“Enough of this noise. He had things to do, places to go. He struck a match, casually flicked it under the car and walked away. Within a split second the vehicle was ablaze. Like all the rest, Vida was now history.”

Dead Silent
by Helen H. Durrant

Two cases vie for attention in this second book in the series featuring D.I. Tom Calladine and D.S. Ruth Bayliss. The first involves the body of a young woman found at a car crash scene. The problem is the woman was already dead, the driver knows nothing and the only clue to the woman’s identity is the livestock tag attached to her earlobe.

Meanwhile the police are also racing against time to find a young child that went missing and as the police investigate they realize the family also has some secrets to hide but could they have had anything to do with their missing child?

In the case of the missing woman it soon becomes clear that the police are looking for more victims and the one commonality they share is that they are all American students. Is it because they are far from home that they were easy prey?

This police procedural is set in the fictional town of Leesdon, England. While I didn’t read the first in the series I didn’t feel it was necessary. This was a fast-paced read but unfortunately the reveal was a bit underwhelming for me. I did like the two main detectives though so I would give this series another chance.

Source: Advance Reading Copy

Hope you all had a great weekend. We went to the plant sale and found more plants for our backyard. There’s still a lot of work to be done but it makes me so happy to see the plants doing well and growing. We’ve reduced the amount of lawn in our backyard, gone to all native plants and most are low water usage, draught tolerant and low maintenance.

But now to talk about the weekend books. I went to the library to pick up a hold and while there I browsed a bit and picked up two other books.

My book on hold was Ghost Stories which is an Everyman’s Pocket Classics book. One of my favorites is in this edition, “The Monkey’s Paw,” but there are stories by Edith Wharton, Guy De Maupassant, Elizabeth Taylor and Penelope Lively to name a few. A perfect read for this time of the year right?

Then I also picked up Academy Street by Mary Costello. This one was on the new books shelf. According to the book jacket this story is about Tess Lohan. She is the kind of woman we meet and fail to notice every day. When I opened the book I found the following quote:

“In the depths of the winter I finally learned that there lay in me an unconquerable summer.” ~ Albert Camus.

I love that quote and didn’t need to read more about the book. I had to check it out.

Finally I went over to the Mysteries section and picked up The Risk of Darkness by Susan Hill. I read the first two Inspector Serrailler mysteries and liked that but was a bit frustrated with the main character but I’ve decided to give him another chance.

Now time to get back to my books for a few more pages before it’s time to go to bed.