This is a new case for Hennessey and Yellich. Five years after Duncan Percival is rendered a vegetable after a vicious attack, he finally dies. It is now a murder investigation and DCI Hennessey and DS Yellich are brought in to renew the evidence and re-interview the suspects, along with DS Thompson Ventnor who worked on the original investigation.
As they delve deeper, bodies start turning up and the links to a criminal gang become clear. But who is the leader of the organization, and who is pulling the strings now that Duncan Percival is dead? Hennessey, Yellich and Ventnor are drawn into York's criminal underworld where grasses are punished and the gruesome Chelsea Smile is the favoured method of retribution...
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Booklist Review
Brit businessman Duncan Percival dies five years after being viciously attacked. His attackers were never found, but now that it's a murder investigation, detectives Hennessey and Yellich draw the case. Then links to other cases appear, murders in which the victims' faces have been slit to form the Chelsea smile. Hennessey and Yellich soon learn that Duncan Percival was the secret head of the local mob. If Percival is dead, who's taken his place at the helm? A solid British police procedural with a plot full of unexpected twists and a pair of protagonists who can play in the same league as any of Britain's top cop duos. --Emily Melton Copyright 2007 Booklist