Frank Smith ratchets up the stakes and the suspense in Acts of Vengeance , his fourth novel in the award-nominated Neil Paget police procedural series fans have come to love. On a stormy night in Broadminster, DCI Neil Paget walks a young constable to her car in a dark parking lot. As she roars past on her way home, Paget is attacked from behind, his throat viciously slit from ear to ear. But for the grace of God he survives and is rushed to the hospital where he remains in critical condition, unconscious and perhaps ready to draw his last breath at any minute. Meanwhile, the precinct is in an uproar. Who could have attacked their trusty DCI, so brutally and brazenly, directly behind the stationhouse? As DS Tregalles and the rest of Paget's colleagues delicately comb through both his professional and personal lives, startling facts begin to materialize, and the truth they are searching for becomes seemingly more distant with every passing moment.