Changes

So the scene is set. There is a secretive research laboratory which one town loves because it provides much needed work and another fears and loathes because it is suspected of illegal pollution of whatever kind might account for the cluster of leukaemia that has seen many of the close-knit families lose a friend or relative. There is a brutal murder. There are anonymous threatening letters. There are gangs. There are beautiful teenage girls dating bad teenage boys. There are small town jealousies. There are small town officials. And lurking underneath it all are foul and filthy secrets.

My advance reading copy of the book heads up the blurb with ''Why haven't you read Brian Freeman yet?'' That is a very good question. The Daily Mail is quoted as saying he is ''as brilliant as Harlan Coben''. I've read that of other authors and discovered they came nowhere near. With Freeman though, it's not short of the mark.