Slightly ambivalent on this one - well drawn characters and well written although far too much bad language for me - guess I perceive it as the norm for the characters though. Set in the seamier side of Bradford and deals with drugs, poverty and otherwise sensitive issues amongst a mixed population. The author pulls no punches in discussing racial or religious tensions which makes for some uncomfortable reading. How can we help increase tolerance in the face of such biases? The cast of detectives is strong with what is becoming a rather jaded strong, single minded, slightly maverick female lead who has family issues - possibly more of each than is often the case - and her opposite gay DS who is a strong character in his own right. We also have the ambitious cop, the slightly bumbling cop and the "I've got your back" boss. There are two threads to the story - the fight to take down the local drug cartel now that the bad boy is back in town and the discovery of a skeleton under an old car park. Nikki has more personal and family problems when the identification of the skeleton is made. These are compounded, in some areas, when she makes a link with other, unsolved murders and the team concludes that there is a serial murderer at large in the city. We do, of course, have the italicised thoughts of the perpetrators throughout the book as they "deal" with several of their victims. The denouement was rather unexpected at one level although there were few characters left in the pool by then. Their "reason" was all too sad and an equally sad reflection on a different, but growing, group of the population, Overall it's a well-written if rather unpleasant detective story dealing with racial and religious concepts - thought provoking nonetheless. Other than the language the one thing I really disliked was a comment made by the author in the acknowledgements' section "...Last Request delivers an inclusive range of characters and, I hope, reflects Bradford". NO!!!!!!. It might reflect one aspect of Bradford, but there are many many positives for this city and its multi-cultural, mixed heritage population Don't knock the whole place because of the minority of misfits please, the media already does more than enough of that. .Thanks to NetGalley and HQ Digital for an advance copy in exchange for my honest review.