The Missing Ones

Detective Superintendent Myles Corrigan has just called DI Lottie Parker and DS Mark Boyd to the local cathedral where a body has been found.  It is quite obvious that the woman was strangled.  Later that day, a colleague of the victim is found hanging in a tree outside his home.

As Lottie starts her investigation, potential suspects begin to pop up.  Then the pathologist shows Lottie and Boyd that both victims were tattooed in the same spot with a similar, amateur tattoo.  That evening Lottie is attacked on the way home.  Almost strangled, she survives because an approaching taxi scares the attacker off.

This is followed by a reporter asking Lottie questions that are vaguely close to the mark.  How did he get the information?

Then a third body turns up.  The pathologist is sure that the man had been killed before the other two victims.  This is another case of strangulation.  Lottie is sure it is the missing priest she was asked to locate.

Later a witness comes forward who knew the first two victims while they were all in an orphanage.  He states that there were two killings in the orphanage at the time and the two bodies were buried under an apple tree.

Will this evidence be enough to stop a killer?  But then, who is the killer?  Author Patricia Gibney has plenty of work left for Lottie and her team before the killer can be found.  There are also a few surprises awaiting the reader.  For a first murder mystery by Gibney, this is an excellent, fast paced read, which I found hard to put down.  A top notch read, and I can hardly wait to get my hands on the sequels.