Silent Running

June 1, 2015
This plodding series launch from Rowson (Shroud of Evil and 10 other DI Andy Horton mysteries) introduces Art Marvik, a former Marine commando and Special Boat Services officer, who’s stuck in a dull consultancy job until two people from his past come to him for help. Ex-Marine Shaun Strathen asks Marvik to locate scientist Ashley Palmer, who has disappeared on the Isle of Wight, Marvik’s home. Navy nurse Charlotte Churley, an old girlfriend of Marvik’s, wants his assistance in proving that imprisoned navy chaplain Terence Blackerman, the father of a wounded Marine she treated, is innocent of the strangulation murder of Esther Shannon 17 years earlier. After Churley goes missing, Det. Supt. Philip Crowder persuades Marvik to investigate Churley’s disappearance—and discover whether Blackerman was framed for Shannon’s murder. Marvik, in turn, asks Strathen to look for a link between Palmer and Churley. Rowson doesn’t generate much momentum, but her damaged hero has enough depth to carry a series.

April 8, 2013
In British author Rowson’s sturdy ninth police procedural featuring Det. Insp. Andy Horton (after 2012’s Death Lies Beneath), Horton investigates the death of naval historian Douglas Spaulding, whose broken body was found at the bottom of a dry dock at the Portsmouth dockyards. Spaulding, who had given a public lecture earlier in the evening, evidently fell from a great height. Horton and Sgt. Cantelli, his competent sidekick, are mystified when their irascible superiors dismiss the case as a suicide. They’re further perplexed when their bosses claim that a marine archeologist, whose body turns up on a private yacht, died of natural causes. A third fatality, the bludgeoning of the last person to see Spaulding alive, is dismissed as a random mugging. Horton suspects a conspiracy, and though warned off the cases, surreptitiously pries on his own. Rowson successfully pilots the complex storyline, filled with wild speculations and a slew of suspects, to a fitting conclusion.

May 1, 2015
Fans of Rowson's DI Andy Horton books will be delighted with her new series featuring former marine commando Art Marvik. Taut thriller rather than British procedural, the first book has Marvik struggling to adapt to civvy street after a demanding stint in the Royal Marines. His first job outside results in his client's death, so, dispirited and restless, he's looking for a change when his former girlfriend Charlotte arrives at his cottage claiming she's being followed. She thinks it's to do with her prison visit to convicted murderer Terence Blackerman to inform him that his son, who was under Charlotte's nursing care, had died. Then Charlotte disappears. Desperate to find her, Marvik is soon drawn into a dangerous web of cover-ups, murder, and blackmail dating back nearly 20 years and involving people at the highest levels of government and industry. A tense, terrifying thrill ride that twists and turns with dizzying speed, combined with a likable, smart, tough, but all too human hero, make this a cracking-good new seriesaction fans need Marvik on their radar.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)