An Unquiet Grave

Starred review from December 5, 2005
Bestseller Parrish's gripping and atmospheric new Louis Kincaid novel (after A Killing Rain
) is a quality read that will remind many of Dennis Lehane. The Florida PI's Thanksgiving plans with his significant other are derailed when Kincaid's foster father, Phillip, asks for his help with a delicate problem. The body of Phillip's youthful love, Claudia Olsen, has disappeared from her coffin, a travesty unearthed in the course of the demolition of the Michigan mental institution where Claudia was committed. Kincaid's search for the missing remains crosses paths with a journalist's pursuit of rumors that a serial killer, who was also a patient at the facility, is still alive and on the loose. Parrish manages to make what could be a formulaic plot fresh, both through her gift at creating sympathetic main and secondary characters and through her skill at creating suspense and sustaining a mood. The author's ability to raise goose bumps puts her in the front rank of thriller writers.