With The New York TimesNotable Book River of Darkness, Rennie Airth established himself as a formidable master of suspense. Now, in The Blood-Dimmed Tide, Airth returns with a macabre tale, filled with fascinating historical detail, of the social struggles of post–World War I Britain and the looming menace of Hitler’s Germany.It is 1932, and former Inspector John Madden leads a quiet life in rural England with his wife and children—until a young village girl is savagely murdered. The crime catapults Madden into the grisly world of a brutal killer. Along with his former colleagues at Scotland Yard, Madden soon finds himself enlisting the help of the British secret service and the German police. Together they use the burgeoning science of criminal psychology in order to grasp the workings of the twisted mind of a cunning, sophisticated murderer—but can Madden prevent him from killing again?