He began two years alone with The Bone Field, followed that with The Hanged Man and has finished the series with Die Alone.
The body of a missing girl turn up in the fields of a posh school more than twenty years after she disappeared.
Thus begins a story about a criminal gang with a turnover of more than a billion pounds, another missing girl, the National Crime Agency, several murders, people smuggling, incest, drug dealing, prostitution and almost every crime you can think of.
DI Ray Mason who Kernick introduced in The Witness is approached by the boyfriend of the disappeared girl and his lawyer but before Mason can get the full story, they are both murdered.
Mason, an independently wealthy maverick cop is on the case and he is determined to bring down the crime family.
Things don’t go to plan and by the time Die Alone begins he is in prison for murder.
The incarceration has forced his separation from another disgraced ex-cop Tina Boyd who is working as a private investigator since being kicked out of the force.
It’s Tina’s 11th appearance in a Kernick book and Die Alone also sees the return of quite a few characters from the author’s other works.
Ray is sprung from prison by people who tell him they work for the security services.
One of the killers from the previous books has risen up the greasy pole and is likely to become Prime Minister.
Kill him and Ray will be given a new identity and smuggled abroad.
But things don’t go to plan and Ray is soon on the run again and there is only one person he can trust.
Although the idea is that each book of the trilogy is a standalone title, it is probably best that you read them in order – it gives you more of an insight into Ray and Tina’s motivation for doing what they do.
Another cracker from Simon Kernick.
I look forward to his next book.