Thirteen years before the story opens, Barry Grant, a teenager, committed suicide. It was quite straightforward; there was a note. Barry had difficulty making friends, tried too hard to become part of any group who would take him. None did.

Thirteen years later, Jane Gray, Barry’s grandmother dies and her estate is turned over to Claire Hammond. Included is an envelope containing scrawled notes and attempts at letters that Barry had written to his grandmother. In the notes, Barry admits to having been a part of a gang who had committed four robberies. During the fourth, two people were killed. The gang disappeared and the police were left without enough evidence to solve the crimes.

The first three robberies were completed flawlessly. Four men, dressed completely in black, baggy clothes, wearing the ubiquitous ski masks, entered suddenly, shocking their victims into inaction. The baggy clothes made it impossible for anyone to provide any kind of description. The robbers never made a sound. The leader took a card out of his pocket and held it up for everyone to see.

DO AS YOU ARE TOLD AND NO ONE WILL BE HURT OPEN THE SAFE

Barry didn’t put any names in the notes he scribbled but Claire suspects there is enough information in the notes to resurrect the case. Claire brings the envelope to the Broadminster police station. Superintendent Alcott had been the lead investigator at the time of the murders but he is on leave and the case becomes the responsibility of Detective Chief Inspector Neil Paget. Perhaps now the police can find the other three robbers and solve the murders of the baker and the jeweler’s wife.

When Claire Hammond gets the keys to Jane Gray’s house, she decides to begin the process of cleaning and sorting. She works all day despite the heat and she decides to sit for a little while before she goes to her home. She was tired from the house-warming party she attended the night before, and the short rest turns into a long sleep. She is awakened by the smell of gasoline and the certainty that there is someone else in the house. When she hears the squeak of the backdoor she realizes that whoever is spilling the gasoline intends to set the house on fire. Claire, unthinkingly, decides to fight rather than take flight and chases the intruder, saving her life. A spark would have been enough to make the house explode. It seems that someone believes there is something in Barry’s old room worth killing for.

A KILLING RESURRECTED is the eighth book in the series featuring DCI Neil Paget. Like Peter Turnbull, Smith writes tight police procedurals without putting any graphic violence on the page. Like Turnbull’s Hennessey and Yellich series, Smith’s Paget series are light reading but engrossing all the same. ( )