Silent Scream

DI Kim Stone has been called out to a house where the body of a woman has been found drowned in her bathtub.  Since the house was some distance from the nearest neighbours, the killer had set fire to nearby trees to draw attention.  Why do that?

The victim was the principal at a boys’ school, so she and DS Bryant begin interviewing the staff there.  When they go to speak to a professor of archeology who the victim had been in contact with, they find out that he’s been missing for forty-eight hours.  He later shows up, and informs Stone that he had gone into hiding because his dog had been killed, and a note had been stapled to its ear warning him not to go ahead with a dig, and threatening the professor’s wife.

When a second body turns up, the victim in this case had worked at an former girls’ home near where the proposed dig is proposed.  Stone orders a dig to go ahead without authorisation, which could mean her job.  Bones are found in the pit.  An archaeologist informs Stone that the victim in the pit had been decapitated. 

Moments after questioning a elderly drunk, Stone and Bryant have to rush to his aid because he was hit by a car which sped away.  Stone is sure that it was no accident.  They have only one adult left connected to the former girls’ home.  Then it is time to start questioning the girls who had been at the home.

A second body is discovered in the field, and after speaking to one of the girls, Stone is sure that there is a third awaiting discovery.  The archeologist on the site informs Stone that the second body is a girl and she had been pregnant.

Author Angela Marsons leads Stone on a troubled path as she and her team investigate the old deaths and the current ones.  How are they connected?  It will be difficult for Stone to make those connections, and she is in for some surprises along the way.  This was a book I could not put down.  I thoroughly enjoyed the read and look forward to reading the sequels.