Off Track-Clare Curzon

Off Track
Clare Curzon
Minotaur, Apr 13 2010, $25.95
ISBN: 9780312375324

Lee Barber drives for the Misbourne Line in Thames valley. He dreams of leaving this junker for the modern European express on the content. However, though conditions are foggy, he slightly overshoots the Denham Golf Club Station. Someone named Ince reports him, darkening his career and ending his dreams.

N LA few days later an intoxicated Lee sees a man with a briefcase containing INCE written on it; so he assaults him in a rage. His victim turns out to be microbiologist Piers Egerton who worked for Immunio-Neutralizing Combat Exercise; Piers was meeting reporter Max Harris to expose the horrid research he and others were doing to animals. Soon afterward, Max’s significant other Thames Valley police detective sergeant Rosemary Zyczynski looks for the missing Piers while someone abducts Lee’s five year old daughter Jenny. Everything converges on the Barber home including a corpse.

This is an interesting Thames Valley police procedural though not the strongest of entries as too much coincidence occurs especially with the Harris-Zyczynski connection to the whistle blower and the seemingly uncommon name of INCE starting a series of events. The story line is fast-paced from the moment Lee chokes Piers and never slows down as the lives of several people have gone Off Track.

Harriet Klausner