#BlogTour ‘The Bone House’ by Caroline Mitchell

About the book…

Newsreaders called it ‘the crowpocalypse’. When hundreds of birds fall dead from the sky into Slayton’s lake, the waters are dredged – revealing a dark, long-held secret.

A rusty old pram is pulled from the depths, with the bones of a baby still strapped inside.

It’s the moment Cora has been dreading, and someone is going to make her pay.

With the help of forensic anthropologist Sophia Hudson, star of docudrama In The Bones, Detective Sarah Noble gets to the bottom of a cold case that refuses to stay in the past. Will she survive the secrets of the bone house?

My thanks to Tracy Fenton of Compulsive Readers and publishers for the blog tour and gifted review copy of ‘The Bone House’ which is out in e-book format from April 2023!

The third in the Slayton thriller series, this follows ‘The Midnight Man’ (review here) and ‘The Night Whispers’

It builds on stablished mythology skilfully woven by Caroline, whilst adding in new elements from those who come into Slayton’s environs-even the deeply Southern Elsie, close friend to protagonist Sarah Noble, who appears to all and intents of purpose not to belong there, has an origin story which binds her to this bizarre little town.

A crowpocalypse is a scary enough way to begin a novel, a not entirely unexplained phenomenon which has happened worldwide, birds falling, en masse, out of the sky, dead before they hit the ground.

In this instance, however, it is what that mass of black feathers reveals rather than hides which becomes the bones of the mystery on which this book is constructed, not the other way around.

The clean up mission reveals a deeply broken and aged carcass of a pram from the lake, not an unusual find, however, why were the wheels weighted with bags of rocks?

Who is the occupant of the pram , who deposited in the lake and what were they trying to hide?

As Sarah finds herself pulled to examine someone far too close to home for comfort in connection with the most brutal and unfathomable crime imaginable, murdering a baby, she finds herself trapped in a situation that defies logic, whilst simultaneously cleaving to everything that she, and we, the readers, know about Slayton.

It’s a shocking crime, the death of an innocent baby, and the reactionary way which the forces of justice, the moral codes of the reader and society at large behave towards those accused of such malevolence reveals a great deal about how we treat those alleged to be innocent until proven otherwise. Particularly towards women whose suspected crimes transgress boundaries of gender norms.

In the court of Facebook and online speculation, evidence is secondary to feelings leaving Sarah and her troops with an ever complicated web to unravel both from the past, and in the present.

Slayton may be highly unusual in the events which have shaped it, but it has provided a refuge for many and there are reasons why someone would want to hide themselves in a town like this, both good and bad. Sarah’s experiences as a police officer in Slayton are put to the test in the first investigation that she is heading,  where everyone from her new boss to the much admired forensic expert bought in to assist has their eyes firmly on her.

Solving the mystery is just half of the journey you go through as a reader, you are juggling, along with Sarah, her understanding of the dark depths of the human soul, why ignoring your instincts can be perilous and giving a safe space for those do not feel they have one, to talk about experiences which embrace the supernatural.

There are things which happen that cannot be explained by conventional logic, there is a dark edge to this thrilling crime novel that touches areas which leave you feeling stained and uncomfortable, and it is a joy to see the evolution of a writer like Caroline Mitchell, expanding from writing crime, to straddle a crime/horror/supernatural genre all the while adding that element of wry humour and deftness of touch with dialogue that constant readers of hers have come to know so well.

About the author…

Caroline originates from Ireland and now lives with her family in a pretty village on the coast of Essex. A former police detective, Caroline has worked in CID and specialised in roles dealing with vulnerable victims, high-risk victims of domestic abuse, and serious sexual offences. She now writes full time.

Set in Shoreditch, London, her Ruby Preston trilogy is described as terrifying, addictive serial killer thrillers.
Caroline also writes psychological thrillers. The most recent, ‘Silent Victim’, has been described as ‘brilliantly gripping and deliciously creepy’.

Her new D.I Amy Winter series is published by Thomas & Mercer.

Links-http://www.caroline-writes.com/

Twitter @Caroline_writes @emblabooks @Tr4cyF3nt0n