We Are The Hanged Man: DCI Jericho Book One by Douglas Lindsay

DCI Jericho is practically permanently depressed.  His wife disappeared years ago now and he never could find her.  He's lost without her and feels guilty.  He also sees her and can talk to her now and then, so either she's a ghost or he's a mental case.  Or maybe both of those are true.

Blasted Heath and Net Galley allowed me to read this book for review (thank you).  It has been published so you can grab a copy now.

Mr. Lindsay writes an interesting story.  He makes his characters with faults, no one is without sin, but they persevere on the murders they are trying to solve and are diligent about results.  Not necessarily how you get there though.  They can be a bit unorthodox in pursuit.

Besides being depressed and in a police station that is out of the way and not very busy, Jericho just tries to stay to himself.  Unfortunately, his female chief decides he'd be a perfect cop to put on a British reality TV show.  He just has to show the contestants how to use police procedures to solve a case.  They really have no cases for TV until the murder shows up...

Jericho gets lots of mail but when the Hanged Man tarot card comes in, he wonders if it's supposed to be a message.  It is...

Tarot cards pile up, murders continue, and one of the contestants from the TV show goes missing.  Is she really missing or is it a TV gimmick to increase ratings?  If that isn't enough to concern him, the TV producers are spreading comments about him to garner interest in the show.  It certainly gets the interest of the chief.

It's the past come back to haunt Jericho but someone in the present is helping the killer.  I think Jericho is going to have more problems in the future.  Luckily I have the next book in the series to read.