When Harry Duncan’s ex-wife, U.S. Attorney Ellen Leicester, called him to meet, he knew it would be trouble. He just didn’t know how much.

Duncan, a former cop in Chicago, as well as a couple of other places, knows how the bad guys think. He’s been hired at times as a consultant by government agencies, so his name has ended up on a list of acceptable independent contractors for her to hire. And she needs an independent contractor.

She has heard rumblings of crimes being committed in small towns in the Midwest. Burglaries, extortion, even a couple of murders. She’s thinking that maybe someone is trying to start an organized crime syndicate outside of Chicago, and she needs some proof before she can call in the FBI or the state police to investigate. That’s where Harry comes in.

Duncan decides to take the job and packs up to head out of town. He drives through several small towns on the Ash River in Indiana, ending up at a bar named The Elbow Room for a burger. He barely has a chance to try the beer and eat his lunch before a couple of guys show up threatening to tow his car. They claim to be working for the police, but Duncan sees through them immediately. He overpowers them and cuffs them, putting them in the backseat of his car to deliver to the Indiana State Police.

Later, he returns to the bar to pay his tab to the bartender and owner, Renee Parkman, certain that he is in the right place and that there is clearly an issue there. He does more research on the town of Parkman’s Elbow, and he thinks that The Elbow Room is exactly the type of bar that a crime syndicate would target for extortion. And sure enough, as Duncan sits in the restaurant one evening, three men come in and sit at the bar. He’s able to persuade them to leave without taking of the bar’s money (with some help from the local police), but he anticipates trouble later.

Later the night they were released from jail, Duncan is prepared when the three men show up at Renee’s house. He waits for two of them to head to her door with the gasoline before anchoring their getaway car to a big tree in her yard. When the getaway driver tries to drive away, his brand new car is snagged, pulled to pieces, and then the tree falls on it. The fire department is called out to put out the car fire, while the house is unharmed.

Duncan feels good about his work so far, and then he gets the ransom call. It’s from Renee’s number. She’s been taken and needs cash for the kidnappers, or they will kill her and maybe hurt her in other ways as well. Figuring out where she’s being kept and staging a rescue only adds to his information on how determined and resourceful this new crime syndicate is. But it doesn’t show him who the leader is. He’ll have to follow the trail back to Chicago for that.

When he puts together all of his files and photos, recorded carefully into notebooks he calls Murder Books, he wants to hand them all off to Ellen. There is clearly something happening, and it deserves a team of investigators. He sets up a handoff for her, in the parking lot of a public beach, after dark. Ellen resists, wanting him to keep investigating, but Duncan wants out. But he keeps thinking it still feels unfinished, as he watches her drive away with all his files.

He’s not the only one who feels things are unfinished, as the bullet that rips through the passenger side window attests.

It’s clear that Duncan won’t be completely finished with this investigation until the leader is taken down or Harry is dead. But which will it be?

Murder Book is a smart suspenseful thriller from Edgar-award-winning author Thomas Perry. The pages spark with action sequences, and his characters all have secrets and agendas that give them depth. Duncan’s wry statements and his understanding of the criminal mind offers an enlightening view of investigations, and watching him put together the puzzle piece by piece is fascinating.

I really enjoyed Murder Book. I’ll be honest—it’s been a while since I’ve gone for a darker mystery, but this was a good one for me to jump into. It reminded me of all the best procedurals I’ve read in the past—the perseverance of the hero, the way he uses his intelligence to out-fight the villains, and the acerbic humor that makes him human. If you’re stuck waiting for the next Reacher book or wanting a smart procedural about someone not as trapped by all those pesky laws as an officer or a fed, then Murder Book may just be the book you’ve been waiting for.

Egalleys for Murder Book were provided by Mysterious Press through NetGalley, with many thanks.