The Dispossessed

Margaret Murphy writes this crime fiction based on the East European asylum seekers in England. The novel starts with the discovery of a teen prostitute of Middle East Asian origin brutally murdered and dropped off in a garbage bin. The investigating officer, Jeff Rickman, is in charge of the case, with his close friend and colleague Lee Foster, who also happens to be Rickman's main source of annoyance. They have recently donated blood together and the nurse flirted enough with Foster to go on a date with him. They investigate for a long time, but they can't find anything more than what they already know. Meanwhile, another set of gruesome attacks on four of the immigrants raises racist attack questions. A group of street children are injured and caught on the scene.
Rickman's girlfriend, Dr. Grace Chandler had found the teen prostitute's body and is disturbed by the visions. She also finds out that both her boyfriend and her translator at work are hiding things from their past, that she wants to help them with. Grace works at the hospital for the immigrants and her translator, Natalja is also an immigrant to Liverpool. Grace tries many times to open both Rickman and Natalja up but to no avail.
While investigating the crime scene of the teen, detectives find out that Rickman's blood is found on the scene. On suspicions, Rickman is taken off the case. But eventually, they find a link between the nurse who took Rickman's and Foster's blood and a pimp, Alex Jordan, who had a bad history with Rickman. They also find out that their blood had been tampered with, so Rickman is brought back. Just after he returns, he receives a phone call from a doctor stating his brother is asking for him. Puzzled, yet angry, he visits his brother, Simon, and finds out that he just recovered from coma after an accident and has lost all his memory. He remembers no one except Jeff, and even him from younger days. Simon is married to Tanya with two boys out of his marriage.
Putting all that aside, he returns to work. He has a strong hunch that Jordan is taking revenge on him and is responsible for the murders. Another East European is killed, just after he called with information on the previous murders. By this time, the teen prostitute is identified as Sophia Habib.
Grace receives a visit from Natalja's old friend, Mirko Andric, since he is not able to talk to Natalja directly. Grace is puzzled but agrees to help him out. She is worried more about shiftiness and bursts of emotion that Natalja shows. Finally, she calls Natalja's case worker (for asylum seekers) up, but receives nothing. Rickman confesses to Grace about his troubled past with his brother and connection with Alex Jordan.
The next morning, Rickman is about to confess to his superior, when they get called up for Natalja's murder. At the spot, they discover that it's Grace who was murdered. Shocked, Rickman visits Jordan's home and threatens his current girlfriend. He returns home deranged.
Meanwhile, investigation continues and the department finds out that all the refugees worked with a common law firm. They delve further. They also find out a shady past of Mirko's. Finally, it seems that the law firm works with likes of Jordan and Mirko to find potential people who can stay in England, gets their identities and sells them off to the highest bidder refugees (who were refused but have the cash to buy themselves a life).
The story ends with Rickman reuniting with his family.
The final climax of how the murderer was incriminated was a treat to read, although the beginning was much of a drag. On the whole, it was a decently paced novel, but the author could have thrown bits of much more interesting information in the beginning as well to keep the readers hooked, instead of constantly closing up the characters.