Description: Interpol have tried and failed to find her. Now the combined forces of Scotland Yard and MI5 must try the impossible to prevent a major international incident. Dominic Elder carries her autograph wherever he goes. Witch is his passion, his obsession. And being retired is no bar to his willingness to restart the hunt. MI5 know that the man who wrote the Witch file is the key to catching their quarry. But the truth isn’t easy to spot. And it is only when an MI5 novice and his French counterpart piece together the smallest of clues, that Witch suddenly looks vulnerable.

Verdict: Creator of the Inspector Rebus novels and the number-one-selling mystery author in Great Britain, Rankin features a fresh dossier of detectives in this gritty, multilayered yarn about an ingenious femme fatale. When two ships sink on the same night - one near Folkestone, England, the other off Calais, France - retired intelligence technician Dominic Elder fears the return of his former nemesis, Witch, a crafty, cold-blooded assassin who slips in and out of foreign countries without a ripple of evidence in her wake. Rankin displays his knack for crackling dialogue as Scotland Yard Special Branch detectives Doyle and Greenleaf and neophyte intelligence technician Barclay compete for clues to Witch's whereabouts! That all said, Rankin piles on lots of absorbing assassin and police procedural sleuthing, but it's all in pursuit of a routine case come the final bend. Give this a read though as it WILL keep you entranced nevertheless.
Reviewed by Kyle Stevens