Annie Behrens and her husband, Paul, can go days without seeing each other. He is a middle school teacher, and she is a nurse working the second shift. On the day that Paul leaves for work in the morning and disappears, Annie has not seen him for nearly three days. Even though their work schedules make their lives like two ships passing in the night --- which has been taking a toll on their marriage and their two teenaged children --- Annie is still quite surprised when Paul’s principal calls to see how her husband is feeling.

"THE DAY HE LEFT is never predictable, and the team is complex and top-notch. This is one of the finer and more detailed police procedurals I have read in quite a while."

Thus begins THE DAY HE LEFT, the second entry in Frederick Weisel’s terrific Violent Crime Investigations Team series. Following the principal’s message, we begin to see things get pieced together. Annie finds Paul’s briefcase and cell phone in the living room, yet his car is gone and there is no note in sight. In the briefcase is a disturbing photo that she immediately discards. She then begins to hit the wine as we learn about her drinking problem. The police are called, and the case into Paul’s mysterious disappearance is opened.

Detective Eddie Mahler is the leader of the Santa Rosa Violent Crime Investigations Team, which consists of Daniel Rivas, Steve Frames, Eden Somers and Martin Coyle. No stone will be left unturned as they divide and conquer all aspects of Paul and Annie’s lives. A huge clue comes to light when a letter of resignation written by Paul is found, and it refers to an alleged incident between him and a student that had taken place. They also find a copy of Shakespeare’s TWELFTH NIGHT inscribed to Paul by someone named Jean, who quotes from the text: “Then come kiss me, sweet and twenty.” The investigators also notice that Paul had an appointment with Jean on his calendar the day he disappeared.

The team pushes both Paul’s 16-year-old son, Jesse, who may be selling drugs, and his 13-year-old daughter, Claire, a loner who may know more than she is saying about the girls her father is alleged to have been involved with around school. The book is like a snowball being pushed down a mountain that just keeps getting bigger and bigger.

Of course, we must remind ourselves that this is a Violent Crimes Investigations novel, and the inevitable moment arrives when Paul’s body is found --- parked on the side of the road in the front seat of his vehicle with a single gunshot wound to the head, an apparent suicide victim. Mahler and company will wait on the forensics but now can dig further knowing that the search portion of their case is over.

THE DAY HE LEFT is never predictable, and the team is complex and top-notch. This is one of the finer and more detailed police procedurals I have read in quite a while. It’s like comparing a crime TV show in the US to one that’s on the BBC, like “Line of Duty,” which is just a step above. That’s how I felt reading this book. It just goes there.