Skeleton Plot

Starred review from July 20, 2015
The unearthing of a skeleton in an elderly couple’s garden propels Gregson’s exceptional 28th mystery featuring Det. Chief Supt. John Lambert and Det. Sgt. Bert Hook (after 2014’s Rest Assured). The two Gloucestershire police officers discover that the remains belong to a missing drug user, Julie Grimshaw, who lived 20 years earlier in a nearby abandoned building with other squatters. Lambert and Hook, seasoned pros who have worked together for years, question Jim Simmons, a farmer who recently sold the garden land to the couple and was around at the time of Julie’s death. Simmons’s efforts to show he’s a devoted family man suggest that he has something to hide. Some of the other people they talk to, each one a distinctive character with an interesting backstory, have long kept secrets, and no one wants old history raked up. Not a clue is out of place. Indeed, this entry could be a primer on how to write a police procedural.

September 1, 2015

A 20-year-old skeleton dug up in a garden patch leads DCS Jack Lambert and DS Bert Hook (Rest Assured) into a dogged quest to identify the body. Along the way they dig up the dirt on the persons involved with the property development where the bones were found.

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2015
When a teenager helping his grandfather dig a garden unearths a human skull, DCS John Lambert and DS Bert Hook are called to the scene. Once the forensic team is finished examining what are most definitely human remains, they conclude that the victim, a young woman, was murdered roughly 20 years ago. Lambert and Hook know that solving the case will be a challenge, but, shockingly, they learn the victim's identity within a few days. A squalid drug den in Gloucester, a 20-year-old housing development, and a small farm near where the body was found all yield clues that eventually lead to a list of potential suspects. Those looking for action may find the stately pacing and the close look at the mundane side of modern policing a little off-putting, but procedural fans who appreciate, well, procedure will feel right at home. And, of course, the well-developed duo of Lambert and Hook bring their own appeal.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)