Cast Iron: The red-hot penultimate case of the Enzo series (The Enzo Files Book 6)

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That being so his Enzo MacLeod crime thrillers are all based in France where May and his wife have largely based themselves for the last few years. Cast Iron is the seventh book in the Enzo series, following on from Coffin Road. This book, which closes the story of Enzo MacLeod, forensic scientist, and his bet that he would solve 6 cold cases from his adopted homeland of France, was competently written. The descriptions of the French countryside and towns were especially well done. But because this is the last installment of a series and loose ends needed to be tied up, we ended up with a barely credible mess of soap-opera materials. For instance, Enzo had 3 children... no, wait, his daughter may not be his biological daughter...and then, wait, now the suspicion arises that his young son may not be his biological son after all. It boggles the mind that this esteemed professor of forensic science has never thought about doing a simple paternity test to solve these questions. Then it appears that over the course of the series, several attempts have been made on his life, or on that of his loved ones, which seem to have been foiled by others taking a bullet for him, or intervening in some other heroic way. It's just too much! The same is true about Enzo's love life: we hear him mooning over his dead second wife, then about the spoiled relationship with his son's mother, then he muses about an almost-liaison with a police commissioner, and finally he ends up with a beautiful ex-gendarme he met in a previous case and who just shows up on his doorstep and - surprise, surprise, ends up with a bullet in her chest. Too much ! This is like one of those restaurant desserts that piles together chocolate with pecans, caramel, whipped cream, vanilla, cinnamon and a dozen other ingredients, and ends up being a cloying mess.

Cast Iron is the sixth book in the Enzo Macleod Investigation series by Scottish journalist, screenwriter and author, Peter May. After refreshing himself on the details of Roger Raffin’s sixth cold case with him, Enzo heads in the direction of Bordeaux to meet the parents of Lucie Martin, whose unexplained disappearance in 1989 became a murder case when a nearby lake dried up during the drought of 2003, revealing her skeleton. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a free electronic copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.No one was ever convicted of her murder. But now, forensic expert Enzo Macleod is reviewing this stone-cold case - the toughest of those he has been challenged to solve. In this the final of the Enzo McLeod series, the phlegmatic Scot faces the nightmare of every parent whose offspring go missing: he has been targeted in the past and calls on the help of friends. With a superb subplot it is others who join the dots together as McLeod follows lead after lead, mostly to a dead end. Fourteen years later a summer heatwave parches the earth, killing trees and bushes and drying out streams. In the scorched mud and desiccated slime of the lake a fisherman finds a skeleton wearing a bag over its skull. In an elegant apartment in Paris, forensic expert Enzo Macleod pores over the scant evidence of this, the sixth cold case he has been challenged to solve. In taking on this old and seemingly impossible task he will put everything and everyone he holds dear in a peril he could never have imagined. I might have felt very differently about this story had I approached having read the previous episodes. Maybe I’d have found more empathy with Enzo and his entourage. But then again, maybe not. Distinctly average fare, I’m afraid.

Once again I read the latest book in a series, and part of my wonder why on earth that I have not read any of the previous books? Especially since I love Peter May's Lewis trilogy. Detective Li Yan senses a conspiracy surrounding the fatalities, and finds a female athlete willing to talk. But she will only trust one person: Li's fiancée, Margaret Campbell.Peter May has written a suspenseful and detailed story with a plethora of suspects." - New York Journal of Books Joining him in his search for answers are an assortment of friends, family and professionals within the police community at large, though often he is on his own. There is usually a beautiful woman nearby as Enzo seems powerless to resist the charms of a pretty face (or sensuous walk). In this final book of the series, the usual elements are present but with some changes that allow completion of various plot lines. He is nearing the end of the challenge but now is increasingly under threat from the unknown person who tried to kill him twice before. Obviously he must be close to something important....but what? In 2003, the skeleton of a young woman is recovered from a dry riverbed in France, but her murder remains unsolved. Until the cold case falls into the hands of forensic expert Enzo McLeod, who has vowed to solve six cold cases as part of a bet with his son-in-law, journalist Roger Raffin. But the closer Enzo gets to uncovering the truth, the more dangerous the game becomes, and soon he finds that his own family is in danger from people who will stop at nothing to keep the truth hidden. In the third of the critically acclaimed China thrillers, Li Yan and Margaret Campbell travel to Shanghai: where a new ally, and a new enemy, await.

This novel is the sixth in Peter May’s Enzo series, featuring Enzo McLeod, a half Italian, half Scottish forensic expert who undertakes to investigate a series of cold cases for a bet. Enzo now lives in France, teaching forensic science in Toulouse. He has a complex family life, with several ex-lovers scattered around France, as well as a daughter, step-daughter and grandchild and an infant son with one of his ex-lovers. His current cold case features a young woman, Lucie Martin, who disappeared in 1989, with her body later found fourteen years later on the dried up edges of a lake during a long drought. At the time that she disappeared, she was working for an organization that helped released prisoners reenter society and had been helping a man who would later be convicted of murdering three prostitutes. Lucie’s family have always believed that this man, Régis Blanc was responsible for her murder. However, Régis claims that he didn’t murder Lucie, so Enzo has his work cut out trying to investigate what really happened all those years ago. I'd like to thank Netgalley and Quercus Books for an advance copy of Cast Iron, the sixth and final (so far) novel in the Enzo Macleod series. DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Hachette Australia, Quercus via NetGalley for providing a digital ARC of Cast Iron by Peter May for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.Detective Li Yan is determined to discover just how one of the victims in particular, an American diplomat, became caught up in the slaying. And he is arguably even more determined to have nothing to do with Campbell. Earlier this year I had the pleasure of meeting Peter May here in New Zealand and I was able to get a sense of his approach to writing. Foremost among my impressions is that he is meticulous when it comes to research and makes sure he has first hand knowledge of the locations in which his books are set, along with detailed research when a specialist aspect of the story is required. I think that Peter May really have a talent for creating interesting characters and the Scottish-Italian Enzo Macload is a really fascinating character. He is a very good forensic expert with a very messy family situation. A baby with a woman that seems to loathe him (for some unknown reason), two daughters, Kristy who has a child with Raffin and Sophie who is not really his daughter after they found out that Enzo's ex-wife had an affair with his best friend. So, Enzo must also deal with a lot of personal stuff during the books progress. Starred Review. May expertly plants nicely misleading red herrings; every time the reader thinks the plot will fall into predictability, the ground shifts and the direction changes. The end comes as a satisfying surprise, built as it is on clues that were subtly in place all along." - Publishers Weekly

The Beijing Ripper makes a personal vendetta against Detective Li Yan in the sixth and final episode in the China series He watched the cars leave one after the other, headlights following tail lights down the hill, before gradually being swallowed by the night and the mist that was rising from the river and the lake. They carried their pain off into the darkness, where it would stay with them for the rest of their lives. There was nothing, he was very nearly certain, that he could do for any of them.I really enjoyed this book. I place it in the 'couldn't put it down' category, and 'more please' Mr May. Enzo a professor of forensics in France has a well-earned reputation for solving the unsolvable cases, but finds a flaw in the original investigation. Little does he realise that he is about to open a Pandora’s box of hell on his family, and that endangers the lives of his daughters. It is his knowledge and belief that the Bordeaux Six and the murder of three prostitutes have been ascribed to the convicted killer Regis Blanc. In 1989 the body of twenty year old Lucie Martin was dumped into a lake in Western France. Fourteen years later, because of a drought, her remains were discovered - a skeleton with a bag over her head. The Chinese police have once more been forced to enlist the services of American forensic pathologist Margaret Campbell: this time to investigate a series of four horrific ritual executions that have taken place in Beijing. When he meets Blanc in Lannemezan Prison, he becomes intrigued by the motive for the three murders for which this enigmatic man was incarcerated. But then he is distracted by his younger daughter. And in the crisis that follows, Enzo, true to form, has four women falling over themselves to assist in any way they can.