Kissing the Demons

July 15, 2011

Did the house do it?

Over a century ago, 13 Torland Place, Eborby, North Yorkshire, housed five dead bodies. Despite his protestations of innocence, Obediah Shrowton was judged guilty and put to death. Ever since, the house has seemed, well, inhospitable. Even worse, a pair of girls went missing from a wood behind the house 12 years back, and the current tenants, four student roommates, have been squabbling ever since they moved in. When one of them, Petulia Ferribie, turns up dead, DI Joe Plantagenet and DCI Emily Thwaite (Playing with Bones, 2009, etc.) must decide where to put the blame: on the house or on a more corporeal suspect. Among their human choices are a governmental nabob with nefarious ties to the long-missing girls; the landlord, who has a gruesomely dead sister lurking in his history; and the couple next door, who share sexual proclivities best not discussed in polite company and a penchant for skulking around in attics. Further complications include a batch of dead women whose killer also mutilated them in ways that deprived them each of a different sense: touch, hearing, taste, smell. Thwaite must balance her investigating with family time while Plantagenet must deal with his dead wife's sister, who accuses him of murdering her. Before all comes to a rousing if not exactly convincing climax, an exorcist will be called in, that sister-in-law will be abducted and archives housed in a tome covered in human skin will pop up.

Lots of grisly bits, but still fits comfortably within cozy confines.

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

July 1, 2011

A spooky house with a checkered history leads DI Plantagenet (Playing with Bones) into danger as he untangles a sinister trail.

Copyright 2011 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 1, 2011
When their superintendent asks DCI Emily Thwaite and DI Joe Plantagenet to investigate the suspected involvement of local MP Barrington Jenks in the disappearance of two teenage girls 12 years earlier, they know theyre entering politically charged waters. Then, having hardly begun on the Jenks case, theyre asked to check on the disappearance of university student Petulia Ferribie, who lived at 13 Torland Place with three fellow students. Joe and Emily are perplexed when they learn that the house is also linked to the disappearance of the teenagers in the Jenks case and that a mass murderer killed five people there in 1868. Bizarre coincidence? Dont bet on it. After Petulias mutilated body is found, and another woman disappears, it looks like a serial killers on the loose. As seasoned as the two cops are, they are stunned by what they discover in the nooks and crannies of 13 Torland Place. This is a solid, modern-day police procedural with disturbingly dark undercurrents that will appeal to fans of cop-shop dramas and haunted-house mysteries.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)