Finished July 20
The Tsunami File by Michael E. Rose
This is the third in a series featuring journalist and sometimes spy for CSIS Frank Delaney, but the first I have read. I shall have to search out the earlier ones sometime.
Here Delaney is in Phuket, Thailand working on an article for International Geographic on the Tsunami that killed thousands on Boxing Day 2004.
There is a team of people from all over working to identify the bodies that have been found and one of the team is Jonah Smith, a fingerprint expert from Scotland Yard, seconded to Interpol and now to this project. When Jonah notices changes to a file, and then the file's disappearance he causes a fuss. He is told to keep on doing his job and not worry about it, but he can't help wondering why someone would want to keep a body from being identified and who might be behind the file's disappearance. Stymied within the official environment, he finds himself confiding in Frank and Frank's investigative intuition kicks in. As the two gain more information, Frank waffles between his two roles trying to make sense of what he learns and decide what to do with it. Both men are threatened and attempts are made to keep them quiet, but they remain determined to find out the true identity of the body and the reasons for blocking identification.
There is a fair bit of action, but a lot of introspection as well and the characters are well developed.
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