A Deadly Thaw

July 25, 2016
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.).

July 15, 2016
The present always owes a debt to the past.When DI Francis Sadler is called to a murder at a disused morgue, he little suspects that the case will drag him and his team into an exploration of past bad deeds. Sadler recognizes the body as that of his old schoolmate Andrew Fisher, who was supposedly murdered by his wife, Lena, in 2004. Lena identified the body, admitted to killing him, and served 11 years in prison. Whom did she really kill in 2004, and where has Andrew been since then? Lena and her sister, Kat Gray, had a normal, happy childhood but Lena suddenly changed, becoming very private and closed-in, just before she was set to go to university. Now Kat's a counselor who has trouble keeping her relationship with one of her clients, former soldier Mark Astley, purely professional--a problem that DC Connie Childs also has with her married partner, DS Damian Palmer. Lena, who shares their childhood home with Kat, suddenly vanishes after Andrew's body is found, but she keeps using an unidentified young man to send Kat odd clues, such as the murder weapon and an old blouse. Although the first body was cremated, the police finally identify the victim as a friend of Andrew's rumored to have gone to Australia. When an old friend who closely resembles Lena is found, an apparent suicide, Kat is angry, confused, and fearful for her sister. The police investigation opens a nasty can of worms about how badly rape victims were treated by the police force at the time of the earlier murder--knowledge that will eventually lead to the killer. The second from Ward (In Bitter Chill, 2015) is an excellent police procedural that shows how psychological damage from the past casts shadows over the present.

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