Death on the Downs
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ISBN: 9780330445269
Description
It wasn't the rain that upset Carole Seddon during her walk on the Downs, or the dilapidated barn in which she was forced to seek shelter. No, what upset her was the human skeleton she discovered there, neatly packed into two blue fertiliser bags.
Reviewed on 31st December 2013
The second Fethering book develops the characters a little further and continues to set things up for future novels. Carole accidentally stumbles across another body, and finds herself wrapped up in another complex murder investigation.
I found myself a little frustrated that this book wasn't as much of a double-header as the first. We're aligned with Carole throughout both books, but her interaction with Jude was one of the most interesting aspects of the first book, and here it seems to come second to some repetitive scenes.
The plot felt awkward as well - everything is there, suspects, clues, twists - but it didn't quite flow together into a narrative and I didn't feel compelled to keep reading. The slightly different setting to the first book felt forced, as if the author was trying to avoid the classic mystery novel conundrum of many murders in one town, but actually it just seemed like all the effort of setting the scene in the first book was wasted.
Although I've criticised the book quite a bit, it certainly wasn't bad, and I have no plans to discontinue reading the series. I just hope that this was a single dud.