The Carrier

In the latest Zailor and Waterhouse mystery (after 2013's Kind of Cruel), Hannah dissects the complexities of loyalty. Tim Breary is happy to confess to the murder of his wife, Francine, and, even to supply evidence to the police. He just won't give them a motive. Meanwhile, brilliant inventor Gaby Struthers is stranded in Germany for the night with a horrifyingly provincial young woman, Lauren. In the midst of her xenophobic non sequiturs, Lauren lets slip something about an innocent man going to prison. Gaby's analytical mind and sense of ethics won't let that stand, especially when she finds out the man is Tim, her former lover. But why would Tim confess so readily? And why would his closest friends corroborate his guilt? Hannah simply overstuffs the story this time around. Letters to Francine by her closest "friends" are the most successful devices, but the multitude of narrators and flimsy reasoning throughout deplete their strength. The psychological aspects of the crime are intriguing, but Zailor and Waterhouse slow the whole thing down with office politics and loose threads.