The Final Beat of the Drum
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
DCI Monika Paniatowski is forced to think the unthinkable: could a good friend and long-standing colleague be guilty of murder?
"Spencer gives Monika Paniatowski the send-off she richly deserves" - Kirkus Reviews Starred Review
On the day of her official retirement from the Force, DCI Monika Paniatowski looks at the two men and one woman who are no longer her team and thinks: Whatever the future holds, I will always be proud of you. She raises a toast. And just like that, her career as a homicide detective is over.
Then, fifteen years later, Monika's former sergeant, Kate Meadows, makes a terrible mistake.
Monika doesn't hesitate when Kate turns to her for help. She owes her, and she can hardly let her old friend go down for a crime she didn't commit.
But as Monika gets deeper into the investigation, she's forced to ask herself the unthinkable: is Kate really innocent, or is she helping her old friend get away with murder?
Packed with twists that will make you gasp out loud, the fifteenth - and final - DCI Monika Paniatowski mystery is a stunning conclusion to the long-running series. If you haven't met Monika yet, you're in for a treat.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
British author Spencer's superior 15th and final outing for Lancashire Det. Chief Insp. Monika Paniatowski (after 2021's Poison) makes the most of a classic procedural trope—the veteran copper wondering whether long-standing trust in a colleague has been misplaced. In 1985, Paniatowski is forced to retire after decades on the job following an administrative reorganization. Her unsought retirement is busy, with her time spent helping several charitable causes and giving lectures at schools. Then in 2000, her old detective sergeant, Kate Meadows, now a warden at a battered women's shelter, becomes the prime suspect in the murder of Andrew Lofthouse, a man viewed as the possible next mayor of Whitebridge. Lofthouse, a wife abuser, was found hanging from a bannister. Paniatowski agrees to help Meadows, but comes to question whether she really knows her friend, who "gave the impression that butter wouldn't melt in her mouth, but those who crossed her quickly learned that she had a gaze intent enough to strip away skin." Spencer has made Paniatowski, originally a supporting player in another series, a memorable and complex creation in her own right. Fans of Lynda La Plante's Jane Tennison will be pleased.
