Kingdom of silence

After a U.S. marshal and her prisoner are gunned down outside of London’s Heathrow Airport before the prisoner can testify against her boyfriend, the head of a violent animal-rights group, Leeds Detective Sergeant Keen Dunliffe doesn’t seem like the right man for the case. But with an American federal agent dead and homegrown terrorists on the loose, Keen’s undercover experience and knowledge of Yorkshire—the terrorists’ backyard—come into play. He’s ordered to head up a sting operation with Rachel Colver, an inexperienced police constable, who may have personal ties that will help her infiltrate the animal-rights group. However, Keen is worried about a plan that puts Rachel in obvious peril. The two hunker down and start working the case from the inside—while at the same time the most widespread outbreak of hoof-and-mouth disease ever to strike the English countryside is decimating livestock. Brutal extremists and police politics collide in a plot involving murder, intimidation, smuggling, and blackmail—with lethal consequences—in Kingdom of Silence, the second mystery in Lee Wood’s richly imagined and superbly nuanced series featuring DS Keen Dunliffe.