The New York Times Book Review: "Carrigan is a complex character, someone well worth meeting again."

Inspector Jack Carrigan, the troubled protagonist of Stav Sherez's masterfully executed British police procedural A Dark Redemption (Europa Editions, paper, $17) is adamant on one point: "We don't talk about those days. We don't talk about Africa." But Carrigan can't forget the violent turn his life took when he and two college friends went there on a lark and were captured by rebel fighters. East Africa also holds the key to the grisly murder of Grace Okello, a Ugandan student who was writing her graduate thesis on the political use of terror and torture in African revolutionary movements.

Carrigan is a complex character, someone well worth meeting again. But Sherez is too purposeful a writer to fall into the tired convention of making everything depend on his hero. His narrative covers a number of hot-button issues, from political unrest in immigrant communities to government meddling in police cases. It's no surprise that the streets of London turn out to be just as treacherous as the wilds of Africa.