Playing With Bones

This has been an exceptionally busy summer, with more hospital visiting and less writing and reading than I anticipated some months back, and as a result, my list of things that I should have done but haven’t is nearly as long as my list of must-read books.

One of those must-reads is definitely Playing with Bones, by Kate Ellis. Published on 2 July by Piatkus, it is the second Joe Plantagenet mystery, set in Eborby (which bears a very close resemblance to York, a marvellous city which has also featured in a number of books by other crime-writing friends of mine, John Baker and Barbara Whitehead.)

As with Seeking the Dead (Joe’s first recorded case, which I covered in this blog a while back) there is an eerie feel to the story-line. Singmass Close has a sinister past, and is reputed to be haunted by children’s ghosts. In the 1950s, it was the hunting ground of the Doll Strangler, who was never brought to justice. When a teenager’s strangled corpse is found, Joe wonders if he is dealing with a copycat killer.

I really enjoyed Seeking the Dead, which had a characteristically clever plot designed to confound even determined whodunit-solvers like me. I’m looking forward very much to devouring Playing with Bones.