Just finished Borderlands by LJ Ross, Book 14 in the DCI Ryan series. As always in a DCI Ryan story, this story features a stunning setting in Northumberland in the United Kingdom. This time the primary setting is the Otterburn Training Area, a military facility in the Northumberland National Park. The story highlighted the Cheviots, a range of rolling hills straddling the Anglo-Scottish border between Northumberland and the Scottish Borders.
This story features two parallel, related arcs. One is focused around a death that occures during a live fire exercise on the military base that is discovered to be a murder and a second related death that also turns out to be a murder. The second is a series of explosions targeting religious institutions and public features. While Ross blends the story arcs well and also does some real development of the primary characters, the development of the storyline of the person who committed the murders and the group responsible for the hate crimes was shallow compared to earlier books in the series.
Borderlands
By LJ Ross
When the gods made man, they made a weapon…
After uncovering a fresh wave of corruption within the ranks of Northumbria CID, Detective Chief Inspector Ryan was looking forward to an uneventful summer. But, when a young woman is shot dead on the remote army ranges of the Northumberland National Park, Ryan is called in to investigate.
Meanwhile, violent crimes are being committed across sites of historic importance in the North East, the perpetrator leaving only a graffitied symbol as their calling card. As the body count rises, Ryan and his team must unravel the mystery behind its meaning – before it’s too late…
Published October 1, 2019
249 pages (print)