Flawed

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"You can waste a lot of time looking . . . or you can pay me to find it for you." So goes the slogan of Brodie Farrell's one-woman detective agency. Although Brodie has made some surprising---and dangerous---discoveries while working as a modern-day treasure hunter, none of them has turned her life upside down in quite the way that her unexpected pregnancy does. The timing is particularly awkward because Brodie has recently separated from her partner, the prickly Detective Superintendent Jack Deacon. To complicate matters further, Detective Inspector Alix Hyde has set her sights on Deacon while simultaneously trailing a mysterious criminal---and one-time friend of Deacon's---Terry Walsh, who has a habit of springing surprises of his own.As ever, Brodie's best friend, Daniel Hood, will do anything to help her---even taking a leave from his beloved teaching job so that he can look after her business while she takes care of the baby. But soon Daniel is preoccupied with the well-being of young Noah Selkirk, who seems to be collecting more bruises than is reasonable even for a twelve-year-old boy, and is strangely linked to the Walsh case as well. . . . As their entanglements weave together in complex patterns, all of the parties have to face the consequences of their own mistakes. But it's the flaws that make all of us human---and perhaps that ultimately make us stronger.From Publishers WeeklyIn Bannister's emotionally weighty seventh Brodie Farrell mystery (after 2006's Requiem for a Dealer), Farrell panics when her unexpected pregnancy threatens the continued success of her business—Looking for Something?—an eclectic problem-solving agency in Dimmock, England. One of her paramours, mathematics teacher Daniel Hood, delays his return to the classroom to serve as her assistant and eventual caretaker of the company. When a former student happens by, Hood soon determines that the boy is being beaten at home and quickly identifies his father, affluent and powerful attorney Adam Selkirk, as the guilty party. The bulk of the plot centers on Hood's amateurish efforts to intervene in the dysfunctional Selkirk family and Farrell's conflicted attitude toward the men in her life. Readers will be most satisfied if they approach this as a novel that happens to involve a criminal investigation, an impression enhanced by Bannister's quiet prose style and emphasis on relationships. (Sept.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From BooklistBannister's latest Brodie Farrell mystery is chockablock with plots, subplots, and sub-subplots. But Bannister skilfully weaves the disparate story lines together and offers up an intriguing, thoroughly entertaining read. When Brodie discovers she's pregnant with the child of her former lover, Detective Superintendent Jack Deacon, she's shocked and overwhelmed. Brodie's friend, math teacher Daniel Hood, steps in to support Brodie, which he's more than willing to do since he's been secretly in love with her for years. Brodie's ex-lover Jack faces his own problems: Detective Inspector Alix Hyde from the Organized Crime Agency is sent in to bring down local Mob boss Terry Walsh. Nailing Walsh could be Alix's ticket to her much-desired promotion, and she doesn't care who she steps on (Jack), insults (Jack), or uses to get what she wants (Jack, again). But the most poignant subplot focuses on Daniel's discovery that one of his former students is being abused by his father, a high-powered London lawyer. A masterfully written story that is as provocative as it is engaging. Melton, Emily