Union Square
Published June 2, 2026
Reviewed by Barbara Fister
DCI Cara Freeman heads up a group of detectives at Kings Lake in Norfolk who have been handed a puzzler. An Earl drowned in a swimming pool some time ago, with another police force investigating. Ultimately, it was ruled an accident. He’d been at a party at the home of a well-known businessman known for gatherings that included a surplus of drink and drugs. Case closed – except the Earl’s sister is not satisfied. Private detectives she had hired cast doubt on the handling of the case and the evidence presented at the inquest. Freeman is asked by her superiors whether her team can look into again, though she gets the strong impression it could end up derailing her career if the wrong conclusions are drawn in a case that appears to be highly political. And she’s right: the pressure is on to answer the questions raised by a shoddy investigation before it becomes a PR disaster – or they’re shut down.
It soon becomes clear the previous investigation wasn’t sloppy – it was a cover-up. Too many strange things are happening, like phone records normally retained by telecom companies vanishing and other oddities that hint at involvement of the intelligence services. While various leads are followed, we’re introduced to a character who appears to have had a job with MI5, but is now no longer a public servant, yet she clearly has an interest of her own in the politically volatile case.
Some Sort of Justice is the seventeenth entry in the DC Smith / Kings Lake series, originally published in Britain. North American rights to the series were recently acquired by Union Square, which this year has released the first (An Accidental Death, 2013) and the most recent in hardcover,with the rest to be released in paperback through August 2027.
To go by the two volumes published in the US so far, Peter Grainger is a talented writer with a knack for depicting a workplace where the police are all (perhaps a bit unrealistically) dedicated, smart, and dogged. They are often up against an unhelpful bureaucracy, but complement each others’ skills to carry out complex investigations against the headwinds. There is also enough backstory for each to make them distinct and human. While this book is clearly part of an established series, it can be read as a stand alone, but the good news for those who enjoy British procedurals: it will soon be possible to binge the whole series.