One More Chapter
Featuring: Michael Harris; Detective Inspector Leo George; Jess Bridges
300 pages ISBN: 0008422613 EAN: 9780008422608 Kindle: B087TDG13N e-Book Add to Wish List
If you are used to reading British crime stories which are either cosy village mysteries or police procedurals, you may enjoy being lured off the beaten track by WHITE HORSE. Private Investigator Jess Bridges is engaged, while returning from the Frankfurt book fair, to find a young woman. Oxford-based and in her early thirties, Jess is well positioned to join a commune in Uffington without getting brainwashed. Or is she? She’s something of a wild child.
The ‘Jess Bridges Mystery’ series began with Black River, and this second book was my introduction to a good-hearted but flawed protagonist, who works for the money, but genuinely wants to retrieve her client’s missing daughter. I did find a scene a bit creepy – a bit? Where we’re shown the manipulative side of the cult leader. Brother Oak, by the way, is not all that charismatic, and I can’t see the others of the commune letting someone new wander off to the village pub any time. They would want to keep her immersed in their way of life for a few weeks. Still, this does place doubt in the reader’s mind as to whether the cult is really that bad.
I haven’t even mentioned the death. A young woman has been found dead on the hillside by the White Horse figure in the chalk Downs. Although the commune members deny knowing her, she’s dressed like the Children of the White Horse. Jess, now Sister Poppy, is well placed to investigate any sudden departures, so Detective Inspector Leo George contacts her at the village of Kingston Beauchamp and asks her and her ex boyfriend Michael Harris to have their eyes and ears open. Aided by a friendly lady vicar, Jess and Leo learn more about the village activities than they wanted to know.
I like that Michael is a person in a wheelchair and a full working partner in events. The Downs, and a large country house, are shown as getting away from the bustle of city life, but the isolation is ideal for other activities. Leo has to jump through the hoops of police work, as in a procedural crime novel.
Joss Stirling has written several novels, and now four books about Joss and Leo. Ancient British history may have led her to investigate pagan customs, but we’re told by the characters that we don’t know exactly what the Iron Age druids practised at the white horse and nearby barrow. That doesn’t stop Brother Oak from making up ceremonies. Be warned. There are worse things than wolves on the Downs in WHITE HORSE.
A thrilling new whodunnit series, fast-paced and funny, featuring a detective as sharp as his suits and a heroine who’s trouble.
3000 years ago Iron Age people carved a White Horse on the Downs near Uffington Castle and now someone has dumped a body there. Laid out like a ceremonial killing, Detective Inspector Leo George isn't convinced that the murder is what it appears.
He suspects the young female victim may have been a member of the Children of the White Horse, a secretive valley commune, but none of the cult members are talking. That is until he discovers his friend, Jess Bridges, is undercover in the commune, attempting to persuade a wayward young woman to leave the cult.
Leo is confronted by the fact that Jess is heading right into the heart of a mystery that has less to do with ancient gods than it does modern vices, and there is nothing old about spilling blood…
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