Oxford PI Jennie Redhead
is approached by her old friend Charlie to find out more about
two skeletons that have recently been found. The bones were
stuffed into a sealed mediaeval ventilation shaft in cellars
under St. Luke’s College and her task is to discover
their identity. Soon she is delving into two old mysteries
set thirty years apart, and looking askance at Charlie who
seems to have been involved with at least one of them…
This book follows on from the first in the series, A
Shivering Turn (also reviewed on this site). In common
with this book, Ms. Spencer has a great storyteller style
that grips the reader from the first paragraph and does not
let go. She has written a real whodunit filled with 100% detecting
as Jennie races about discovering more about the victims and
looking for possible killers. Plotting is this author’s
talent and she has it in spades, characterization less so,
as many of the characters have more than a hint of the cliché
about them. With a tale this exciting, I found myself not
caring much however, particularly as they served to make various
points about the power of wealth and privilege in a place
like Oxford, and how things were done in the past. The flashbacks
to earlier periods seemed to have more of a feeling for the
times than the decade when the book was set. It is 1974, but
apart from an absence of modern technology, it is not obvious
when the book is set. Jennie is a thoroughly modern young
woman whose one-night stands and habit of walking into pubs
on her own make her appear more 2010s than 1970s. No references
are made to popular culture or news stories of the day and
thus the setting seems curiously timeless and detached. Like
the first in this series, this is a dark tale but one well
worth reading for its thrilling story, chilling look at use
and abuse of power and how far people will go to obtain justice.
Reviews of other titles in this
series
A
Shivering Turn #1
Dry Bones
#2
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