About this item
"Finely observed beautifully written" Daily Mail on The Secrets of Life and Death"The victim had been buried in a carved hollow in the grass and shrouded in fallen leaves..."Archaeologist Sage Westfield has her first forensics case: investigating the murder of a teenage girl. Hidden by holly leaves, the girls body has been discovered on the grounds of a stately home, where another teenage girl went missing twenty years ago - but her body was never found. The police suspect the reclusive owner, Alistair Chorleigh, who was questioned but never charged. But when Sage investigates a nearby burial mound - and uncovers rumours of an ancient curse - she discovers the story of another mysterious disappearance over a hundred years ago. Sage will need both her modern forensics skills and her archaeological knowledge to unearth the devastating truth.
About the Author
I write historical crime, with an interest in folk and superstitious beliefs. A Baby's Bones (Titan Books) asks the reader: is a dark house haunted by the dreadful violence committed there in the past, or is there a scientific explanation that triggers the darkness in the people who are working there? People rarely set out to kill someone, but their emotions can build up into a sexual obsession, and that's really what this book is about. I've always been fascinated by what makes people react the way they do, which was why I studied psychology and worked with people. I also am undecided about certain aspects of the supernatural. Do terrible events leave a mark on places and people? Can we understand every phenomenon with science? When I'm not reading crime I like to explore fantasy, and with the Secrets of Life and Death I brought a single element of fantasy into the real world and it seeped in all directions. Dr John Dee believed sorcery was possible - it was his idea of technology. I just wondered ... what if he was right? What if a child's life could be saved by magic when medicine fails? Then I had to go back and follow Dee and his sidekick, Kelley, as they did their experiments and worked out how magic works in the castle of Elizabeth Bathory, the sadistic 'Blood Countess' in The Secrets of Life and Death series. In A Baby's Bones (its sequel, A Shroud of Leaves is out April 2019) Sage Westfield is excavating a filled in well that appears to date back hundreds of years, when she finds the bones of a baby. As she struggles to interprets the finds, uncovering layers of story and folklore and trying to reconcile them with the evidence, she meets the local vicar, Nick. Together they piece together what might have happened at Banstock Manor in 1580, with the expert help of Felix Guichard, anthropologist and expert on sixteenth century sorcery. Back in 1580, the manor's steward juggles the needs of a sickly, pregnant mistress, whose previous babies have all died at birth, and the betrothal of the youngest daughter of Lord Banstock, Viola, to a man whose interests include sorcery. The embroideress who sews Viola's bride clothes grows pale, and secretive...My website is: http://www.rebecca-alexander.co.ukI blog about writing about Sage Westfield's adventures, along with those of Jackdaw and Felix at http://witchwayblogspotcom.blogspot.co.uk/ Contact me at reb@rebecca-alexander.co.uk.