Secret Places by Heather Peck
Publisher: SilverWood Books
Genre: Contemporary, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller
Rating: 4 stars
Reviewed by FernA body in a bunker: a secret buried for decades…
When a skeleton is discovered in a long-abandoned WWII bunker, goat farmer Tristan Smith’s quiet life on the Yorkshire moors shatters overnight.
DI Greg Geldard takes the case, uncovering a tangle of lies that reach far beyond the moors. Each clue draws him closer to a truth someone is still desperate to hide.
As another victim disappears, past and present collide in a deadly pattern. Will Geldard expose the killer before history repeats itself?
DI Greg Geldard and his team is called to investigate when a human skeleton is found among other sheep remains in an abandoned WW2 bunker. Very few people knew about the bunker – though the current farm owner had been told by the previous owner that the shaft was a waste disposal site used for normal deaths of the various farm animals. Who was responsible for the remains, and can DI Geldard and his team uncover what really occurred?
This was a new to me author and while I thoroughly enjoyed the mystery and plot it was a refreshingly different manner of the story being told. The author regularly moved the perspective from the current investigation back to the previous owner and slowly pieced together what occurred in some of the lags as the investigators dug deeper into the story. I often find perspective shifts – and time shifts in particular – quite jarring but I have to admit I found the author did a smooth and excellent job with this. I do admit I don’t think this will suit all readers, and in particular the reader is exposed to some of the story that the detectives aren’t privy to – which I did find unusual.
I thought the characters were well drawn and interesting. I also found the setting of rural York gave a good atmosphere and was different to a lot of the more city or London based police procedural stories. The pace of the mystery was a little slow – but that was mostly as the investigation moved along actually trying to uncover what had happened. Readers eager for a fast-moving plot might not enjoy this book as much as I did, but I thought the writing and pacing was really quite good.
Fun and fresh, I found this an interesting book and a good first read – for me – of this author. A good story and a series I hope to continue with. Recommended.
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