Breaking Point

The new DCI Neil Paget mystery - When DCI Neil Paget and DS Tregalles investigate an apparently standard missing person case, it soon emerges that Mark Newman, an aspiring journalist, was on the trail of a hot story, and now hes disappeared, along with every scrap of potential evidence . . . But as bodies start to pile up, Paget is struggling to keep his mind on the job, given the erratic behaviour and unexplained absences of his new live-in lover . . .

Publishers Weekly

DCI Neil Paget investigates a missing-persons case in this workmanlike entry in Smith's police procedural series (Acts of Vengeance, etc.). Mark Newman, a jack-of-all-trades who aspires to be a journalist, vanishes after a covert meeting in a generic English pub about a potential story. When Paget learns that Newman's informant, Mickey Doyle, has also disappeared, he concludes that someone attempting to conceal the secret that Doyle stumbled onto has killed them both. Paget's team's efforts soon come closer to the truth than the National Criminal Intelligence Service would like, triggering a jurisdictional dispute that threatens to prevent justice for the missing men. A prologue detailing Newman's failed surveillance of a secluded farmhouse leaves little suspense about his fate. In addition, instead of Paget's uncovering the story Newman was pursuing, an NCIS official simply recounts it to him late in the book.
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Frank Smith has always been fascinated by language. He worked as a journalist in many countries before beginning formal academic studies in Australia. This led to a Ph.D. at Harvard University and further world travel researching, lecturing, and writing on thinking and learning. He has been a professor at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education; the University of Toronto; the University of Victoria, British Columbia; and the University of Witwatersrand, South Africa. He has published many articles and books.