Blacklight Blue

August 4, 2008
In May’s dark, intense third mystery to feature Scottish forensic scientist Enzo Macleod, Enzo takes on his third cold case described in a book by Parisian journalist Roger Raffin—the murder of a “rent boy” 16 years earlier—but Enzo’s investigation runs into trouble after he’s diagnosed with terminal cancer and he’s framed for murder. Evidently, the rent boy’s killer fears Enzo will solve the crime if he ever gets a chance. May makes the French settings sharply real, while creating a seething tangle of emotional conflicts between Enzo and the people around him. By novel’s end, the overall plot, like the emotional relationships, isn’t really settled, which may feel frustrating—or may hook readers into following the developments of an unusually compelling ongoing saga. Those already familiar with the previous two books in the series, Extraordinary People
(2006) and The Critic
(2007), will be at an advantage.

October 1, 2008
In his third outing (after "Extraordinary People" and "The Critic"), Scottish forensic specialist Enzo MacLeod, who teaches at a university in southwestern France, is investigating a set of cold cases outlined in a book when he becomes victimized by someone who wants to destroy him and all that he holds dear. Enzo scoops up his extended family and gets them to a safe house while he focuses on one case, the murder of a Parisian rent boy, that might be to the key to his troubles. This complicated tale weaves threads of the past into the present, presenting MacLeod with challenges that he could never have foreseen. An engrossing mystery, especially for readers who like their crimes solved in foreign settings.

Copyright 2008 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 15, 2008
Someone is going to great lengths to keep France-based forensic biologist Enzo Macleod from solving old murder cases with new science, as he did in the first two books in this series, Extraordinary People (2006) and The Critic (2007). His daughter, Kristy, is the target of a deadly explosion, the gym operated by daughter Sophies boyfriend is destroyed by arson, and his own life is turned upside down by a bogus diagnosis of terminal cancer and a scheme to frame him for killing a woman friendall to keep him from finding the murderer of a Paris rent boy in 1992. As he attempts to protect his loved ones, Enzo embarks on a cat-and-mouse game with a menacing contract killer whose bizarre background adds twists to the plot. An action-packed climax on a dark mountainside in Auvergne ties up some loose ends but leaves open future threats to Enzos life. Family tensions (notably with Enzos two daughters from different marriages) and the occasional love interest add to the appeal of this canny crime solver.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)