Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Talking to the Dead by Harry Bingham

Detective Constable Fiona Griffiths keeps to herself on the Cardiff police force.  In her teens, she had a breakdown, the specifics of which she hides from both her colleagues and the reader.  Right now, she is working on the case of a retired cop named Brian Penry (who stole money from a school he was working for), yet she finds herself drawn to an investigation into the murders of a prostitute, Janet Mancini, and her young daughter, April.  Given the task of tracing why wealthy, missing (and presumed dead) businessman Brendan Rattigan's debit card was found at the crime scene, Fiona finds herself digging even deeper into the case, going beyond the bounds set by her superiors. Will Fiona succeed in finding justice for both Janet and April while not losing her job or sanity in the process?  I had very high expectations for Talking to the Dead, based on a couple of starred reviews in library publications.  While it was good, it isn't in the same league as Now You See Me by S.J. Bolton, The Various Haunts of Men by Susan Hill, or Blue Monday by Nicci French, which would be good read-alikes.

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