The Lantern Men

DCI Harry Nelson has been informed by his DI Judy Johnson that a killer Johnson had worked hard to put behind bars has been found guilty of killing two young women.  However, neither is happy because both feel that there are two more deaths that are unaccounted for, and they are sure the same man is responsible.

Shortly after this Dr. Ruth Galloway is shown a post card by a former colleague that she would have done a better job as a witness and of finding the remaining bodies.  She immediately calls Nelson.  Based on the handwriting, the card seems to have come from a woman who had hosted Ruth at a writing retreat.

Not long after this, the killer tells Nelson that he will show him where the bodies are if Ruth is the one who does the digging.  She accepts the challenge.  Nelson also receives information that the killer had been a member of a group of three men who would pick up women on the fens.  They called themselves The Lantern Men.  The young women would later disappear after spending some time with the group.

When the forensic archeologists dig at the site indicated by the killer they find not just two bodies, but a third.

The morning after the bodies are dug up, Nelson receives a call that another body has been found.  This recent death is a young woman who matches the characteristics of those killed by the man that they have in custody.  Talking to the boyfriend, DI Johnson learns. That the woman had been road training on her bicycle, so why was an expensive bicycle doing out in the dunes?

DNA and dental records help identify the bodies.  Nelson continues to maintain that they have the killer.  However, he couldn’t have killed the latest victim.  So, who is the killer?

Author Elly Griffiths has the reader in suspense, giving numerous hints convincing the reader to follow that trail.  However, in the end, a surprise is revealed to the reader.  Griffiths’ thriller is complex and a superb read, which was hard to put down.

A Litter of Bones

Duncan Reid is out for a walk with his son and dog near Fort William when the dog disappears.  He tells his son, Connor, to wait on the path while searches for the dog.  When Connor doesn’t respond to his calls, he rushes back to the path only to find the boy gone!  Later a package is delivered to the local police.

DCI Jack Logan is called in to investigate because he had jailed a man for three previous cases.  The case was solid.  However, there are similarities.  Could some of the investigative information been leaked, and now there was a copycat killer? Or had they convicted the wrong man?

In Fort William Logan is welcomed by DI Ben Forde.  Forde has assembled a strong team to work the investigation.  It doesn’t take long for the team to determine a suspect.  That evening they have him, but is he the brains behind the operation?  However, it turns out he has a different connection to the case.

The following morning, Logan states that Connor has less than twenty-four hours to live, based upon the previous cases.  Then the brother of a WPC working with Logan goes missing.

Does the team have another kidnapping on their hands?  Author J. D. Kirk really picks up the pace at this point.  Logan and his team have to act fast as time is running out.  This is the first in a series, and is an extremely well written thriller, hard to put down.  I can hardly wait to get my hands on the sequels.

The Shadowcutter

Giles Vernon and his wife  are on holiday in Stanegate.  They have invited Felix Carswell to join them.  Vernon intends on taking some sword lessons while there.  He meets a Spanish opponent at the lessons.  After a bout, the Spaniard collapses, coughing up blood.  Carswell rushes to his aid and quickly diagnoses phthisis.

Getting the man back to his flat, Carswell discovers that his back is crisscrossed with scars and some open wounds.  Looking in a drawer, Vernon comes across a whip.  Later in the day, Vernon receives a note from Lord Rothborough asking for his help.  When he turns up at the estate, he finds Rothborough and his eldest daughter with the body of a young woman, which had been pulled from a pond on the estate.

Vernon gets Carswell to examine the body.  He discovers a bit of shell in the back of her head.  Vernon then takes him to the grotto nearby the pond.  There they find blood on the wall at the height of the woman’s head.  They have a murder on their hands.  However, the local coroner is not going to allow that to stand.  In his mind it is simply the death of a maid - a non-entity.

How can Vernon and Carswell manage to find the killer with the local coroner being nonchalant about the death?  And what of the robbery that Lord Rothborough tells them of at his estate?  

Author Harriet Smart’s murder mystery is complex, and tied in with resolving a robbery at the same time has both Vernon and Carswell tied in knots.  They experience both tragedy and relief as this thriller progresses.  Smart also throws in a bit of international intrigue to the mix.  A good mystery for the reader to enjoy.

The Dead Songbird

Major Vernon has been requested by a visiting opera singer to visit with her.  He has no idea why, and invites Dr. Carswell to join him.  They find out from her, that she had received a note, which threatens her life.  She has had several in the past.

While discussing the matter with her, Vernon is called out because a body has been found.  When they get there, Carswell discovers that the man is not long dead.  Why was he arranged so peacefully?  They soon learn that the young man was a singer in the church choir.  Carswell’s post-mortem determines that the victim had been strangled with a ligature of some sort.

The following evening, on his way home from a dinner party, Carswell is shocked by a scream coming from the diva’s house.  Upon investigating, he finds that someone had left a dead bird on the bed with a ribbon around its neck.  However, the diva states that she is more frightened by the notes than a dead bird.

Meanwhile, Carswell has somehow become engaged to a young woman to whom he has chatted with a couple of times.  How will he extricate himself from that?  And, Vernon has let his foremost prime suspect slip through his fingers.

Author Harriet Smart has things well in hand for Carswell and Vernon, although it is not an easy task.  They will have their trials and tribulations along the way.  A good, quick read.

The Butchered Man

Felix Carswell has come to Northminster to become the new police surgeon.  He will be working for Chief Constable Giles Vernon.  Felix’s father, Lord Rothborough, had wanted him to take up a military career, rather than medicine.  It is Vernon’s plan to modernise the police force.

Moments after Vernon and Carswell meet, they are called out to a building site where a body has been found.  With the body back at the police’s temporary mortuary, they discover that it has been badly mutilated.  Unfortunately, due to legalities, Carswell is unable to start on the post-mortem immediately.

Vernon’s sister is able to identify the victim. With that knowledge, Vernon is able to begin his investigation into him.  Hopefully this will lead him to the killer.  His first appointment is with the victim’s cousin, who had a recent altercation with the victim.

Having done his post-mortem, Carswell is certain that the killer is a butcher.  He is also certain that the victim had been poisoned before being slashed.  In the victim’s stomach, he finds some seeds; some whole, some chewed.  When he administers a seed to a mouse, the mouse dies.

Now, it is up to Vernon and Carswell to find the killer.  But will the killer strike again beforehand?  Vernon and Carswell come into conflict as their investigation progresses.  Will they be blinded by what they learn?

Author Harriet Smart has written an intriguing historical murder mystery in the first of this series.  It has a surprising conclusion.  A good quick read.  I look forward to the sequels.

Dead Memories

DI Kim Stone has been called to an incident at a flat in a tower.  Her DS, Bryant doesn’t want her to enter the flat.  Being stubborn, she goes ahead only to be confronted by a scene that recreated something that she had experienced thirty years before in a flat below this one.  She now has to convince her boss, DCI Woodward that it isn’t connected to her past.

The following morning DS Austin Penn and DC Stacey Wood are wondering if they have a new case on their hands.  Not long after they do find that they do have a case.  There were no needles at the scene, so how could two teenagers have overdosed?

The postmortem reveals that the lad had a bit of cracker wrapper in his throat.  This is the evidence that ensures that Stone knows that the scene was created and directed at her.

As Penn is working at his desk, a call comes in that a body has been found in a car that has been crushed.  The question now is, how are they going to get it out without destroying evidence?

Woodward has one stipulation for her to continue working on the case is that Dr. Alison Lowe is to work with the team.  Stone’s team had worked with her on a previous case.  Lowe was a profiler and behaviouralist, but Stone has no use for that.  She is also under the impression that Lowe is there to help the team, but that is not the case.  Lowe is there to observe Stone.

When an older couple are killed and burned in a vehicle, Stone decides to inform her team that she thinks that the killer is replicating disasters in her life in order to get at her.  The question arises, what traumatic event will the killer try to replicate next? There is a second question; who hates Stone the most to do this?

A third recreation leads Stone to almost punch a constable, but Bryant stops her.  However, it leads to her DCI pulling her off the case.  

How many more will die before the team without the leadership of Stone before the killing spree ends?  Author Angela Marsons’ psychological thriller is fast paced and intense.  I found it hard to put down.  A very good read.

The Moon Tunnel

Philip Dryden has come to an archeological dig near Ely in search of a story.  But it isn’t the story that he expected.  The crew has found a tunnel and in it a skeleton.  This site was once a WWII POW camp.  Dryden realises that the man had been shot in the tunnel, but why was he crawling into the camp?

Laura, Dryden’s hospitalised wife, offers to do some internet research for him.  Limited as she is, he accepts her help.

Because the skeleton is so old, the police aren’t interested, so Dryden begins his own investigation.  He speaks to his uncle, who was quite young at the time.  What he learns takes him to a home that was robbed during the war.  A man had been killed during the robbery.

Laura’s research comes up with a name of a missing POW, but records show that he never existed.  So, who was he?  And, why was he crawling into the POW camp?  Dryden also discovers that there is a missing, and very valuable painting, that has not been recovered.

Some time later, Dryden while going to ask the archeologist questions about the dig, discovers his body in one of the trenches, killed execution style.

Who is the killer, and why was he killed?  With the police pursuing their own investigation, Dryden has clues of his own to follow.  Author Jim Kelly’s thriller is just that; full of tension and crisis.  Who will find the killer first?  Dryden or the police?  An exciting read.