Summary
Summary
Lena Grey is found guilty of murdering her husband, who was found smothered in their bed. She offers no defense, and serves fourteen long years in prison. But within months of her release nearly two decades later, his body is found in a disused morgue, recently killed. Who was the man she killed before, and why did she lie about his identity?
Detective Inspector Francis Sadler and his Derbyshire team try to discover how such a well-orchestrated deception could have occurred. DC Connie Childs is convinced that something greater than marital strife caused the murders, but before Lena can be questioned further, she vanishes. Back in Lena's childhood home, her sister Kat, a therapist, is shocked by her sister's duplicity. When she begins to receive mysterious packages from a young man claiming to know her sister's location, Kat is drawn into her own investigation of her family's well-hidden secrets. As her inquiries begin to collide with the murder investigation, a link to the sisters' teenage lives emerges, and the line between victim and perpetrator becomes blurred in this tightly-plotted, compelling novel perfect for fans of Deborah Crombie and Sharon Bolton.
Author Notes
SARAH WARD is an online book reviewer at her blog, Crimepieces and a judge for the UK based Petrona Award. Her debut novel, In Bitter Chill , began the crime series set in rural Derbyshire, England, where Sarah lives.
Reviews (2)
Publisher's Weekly Review
At the start of Ward's gripping sequel to 2015's In Bitter Chill, a police procedural starring the officers of the Derbyshire Constabulary, a body lies in an abandoned morgue built during WWI. The deceased, Andrew Fisher, was shot dead more than a decade earlier. At the time, Fisher's wife, Lena Gray, identified the body, confessed to the murder, and was sent to prison. Det. Constable Connie Childs and Det. Sgt. Damian Palmer are keen to question Lena, who's out on parole, about the possibility she misidentified her husband. Kat Gray, Lena's sister, wants answers, but the clues that an anonymous teen is feeding her aren't adding up. More deaths follow, and while the detectives struggle to put together the pieces, their superiors seem to be holding something back. Supt. Dai Llewellyn suggests the case involves sex, and Connie and Damian begin to suspect that rape is at the heart of events. The confusion and obfuscation that delay the solution are frustrating but also true to the realities of this sort of crime. Agent: Kirsty McLachlan, David Godwin Associates (U.K.). (Sept.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
Finding the recently dispatched body of Andrew Fisher in an abandoned morgue in Derbyshire presents multiple problems for police, mainly because Fisher presumably was killed in 2004 by his wife, Lena, who pleaded guilty, was convicted, and is currently out on parole. So who died in 2004, who killed Fisher, and where is Lena, who has disappeared from the family home she shared with her younger sister, therapist Kat Grey, after Andrew's body was found? The ensuing suicide of a woman who had been a friend of Lena's and Kat's seems part of the picture, all of which puzzles DI Francis Sadler and his team members, DS Damian Palmer and DC Connie Childs. Supervisor Dai Llewellyn, Sadler's boss, seems to have an inkling but simply tells Sadler that the case revolves around sex. As she did in her accomplished debut, In Bitter Chill (2015), Ward draws a connectionbetween old and current crimes and puts them in the context of societal problems, all the while delving into the private lives of her well-drawn characters. With Sadler and company, Ward has a winning series going.--Leber, Michele Copyright 2016 Booklist