Stephen Booth Blind to the Bones

Blind to the Bones

Stephen Booth

Bantam, Jul 2006, $7.50

ISBN: 0440242908

In Withens, student Emma Renshaw vanished without a trace; her body was never found. Following an investigation in which her flat mates (Alex Dearden, Debbie Stark, and Neil Granger) offer nothing of use, the local police cold case the inquiry when no clues related to her disappearance surfaced and hope a future break will occur.

Day 743 since Emma disappeared; the police receive what they wish, a break in the Renshaw case as they find her mobile phone. However, a second clue also comes shortly afterward, but not one the cops would have wanted. Someone smashed in the head of Neil on Withens Moor. Though there appears no link except that they were housemates, Detective Sergeant Diane Fry thinks there is a motivating unknown connection between the two cases as she assumes the culprit also killed Emma. Detective Constable Ben Cooper investigates several burglaries in which one family seems to have been left alone; the incestuous infamous Oxleys, whose ancestors built the tunnels beneath the village. As the two investigations merge, neither case gets closer to being solved as more homicides leave the townsfolk except the Oxleys in fear and despair.

This is an exciting British police procedural in which the two investigations are tied together not just because of the cases, but also because the respective lead detectives have a history in which their personal lives mingled and desire between them still flares up. The isolation of the village adds to the sense of foreboding and when the audience meets the Oxleys that embellishes the belief more bad things are about to happen. Sub-genre fans will enjoy this tale filled with twists some eerie in nature or otherwise.

Harriet Klausner