The Black Highway by Simon Toyne
English author Simon Toyne is not as well known on this side of the pond but deserves the full attention of any reader who devours taut, puzzling, edge-of-your-seat thrillers with complex plots. His recently published novel The Black Highway with the alternative title Dead Water is the third in a series that began in 2020 featuring protagonist Laughton Rees, a forensic criminology specialist, and Detective Chief Inspector (DCI) Tannahill Khan. They met at and remain attached to the London Metropolitan Police. The novels detail the intricate cases along with their developing personal relationship. Although intended as a series, readers with time constraints can readily enjoy them as standalone novels.
The Thames Doesn’t Give Up Its Dead Quietly
The 215 mile long River Thames flows swift and cold through London with a long tidal stretch of murky silted waters that continues to attract mudlarks who maintain the tradition of scavenging the banks for bits of treasure, frequently revealing evidence of various types of history buried in the gooey mud.
From pre-Roman times to the present bodies dumped therein are often swept quickly out to sea when the tide is high and the current rapid. Simon Toyne informs us in the preface that an average of one body per week is fished out. The Port of London was busiest in the Victorian era when much trade was conducted on the rivers. The proto-Celtic etymology is thought to be “Tamesis” or “Tamēssa” meaning dark and Toyne states that watermen called Old Father Thames The Black Highway.
At shift end on a pitch dark night, DCI Tannahill Khan is called to investigate a gruesome murder. A corpse bereft of head and hands but clad in a well-tailored suit has been found floating near Tower Bridge snagged by a notorious curve in the riverbank branded as “Dead Man’s Hole.” Initial forensic examination reveals the words “P. Brannigan” written in indelible ink above a wrist like a crude tattoo. Alarmingly, this is the street where Laughton Rees and her daughter reside in the penthouse unit inherited from her late father. Gracie has been a troubled teen, still recovering from a suicide attempt which necessitated a partial liver transplant. Laughton and Tannahill would like to begin living together but are concerned about the teen’s lukewarm reception.
A Past That Won’t Stay Buried
On that same evening, prompted by a school assignment to create a family tree, Gracie relentlessly bombards her mother with questions about the father she has never met. Although in the past Laughton has steadfastly refused to divulge his name to spare her daughter embarrassment at school she caves into the demands forcing her to share a closely guarded secret from her own wilder days as a rebellious teen.
Blaming her father for the murder of her mother by a criminal who walked on a technicality, Laughton was fifteen when she ran away from home.
She was living rough in a squat before she became involved with an older man. He was Shelby Facer, a career criminal and part-time pimp who specialized in procuring and turning underage girls. Laughton escaped this fate but became pregnant with Gracie. Her late father, DCI John Rees, who later rose through the ranks, was instrumental in the arrest of Shelby Facer for his involvement in an international drug ring.
Both he and Billy Carver, a confederate aptly named who had worked legitimately with his father in a family butcher shop were given harsh sentences of sixteen years to be served in a Miami, Florida prison.
The police planned sting was termed Operation Henry 8 with six henchmen assigned code names corresponding with King Henry VIII’s wives: Katherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Anne of Cleves, Catherine Howard and Katherine Parr. Drugs, arms dealing to terrorists, large sums of cash and 30-50 million dollars in loose diamonds were commingled in a major bust that went awry. In the police raid, two arms dealers and all the terrorists were shot and killed. It was unclear how much cash the police “recovered” and the diamonds remain unaccounted for sixteen years later.
Facer and Carter have been released from prison: are they older, wiser and reformed or hell-bent on vengeance and retribution? Both were included in the coded names along with a major property developer and political donor supportive of a member of parliament. Oddly, when DCI Khan requests declassification of the Operation Henry 8 files, it is emphatically declined.
When the River Runs Dark, No One Is Safe
Shelby slips by the doorman and shows up at Rees door days after he is released from prison to affirm his good intentions and to meet the daughter he had been unaware of fathering. He is well spoken, sincere and claims he came to warn them to beware of the vengeful Billy Carter. Vulnerable Gracie is eager to establish a relationship with her dad.
The investigation intensifies as the body count rises. To her regret, Laughton had remained estranged from her father and there were but few conversations before his death. She now discovers he had rented a large storage unit in a converted factory building nearly 16 years ago that is filled with hundreds of cold case files, evidence of police corruption as well as many family photographs and mementos.
The events of the past and present are expertly woven together as the excitement and terror rises during the challenging investigation. Simon Toyne alternates the narrative from several points of view using documents written and hidden by the late John Rees and journal accounts of Shelby Facer outlining his feelings, plans and involvement. Old Father Thames flows steadily and darkly carrying evidence and bodies along on the tide. The Black Highway/Dark Water will end unexpectedly but will not disappoint. This is definitely a thriller to place high on a reader’s TBR list!
About Simon Toyne:
Simon Toyne is the author of the internationally bestselling Sanctus trilogy (Sanctus, The Key, and The Tower), The Searcher, The Boy Who Saw, Dark Objects and The Clearing and has worked in British television for more than twenty years. As a writer, director, and producer he’s made several award-winning shows, one of which won a BAFTA. He lives in England with his wife and family, where he is permanently at work on his next novel.
