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Sandy Renshaw had been missing for over two years although her parents refused to accept it, believing that she would walk in the door at any moment. When Sandyıs mobile phone is found, tossed into some rubbish, the police reopen the case of her disappearance. And when one of the last people to see her alive is murdered, they have yet another crime to solve. Still other bodies, dead and wounded, add complications to the story. The Renshaws live in the village of Withens along with a large family whose members annoy nearly everyone. The Oxleys survive on their wits; the children are blamed for every nuisance that happens in the valley; and they all hate authority. Detective Ben Cooper has moved away from the family farm and has gotten his own apartment and he is assigned to try to deal with the Oxleys. As always in one of Boothıs mysteries, the setting is incredible. The reader finds herself in these remote hills of the Lake Country, tramping through the valleys where villages once stood, feeling the loneliness of the moors, and understanding the stubbornness of those who insist upon remaining. The plethora of details gives us a vivid picture of the backdrop for the stories that are taking place. The village of Withens is dying and it seems to outsiders that the Oxley family may be one of the major problems. Secretive, stubborn. loyal to their own they turn a fierce front to the rest of the world. The village is small, inbred, with ancient feuds and few manage to escape. The characters are also very well drawn. Again, using the Oxley family as an example, they come alive as we learn about them detail by detail and we grow more sympathetic to them as we learn (just as in real life). The rather ineffective rector is a bit dazzled by what the village is and can offer little guidance to his parishioners. The Renshaws, refusing to believe that their daughter is dead, wring our hearts but, after a while, begin to annoy us also. The two series detectives, Diane Fry and Ben Cooper, are especially authentic and we find ourselves believing in them completely. Diane is a prickly, sometimes bitter woman who does not get along well with many (when looking for a friend to her, another character can only cite Ben), but she gets her work done and she is a very efficient cop. She is impatient with Ben and sometimes gets very angry at his much more laid-back style, his knowledge of the countryside (he has lived in these parts all of his life), and his inability to get angry with her. The tension between the two forms the center arc of the book. It is hard to be a friend to Diane but Ben truly tries and then wonders why he bothers. The plot is quite complex and seems to meander about. It is perhaps overly complex and does present the reader with a great deal of information which does not seem to come together until the very end. I enjoyed the book but had the feeling that editing might have streamlined the story and made it leaner and somehow more powerful.
Reviewed by Barbara Franchi, October 2003
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