The cyclist

Sullivan's shrewd second procedural featuring neurodivergent detective sergeant George Cross (after The Dentist) opens with Cross being called to the site of a Somerset demolition crew's grisly discovery. When the crew leads Cross to the male corpse wrapped in polythene that they found in an abandoned garage, the meticulous DS deduces that the victim is a cyclist, based largely on his tan lines and "disproportionately muscular thighs." Eventually, Cross's colleagues identify the dead man as Alex Paphides, who had been abusing performance-enhancing drugs while training for a challenging race, and may have gotten himself in hot water in the process. Aiding Cross in investigating Alex's death is his partner Josie Ottey, a single mother who must frequently apologize for Cross's brusqueness and distaste for social pleasantries. Early in the novel, Ottey observes that Cross's empathetic deficiencies make him a good interrogator ("Suspects were unnerved by his demeanour and often made the mistake of letting it encourage them to underestimate him"), and Sullivan brilliantly exploits those same qualities to make Cross a memorable protagonist. Clever plotting, a robust suspect list, and scrupulous fair-play detection add to the fun. This series continues to impress. Agent: Peter Straus, RCW Literary. (Jan.)

An unconventional British sleuth probes the murder of a drug-taking gym rat. DS George Cross and partner DS Josie Ottey of the Somerset and Avon police are called to a construction site to examine a recently discovered corpse. The case is challenging and complicated from the start, beginning with the need to appease an indignant contractor and identify the young victim. Cross, who's on the autism spectrum, exhibits an unflappable nature and Holmesian observational skills that show he's fully up to the task. Noting the victim's low body fat, overdeveloped thighs, distinctive tan lines on his arms and legs, and lack of calluses on his hands, he pegs the man as a cyclist, "possibly professional." The tangled investigative path into Alex Paphides' murder begins at the Avon Cycling Club and proceeds with evocative precision through multiple locations and persons of interest: the gym where he pumped up, a girlfriend who seems to be missing, and the chemist who supplied him with performance-enhancing drugs. Sullivan's second DS Cross mystery deftly combines multiple genre tropes. At heart, it's a police procedural whose focus widens to include Cross' wrangles with his superiors and his personal life, his caring but somewhat formal relationship with his elderly father, and his escape from the pressures of his job by playing the organ at church. Sullivan's omniscient narration shrewdly matches his protagonist's measured, exacting nature, providing both a pace and a distance that will engage the armchair sleuth. Cross' brusque, dispassionate brilliance regularly frustrates Ottey, who's cast in the thankless role of apologist. A compelling character portrait folded into a meticulous mystery. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.