Publisher's Weekly
An English detective has lost his mind and is plunging into madness as this engrossing and fast-reading thriller unfolds. Knowing that Johnny Mays's ''methods'' violate English law as well police policies, partner and boyhood friend Nick Frazier tries to bring him in line. But Mays is adamant that he is England's ''avenging angel,'' and he keeps filling his ''book'' with names of society's ''enemies.'' His paranoid delusions spur him to a vicious car chase that Frazier tries to stop, but his efforts just get him listed in the ''book''; Mays apparently dies in a crash. Having been saved by an unsuspecting samaritan, however, Mays embarks on a mission of vengeance that leaves no doubt that he is alive. Frazier searches for him ''down river,'' back where they grew up, and amid vividly hewn scenes of a coastal village, tries to rein in his far-gone pal and save a woman who had once played a part in each of their lives. The denouement, thanks to Gallagher's ( Oktober ) strong writing and excellent characterizations, is unforgettable.