Scholar's Table. The Riverside Mysteries, #6

Another atmospheric murder mystery set within the cloistered halls of WAU, where ambitious scholars hide dangerous secrets. Blending literary suspense with intricate plotting, these standalone mysteries explore ambition, obsession, and the price of knowledge. Early morning at The Scholar's Table restaurant and Marco Giordano is found standing over the body of a property developer with organised crime connections in the private office of his own restaurant.
He says he found the man dying. The evidence, initially, says something else. Alex must prove her closest friend's innocence while discovering that Marco has been carrying secrets she didn't know existed - and that some secrets are kept out of love. The final novel draws together threads from earlier books: the university's property dealings (Books Four and Five); organised crime connections in the Perth hospitality trade; the riverfront development that has been quietly accumulating across the series as a background pressure.
Sigrid Bane is given her fullest role in the series, and the final coda closes the narrative arc of every major character. Can classics scholar Alex Moreton, and DI Quinn find out who killed Real Estate wheeler and dealer, Vincent Harker - and what was he doing in Marco's restaurant?