A richly textured procedural with heart, brains, and a surprisingly poetic soul…
Ring’s sixth Urquhart & MacDonald novel digs beneath the cheerful surface of a holiday weekend to uncover a taut, unsettling story of buried grief and moral compromise.It’s a summer holiday in Barrachois: fireworks, a regatta, and the grand opening of Connie Del Barba’s new hotel. But the sleeper train carrying the band is speeding toward town with no one at the controls. By morning, one person is dead. Was it a tragic accident or the perfect cover for something far more sinister? As holiday celebrations surge around them, Urquhart and MacDonald are pulled into a mystery layered with secrets, rivalries, and unresolved grief.
Ring wastes no time reminding us that crime, in his world, is almost always personal, and usually tragic. The joy here isn’t just in the puzzle (though the puzzle is a good one, winding from train diagrams to family trauma to old-fashioned motive), but in the people. Urquhart juggles investigative grit with a kind of melancholy domestic grace. Sandy, clever and unflappable, shines through and through. MacDonald, steady and understated, remains the series’ moral ballast. Ring, a seasoned writer who clearly relishes the texture of small-town life, writes with sensory detail and historical precision. Barrachois feels fully alive. The plotting is intricate and the tone smart. And while the book toys with genre expectations (there’s even a nod to biblical allegory in the title), Ring always pulls the focus back to people. Motives matter, but so do regrets, especially the ones we carry alone.
Readers looking for a propulsive, character-driven mystery with emotional depth and subtle social commentary will find much to admire here.
Grinder
Pub date June 19, 2025
ISBN 978-1069020598
Price $10.22 (USD) Paperback, $4.36 Kindle edition
