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FIELD OF GRAVES
by J.T. Ellison
MIRA, June 2016
368 pages
$26.99
ISBN: 0778318923


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

In FIELD OF GRAVES, prolific psychological thriller author JT Ellison presents us with the story that ultimately sparked the Homicide Lt Taylor Jackson series that concluded in 2011. When a series of young women are found sexually assaulted and murdered around Nashville, the case comes to the attention of Taylor Jackson, a talented police lieutenant who is trying to move past a traumatic incident with a corrupt colleague.

When the murdered women are revealed to be students of the prestigious and home-to-the-wealthy Vanderbilt University, a media firestorm around the case erupts. Taylor and her best friend, city medical examiner Samantha Owens, are trying to connect the murdered and missing girls in some way in order to make sense of their bizarre and ritualistic murders, even though they seem to have little in common, aside from their student status at Vanderbilt. Local FBI agent Garrett Woods sees this case as a way to get one of his most troubled souls back in the game and arranges for the brilliant but reclusive profiler John Baldwin, who has spent most of the last year drinking himself to near-death, to assist with the case. After a priest and a young woman are found burned to death in the rubble of a church, it only creates a more precarious situation for Taylor and her team.

Taylor finds a kindred spirit, albeit an extremely troubled one, in Baldwin and it's fairly clear where that relationship is going, both professionally and personally, from the start. But it is a compelling relationship and one that serves as a source of light in an otherwise bleak tale. The story of this multi-faceted investigation begins to be periodically interspersed at around the half-way mark with the struggle of the final missing Vanderbilt student as she is being psychologically tortured by her captor and our serial killer.

While serial killers, especially ritualistic one, are pretty grim subjects, Ellison manages to make this one a pretty accessible and entertaining affair. Strong characterizations and a consistent, but not distracting, sense of humor help the novel find a balance that mostly works. Fans of Alex Kava and Catherine Coulter are likely to be pleased by what they find here.

While functionally a prequel, this is actually just the first publication of the first novel Ellison wrote that preceded the official genesis of the series in 2007's ALL THE PRETTY GIRLS. While longtime readers of the series will no doubt get references and appreciate how events in this story affected the trajectory of those characters that they grew to love over the years, FIELD OF GRAVES works well for the uninitiated as well. While even the casual reader of thrillers will find most of this territory familiar and predictable in some ways, Ellison is able to craft an accessible read that is sure to satisfy most readers of the genre.

§ Ben Neal is a librarian who likes to fancy himself an amateur writer, humorist, detective, and coffee connoisseur in his spare time. He can be reached at beneneal@indiana.edu.

Reviewed by Ben Neal, September 2016

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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