Changes

We're in Nova Scotia in the Canadian Maritimes and a woman is out jogging when she makes an horrific discovery - bodies, dismembered, burnt. The Detective Sergeant sent to investigate this crime is Natalya Stone, a black American police officer originally from Chicago. Local constable Zev Arendt - Jewish and gay - is assigned to assist her. Zev is intelligent and capable and keen to learn. Natalya is a little world weary but blunt and direct and terrifically good at her job. The small town of Feckless Bay is probably not ready for her - 'Murder's not an entertainment. It's filthy, malodorous'' she says to ZevcZev, when he can't hold his stomach at the crime scene.

Very quickly, the detectives realise that these murders, and others, are likely the work of a serial killer and probably motivated by hate. But all their leads go nowhere and the case proves hard to solve. Along the way, Natalya tutors Zevc Zev in the skills a detective needs and the pair discuss the endemic racism, anti-semitism and homophobia they have encountered in both the US and Canada, as even their investigation throws up countless examples.

''The Worst Dogs'' is a very satisfying read. The prose flows beautifully and with a poetic rhythm that draws you in. The mystery is a masterclass in painstaking investigative and interrogation techniques. And the relationship between Natalya and Zevc Zev is wonderful to read - by turns prickly and supportive, educative and friendly. And the political discussion underpinning it all is an important one - hate crime isn't the only form of hate minorities encounter, something we should all think about and not just when horrific crimes occur. The plotting is wonderful as it twists and turns through wasted lead after wasted lead but, in the end, Natalya's methods, and her teaching of them, break the case.