Many thanks to Rebecca Collins and Hobeck Books for the advance copy of "The Reckoning" for review. "The Reckoning" is Book 5 in the Glasgow Southside Crime Series
Because I'm so passionate about the subject, I'd like to share Hobeck's AI policy as it appears on their home page.
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One of the definitions of "reckoning" is "a settling of accounts". Such a dry phrase, but not in Maureen Myant's "The Reckoning". Her ruthless and methodical killer is settling accounts as part of an implacable revenge scenario. Myant takes the stakes higher with her central character, who commits horrific acts in pursuit of what could be called justice.
Returning character Detective Superintendent Mark Nicholson Is currently suspended from the CID while under investigation for "signs of corruption". (a storyline from a previous book in the series). In spite of his unwanted respite from work, he's still got a lot to cope with.
Nicholson has two children with his ex-wife Karen, Oscar and Emma. He cheated on Karen repeatedly and Gus, who lives with his father, was the result of one of Nicholson's affairs. (Gus' mother Suzanne took off. She sends money now and then but never contacts him or asks about her son.) When Karen found out about his affairs, she had a "revenge" one-night stand which resulted in a daughter, Sophie. To say that Nicholson carries family baggage would be a gross understatement.
To keep busy during his suspension, he's focusing on his young son Gus and renovating his apartment. What he really wants is to be cleared so he can get back to work. His return is not far off.
Myant doesn't waste any time leading us to the first body. Late one night, a drunk man relieving himself in a dingy lane discovers a woman, lying on the ground with a syringe in her hand. He calls the police and then notices something near the body:
shone it down on her. The words were printed out, in block capitals:
A MOTHER IS DISGRACED BY A NEGLECTED CHILD."
He re-thinks his decision to stay until the police get there, since they'll most likely look at him as a suspect. Having given the operator a false name, he leaves the scene.
The second victim isn't far behind. Three weeks later, Russell Adams is awoken by his daughter Ellie. She's scared because she hears a man at their apartment door, thumping on it and cursing. The worried father opens the door to find a man lying on in the hallway with a pool of blood around his head. He's alive, so Russell dials 999 for police and emergency services. When the officers arrive, they discover the man has no ID, cards, phone or money. He does manage to wake up long enough to gasp out, "Isaiah Tenfrey." A most unusual name, and as it turns out, not a name at all.
Given his state of mind, Nicholson is grateful to get a call from his boss, DI Alex Scrimgeour. He's been cleared of the corruption charge and is back on the team. The force is going to need all the help they can get, because the man found by Russell Adams outside his door has died. The examiner determined that he was killed by a blow with a blunt object and had something carved onto his forehead. Since the victim also showed signs of having been restrained, they conclude that he somehow escaped from a captor.
After finding no search results for the name "Isaiah Tenfrey", Nicholson realizes that the words the victim gasped out don't refer to a name. Nicholson's colleague Megan reaches the same conclusion about the characters carved into the man's forehead: They both refer to a Bible verse, Isaiah 10:3:
The Biblical verse is a clue to the killer, and we begin to find out more when the book turns to an unnamed narrator. She's a young girl who is being taken by a social worker to live in a group children's home. Separated from her two sisters for the first time, naturally she's frightened and lonely.
The only thing that cheers her up is the thought of meeting her benefactor and the home's owner, Mr. Simpson. He's the man on the panel who recommended that she be sent to his facility. She hopes that this man will be kind, and reunite her with sisters, left in a foster home. Her dreams are crushed on the first night, when Mr. Simpson visits her in her room. "You'll do nicely" he grins, and her childhood is over forever.
The chapters narrated by the girl are so well-written that they're difficult to read. Although Myant doesn't go into intrusive detail or linger on disturbing scenes, we know exactly what is happening. She's the consequence of a system that, seemingly well-intentioned, looks away from neglect, abuse and trauma.
Back at police headquarters, the team is still trying to identify the body found in the hallway in the apartment building. They've sent out a sketch, minus the letters on the forehead since they want to keep that detail under wraps for now. They have no luck until a woman calls to say that her husband, Roderick "Roddy" Simpson, has been missing since he left on a business trip. She says that he's a "dead ringer" for the artist's sketch, a decidedly odd way for a woman to react to the news that her husband may actually be dead. Nicholson and Constable Ryan McDonald pay her a visit. Margaret Simpson turns out to be a very strange woman indeed; impossible to read. She looks as "well-preserved as if she had been dipped in aspic" and shows no emotion of any kind about her husband's death.
When asked about their business interests, Mrs. Simpson tells them that she and Roddy co-own the Lilac Trees Care Company. They operate a number of senior homes and a children's care home. She maintains that the businesses can't be connected to Roddy's death, since they never have any complaints. This is, to say the least, implausible. Everybody knows that care homes regularly get complaints from residents and relatives. They suspect that Mrs. Simpson is lying, and they are absolutely right.
Nicholson is frantically juggling the demands of the case and his complicated family life. When prompted by his boss, he realizes that he hasn't heard from Gus' mom in a very long time. Since she sends money pretty regularly, he's shocked to realize it's been almost six months, so he goes to her studio. He sees a wooden box with one of those "in the event of my death" notes on it. Now he's obsessing that his son's mother might be dead, and hesitating about opening the box.
At work, Nicholson and DI Megan begin reading letters sent to the senior homes owned by the Simpsons. They both find suspicious similarities in the positive ones, which are definitely faked. When they discover that Mrs. Simpson is having an affair, it doesn't help her case. What might help is a Biblical quotation they found in the file, scrawled on a piece of paper, that mentions "the day of calamity". Finally, they've found a link to the messages on Roddy's body.
Unfortunately, this discovery does nothing to stop the murders. Emily Stephens is found in a bungalow, covered in blood. She's been stabbed numerous times. No Biblical message is found, but the timing suggests it's a related death. Then the body of a social worker reported missing by her husband, Patricia Scanlon, is found with letters carved into her forehead. Nicholson and team have to find a link between Roddy, Emily, Patricia (and others to come) but they're at a loss. If sins are being avenged, someone very smart and very damaged is acting as judge and executioner.
What I appreciated most about "The Reckoning" is the way Myant uses the traditional serial killer plot to shine a light on how society fails its children. No single person is guilty and in the killer's mind, all accounts must be settled. The book draws a jarring contrast between the girl's childhood and Nicholson's deep concern for his own children. Even though his family is a lot to handle for a single father, he's determined to give all of his kids a good life. Unfortunately, not all children are so lucky.
"The Reckoning" works well as a stand-alone. Since I liked the recurring characters from the Glasgow Southside Crime Series, I'll check out the other books. From an independent bookstore of course!
so worked as a teacher and an Open University associate lecturer. She is a graduate of the prestigious University of Glasgow MLitt in creative writing course. She also has a PhD in creative writing. Her first novel The Search was published by Alma Books and was translated into Spanish, Dutch and Turkish. It was longlisted for the Waverton Good Read Award and was one of the books chosen to be read for the Festival du premier roman de Chambéry. Maureen lives in Glasgow with her husband. She has three grownup children and six grandchildren who love to beat her at Bananagrams. Maureen's first Hobeck book, The Confession, published in 2022 and there have been four books since. Maureen has also published a standalone psychological thriller with Hobeck, What Lies Beneath.
Please buy/order "The Reckoning" from your local independent bookstore, or go to bookshop.org and order there. They now offer ebooks as well.
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