Severn House
Featuring: Joanna; DI Bill Slider; Connolly
256 pages ISBN: 0727886657 EAN: 9780727886651 Kindle: B01M8MQ9QJ Hardcover / e-Book Add to Wish List
Another case for the cops of Shepherd's Bush Station.
After the last incident which implicated senior police
officers in abusing young poor women, all are pleased that
it's a cold case. No internal politics here, no press leaks
and stress. Just paperwork. A set of remains has been found
while digging a garden in London. The OLD BONES need to be
identified.
Tragically the bones are found to belong to a young teenage
girl. DI Bill Slider accepts that there is no connection to
the new owners of the house. The bones may have lain here
for over twenty years. So who used to live here, and did
any girls get reported missing locally? All the records
will be on paper, not computer. Worse than the prospect of
hunting for a killer from so long ago is the worry that
there may be more than one grave to find.
The staff at the station expands with two experienced
transfers, both men. However we also see the practical
Irish lass Connolly applying herself to the cases of girls
past and present. Maybe if she helps young people get out
of trouble they won't end up in worse trouble. We also see
a touching and normal family scene when Slider's current
family and first family have a Sunday meal together,
although Slider, being a policeman, can't entirely shake
off his thoughts of a family shattered by the loss of a
daughter the same age as his own daughter.
If you enjoy British police procedurals, this cold case
meets the highest standards. Files range from cardboard
folders in basements to the patent office to Google Street
View; while all persons even slightly connected are tracked
down and, if still alive, interviewed. Good old-fashioned
policing is a joy to read. This being a modern crime novel,
though, there's a twist. Maybe I read too much crime,
because I saw it coming and was unfazed. We can still
appreciate the artfulness of the experienced author,
Cynthia Harrod-Eagles. Districts of London are described in
terms of family residences rather than tourist sites, while
I found several references to pop culture both past and
present.
Get your notebook and pen out for the interviews and clues,
and see if you can beat our old mate Bill Slider to the
conclusion of OLD BONES.
DCI Bill Slider tackles the coldest of cold cases in this
absorbing mystery.
A young couple discover human remains buried in the garden
of their new house: could this be the resting place of
14-year-old Amanda Knight, who disappeared from the same
garden two decades before, and was never seen again?
The problem comes almost as a relief to DCI Slider, still
suffering from the fallout of his previous case. He is not
popular with the Powers That Be, and his immediate boss,
Detective Superintendent Porson, reckons that at least this
little puzzle will keep Slider out of trouble. After all,
with a murder twenty years in the past, this is the coldest
of cold cases. Most of the suspects and principal players
are now dead too, and all passion is long spent. Or is it?
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