OTHER PEOPLE'S HOUSES

A spate of robberies collides with murders past and present in Mackintosh's solid third outing for Welsh Det. Constable Ffion Morgan (after A Game of Lies). When a woman is found dead in a kayak on the bank of the Awen River, near the border between Wales and England, Ffion's superiors assign her the case. At the same time, Ffion's boyfriend, Det. Sgt. Leo Brady, is looking into a series of burglaries just across the water in an exclusive Tottenham neighborhood called the Hill, where his social climbing ex-wife lives alongside influential bankers, professional soccer players, and bored housewives. While the lovers work on their respective cases, Ffion ravenously consumes the latest season of the popular true crime podcast Without Conviction, which covers a gruesome decade-old double homicide that went cold--and might hold key information about Ffion's current investigation. Mackintosh smoothly braids her three main plot threads, infusing the action with humor and surprising sweetness. Though it's not quite as ambitious as previous installments, mystery readers of all stripes will find something to like. (Sept.)