John Parker is a Graduate-qualified English/Spanish Teacher, owner and director of CHAT ENGLISH, an English Language Centre in Avilés on the north coast of Spain . A voracious reader, he has particularly loved horror fiction for many years.
Jo Spain’s latest novel takes us to one of the most beautiful parts of Ireland, the valley of Glendalough in County Wicklow where a gruesome discovery has been made. Five women who had previously gone missing have been found buried together in a picturesque glade. Five bodies in five graves.
As this gruesome discovery is made just a week after another young woman (Fiona Holland) has disappeared means that Inspector Tom Reynolds is facing one of his most difficult cases. There is a serial killer out there somewhere, a killer who holds his victims captive before he murders them. Has time run out for Fiona or will Reynolds and his team be able to find her before it is too late?
The book is a fine, well-written police procedural which does enough to keep your interest. Reynolds is up against his new boss, Joe Kennedy who is the complete opposite of recently retired Chief Superintendent Sean McGuiness. Reynolds does not like him though he knows that had he, himself tried for the job, it would have been his. Meanwhile, the sub-plot about Tom’s mentor and friend McGuiness and his wife who is slowly succumbing to the worst of Alzheimer’s disease is quite tragic. With the addition of a number of interesting secondary characters, the book ambles along in the summer heat wave which our characters are suffering.
Overall, it is an entertaining read which certainly won’t send you to sleep. Oh, and it will keep you guessing as to the identity of the serial killer.
