Dying Truth

DI Kim Stone and her DS Bryant have been called to a school where a young girl is threatening to jump from a bell tower.  Unfortunately, she has jumped to her death just before they arrive.  Since it was a suicide, it wouldn’t be in the remit of CID.

Stone isn’t completely sure that it is a suicide.  She requests to be kept up-to-date on the autopsy.  Unfortunately, her team doesn’t hold the same concerns she has.  The pathologist, Keats, agrees with Stone’s assessment after he has done the autopsy.  It is murder staged to look like a suicide.

DS Kevin Dawson is quick to jump on board once he realises that it is now a murder investigation.  Stone gives him the task of speaking to the young people at the school.  He learns that the victim was a bit of a loner, yet willing to stand up for those who were being bullied.  It would also appear that someone had removed her personal writings from her room before he got there.

A couple of days later while Stone and Bryant are interviewing the school counsellor, Dawson interrupts them to inform them that a fourteen year old boy from the school has just been rushed to A and E.  Unfortunately the lad doesn’t make it.  He suffered anaphylactic shock.

Stone relies on DC Stacey Wood to use her skills to gather information on all the people who are connected one way or another to the school.

Keats informs Stone that the boy had been force fed peanuts, which brought on the anaphylactic shock.  What is going on at this school and why would kids be killing other kids?

How many more kids are going to die before Stone and her team find the killer?  The surprising conclusion to that is unexpected, as is the shocking conclusion to the story.  Author Angela Marsons’ sorty is an excellent read, that will leave the reader quite unsettled.  Hard to put down.