She Lies in Wait by Gytha Lodge, a suspenseful series launch

Title: She Lies in Wait
Author: Gytha Lodge
Publication: Random House, hardcover, 2019
Genre: Suspense
Setting: Present-day Britain, somewhere near the New Forest

Description: Back in 1983, six teenagers and one younger sibling went camping in the forest. Aurora Jackson was in awe of her older sister’s confident friends and intimidated by their drinking and drug use. She disappeared in the middle of the night and was never seen again. Thirty years later her body is found and Detective Jonah Sheens is put in charge of the investigation. He knew the Jackson family from school and had just become a policeman at the time of the tragedy. Now he is determined to solve the mystery and provide closure for the Jackson family. As it turns out, Aurora’s murder investigation reveals much more than Sheens and his team expected.

My Impression: This is a series launch about Detective Chief Inspector Jonah Sheens. He is a morose individual, whose marriage ended eight months ago, and his interest in the former teens connected to Aurora’s disappearance seems odd not just to the reader but to the newest member of his team, Detective Juliette Constable Hanson. She also has an estranged ex, who sends abusive texts which distract her from the investigation.

The six former teens are now in their 40s, successful, and for the most part, still loyal to each other despite the mystery that has hung over them for 30 years. Two are actually married to each other. However, it becomes more and more obvious to the reader, the detectives, and to the six that one of them murdered Aurora and has used them to hide any evidence.

“I suppose she had to be dead, didn’t she?” she said, and took a large gulp. “But it’s not nice knowing it. What do you think happened? Was she murdered?”

“We’re trying to establish what happened,” Hanson said with the natural evasiveness of a good interviewing officer. “We’d like to ask if you know anything about the location she was found in. It was a hollow underneath a tree.”

“What?”

It was whip-sharp, that word. Almost angry.

This was a suspenseful read, told from multiple points of view, that reminded me a little of In the Woods, another cold case where the primary investigator also has a connection to those involved and should probably have recused himself. There are a lot of characters to keep track of and most of them are fairly unpleasant but the book was sufficiently appealing that I think I will read more in the series. I don’t recall who recommended this – if it was you, please tell me!

This is my seventeenth book for the Cloak and Dagger Challenge.

Source: Library