Laying Out the Bones: A riveting and twisty cold case mystery by Katherine WebbMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Gah! Just decided to finish this ahead of its imminent publication only to discover I finished reading it two weeks ago.
This is the second book featuring DI Matt Lockyer who has been demoted to solving cold cases after suspicions were raised that he covered up the involvement of a personal friend in an arson attack.
After the long hot summer is broken with a torrential downpour a skeleton is uncovered. Forensics confirm the skeleton is that of a young man called Lee Geary who disappeared nine years ago. Lea and two others, one man and one woman were suspects in the disappearance and suspicious death of another young woman, Holly Gilbert. The other two are both dead and the discovery of Lee's remains lends credence to the theory that the three of them were perhaps killed as revenge for Holly's death.
Meanwhile, Matt is pining over Hedy Lambert, a woman wrongly incarcerated for fourteen years for a murder she didn't commit. Matt had feelings for her then, and they briefly rekindled their relationship on her release, but she left him to go travelling. In addition, his mother is desperately ill in hospital during the COVID-19 pandemic and his taciturn father is stubbornly refusing to acknowledge that she might not recover. If that weren't enough, at the end of the last book his elderly next door neighbour admitted to her part in covering up a death, something which has put Matt in a very difficult position.
The mark of a good story for me is whether or not you can recall it. When I started flicking back to see what had happened (so I could write this review) it all came flooding back to me. Who killed Lee, who killed Holly, what had happened and why. So even though I didn't remember finishing the book, it only took a moment to recall it perfectly. In fact, the only weakness in the book (in my opinion) was Matt's love life, it felt like the author didn't want to commit to Matt/Hedy and wrote her out of the picture just to be able to introduce potential other partners.
Also, and I usually complain the other way, I could have done with more of a reminder of what had happened in the first book between Hedy and Matt.
Otherwise, a nice twisty turny cold case mystery solved.
I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley for an honest review.
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