fletchet, the son of an affluent local landowner, celebrated for his service in Kenya during the Mau Mau Uprising.

Breen and Tozer return to London's Criminal Investigation Division, where their questions about Fletchet's past are met with resistance and suspicion. The deeper they probe, the more people they implicate in their investigation. New Scotland Yard doesn't look kindly upon breaking rank, and it's only a matter of time before Breen and Tozer make themselves a target.

Shaw's stirring, heartfelt and diabolically plotted mystery series is everything a reader looks for: enveloping, invigorating, and wonderfully entertaining.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780316246910
Publisher:	Little, Brown and Company
Publication date:	01/19/2016
Series:	A Breen and Tozer Mystery , #3
Pages:	416
Sales rank:	1,055,848
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.40(h) x 1.50(d)

About the Author

William Shaw is an award-winning music journalist and the author of several non-fiction books including Westsiders: Stories of the Boys in the Hood. Prior to becoming a crime writer, he worked at the post-punk magazine ZigZag and a journalist for The Observer, The New York Times, Wired, Arena, and The Face. He lives in Sussex, England.

Editorial Reviews

★ 11/23/2015
Set in 1969, British author Shaw’s superb conclusion to his crime trilogy (following 2015’s The Kings of London) finds the recently wounded Det. Sgt. Cathal “Paddy” Breen convalescing at the family farm of his former police partner, Helen Tozer, in Devon. Breen, eager to get back to police work, agrees, unofficially, to look into the murder of Helen’s 16-year-old sister, Alexandra, which occurred almost five years earlier, when it’s discovered that Alexandra had an affair with a wealthy—and married—peer of the realm. Helen and Breen uncover a plot that leads to Africa during the Kenya Emergency, a real event that involved the torture and murder of those suspected of being part of the Mau Mau uprising. Shaw picks up multiple plot threads, expertly weaving them into a complex story that explores the darkest parts of the human psyche and the erosion of one man’s humanity, while balancing the delicate and awkwardly sweet relationship between the traditional Breen and decidedly untraditional Helen, as well as her relationship with her still grieving parents. Shaw perfectly captures the end of an uneasy era, and the utterly terrifying final scene will leave readers breathless. Agent: Karolina Sutton, Curtis Brown. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

"Superb . . . Shaw picks up multiple plot threads, expertly weaving them into a complex story . . . Shaw perfectly captures the end of an uneasy era, and the utterly terrifying final scene will leave readers breathless."—Publishers Weekly (starred)

"Gripping . . . Echoes Robert Galbraith's crime novels, and neither author suffers by the comparison. This is a totally engaging series."—Library Journal (starred review)

"Shaw raises the bar with each entry in this series. . . . A genre-bending psychological thriller, perfect for those who like Elizabeth George's Lynley novels."—Booklist (starred review)

"Thoroughly gripping . . . Shaw draws incisive attention to little-known historical events and crafts a wholly satisfying thriller."—Kirkus Reviews

"A first-rate mystery and a compelling and accurate portrait of a changing society"—Laura Wilson, The Guardian [UK]

"Combines nostalgic period detail with an emotional intensity found only in the very best crime fiction."—The Sunday Times [UK]

"A proper conspiracy thriller . . . William Shaw delivers a perfect motive in the third of his excellent Breen and Tozer mysteries . . . It involves real history, real people, real crimes with real consequence."—Jeff Noon, Spectator [UK]

From the Publisher

2015-11-03
A cold case involving a former police officer's sister becomes linked to a current series of gruesome murders in 1969 London. After taking a bullet to the shoulder in The Kings of London (2015), DS Cathal "Paddy" Breen recuperates in the Devon countryside with ex-DC Helen Tozer, his onetime colleague who left the police to help out on her family farm. Going slowly stir crazy without his work and the hustle of London, Breen distracts himself by unofficially looking into the unsolved case that's haunted Helen for five years: the rape and murder of her 16-year-old sister, Alexandra. Breen discovers missing pages in the police files and learns that there was a coverup involving a sergeant who's conveniently since transferred to the Met's Drug Squad and a wealthy landowner, James Fletchet, who was having a secret affair with Alexandra. Returning to London for the full story, Breen looks up his old friend DS John Carmichael, also part of the Drug Squad, who tells him that the former Devon copper, Sgt. Bill Milkwood, is the golden boy of the squad. As Breen digs deeper, uncovering potential ties between the years Milkwood and Fletchet spent in Kenya during the 1950s and the bloody times known as the Emergency and Alexandra's murder, Milkwood goes missing, and Breen fears that whoever killed Helen's sister is at it again. Despite the fact that he's on sick leave for most of the novel, Breen is the most active, engaged, and compelling that he's been thus far in the series. In this conclusion to a thoroughly gripping trilogy, Shaw draws incisive attention to little-known historical events and crafts a wholly satisfying thriller.

Kirkus Reviews