Det Annie Macpherson 02 - Programmed To Kill

ow in the middle of her six-month exchange with the Westford Connecticut

Police Department, Scottish Detective Annie Macpherson is barely tying

up the loose ends from her last case when a new one appears. The vicious

murder of a local priest has all the marks of a ritualistic attack, but

what is the motive behind it? Before they can answer that, Annie and

her colleague, Detective Dave Ellison, find they have another body on

their hands whose injuries are too similar for it to be coincidence. And

if that wasn’t enough, Annie’s love life has just got more complicated.

Joined by Detective Bronski, the third member of their team, they

find themselves drawn into a statewide investigation into child

pornography. Their lines of inquiry are tangled by parents who want to

take the law into their own hands, and instances of domestic abuse, not

to mention the question of how high the intrigue goes – can they even

trust their own police chief?

In her second Annie Macpherson novel, Barbara Fagan Speake once

again dissects the issues which drive her characters – the potent themes

of love, revenge and moral ambiguity. The twist here is that we also

see into the mind of the murderer, the desire to observe the reactions

of the victims, and the motivation of those who hide dark secrets behind

the face they present to the world.