"Here was that law of nature that gathers up the indiscretions you've left behind and strews them in front of you."

This is the second in the Nick Belsen detective series. I read the first Hollow Man a few years ago, and really liked it. This one, not so much.

Nick Belsen is an amoral, extremely unprincipled, even corrupt London detective. He seems to get away with a lot, although he also always seems on the verge of getting caught, and is definitely on the edge financially.

In this entry, Nick discovers a series of what appear to be bomb shelters or government facilities in underground London, left over after WW II and apparently abandoned. He finds certain goods in some of them, and begins to surmise they may be in use for some sort of criminal enterprise. He decides to bring a date, a woman he barely knows, down to one of the shelters for some champagne and who knows what else. They've barely begun to sip their champagne when Nick turns around, and when he turns back his date has disappeared. Frantically searching the tunnels he's unable to find her. He's afraid to report her as missing because if something has happened to her, he fears being blamed.

I think there's a good story here, but it became more and more convoluted as more and more tunnels, facilities and locations were discovered. I had a hard time keeping track geographically of where we were in London and how things connected. The criminal enterprise(s) didn't always make sense to me either. A person more familiar with the underground facilities described (at least some of them are real), might enjoy this more than I did.

2 stars ( )

If you like your stories to go at a fast pace, this is the book for you. D.C. Nick Belsey based in Hampstead is the good cop/bad cop rolled into one and with a chequered past. He is drawn into an intriguing investigation which he discovers has its roots in an incident over 30 years in the past, involving the disused underground railway tunnels, bomb shelters and command centres beneath the London streets. This early part of the book is really gripping, harking back to the Cold War era and fears for survival. One review that I read compared it to John le Carre, but I felt that the final revelations fell away somewhat, being closer to a cinematic action-packed James Bond rather than the meticulous planning and calm of George Smiley.

4.5 out of 5 - more TK. ( )

4.5 out of 5 - more TK. ( )

Inspector Nick Belsey chases a man who "disappears" after being trapped in a London cul-de-sac. He soon discovers a underground system of shelters built in WWII. With him is his girlfriend. She goes missing in the darkness. Thence ensues a rather long complicated tale involving a WWII secret government agency, a shrink, his patient, Nick's former girlfriend who turns up as his new boss. I thought it was a little over long but well plotted and written, with a few too many rabbit out of hat twists for my taste. ( )