by Mason, Simon | Crime & mystery Published 06/11/2025 by Quercus Publishing (riverrun) in the United Kingdom as part of the DI Ryan Wilkins Mysteries series Paperback | 352 pages197 x 130 x 24mm | 248g'As great a contribution to the noble British genre of detective fiction as any writer for decades' Stephen Fry'Simon Mason has created crime fiction's most entertaining double act in decades' Mick HerronA SHOCKING DISAPPEARANCEA four-year-old girl goes missing in plain sight outside her nursery in Oxford, a middle-class, affluent area, her mother only a stones-throw away.A TRIGGERING RESPONSERyan Wilkins, one of the youngest ever Detective Inspectors in the Thames Valley force, dishonourably discharged three months ago, watches his former partner DI Ray Wilkins deliver a press conference, confirming a lead.A DARK WEBRay begins to delve deeper, unearthing an underground network of criminal forces in the local area. But while Ray's investigation stalls Ryan brings his unique talents to unofficial and quite illegal inquiries which will bring him into a confrontation with the very officials who have thrown him out of the force.Follow on with Lost and Never Found, the next book in the DI Ryan Wilkins Mysteries, which The Times described as 'Inspector Morse for the 2020s.'What readers are saying about The Broken Afternoon5* 'A thoroughly engrossing crime fiction romp with Ryan Wilkins continuing to be a wonderful creation by the author'5* 'A relentlessly paced police procedural that kept me guessing until near the end'5* 'Super'5* 'Ray and Ryan win again'
