Twisted Bones
(Detective Morgan Brookes Book 15)
by Helen Phifer
Morgan kneels beside the fluttering crime scene tape. Their hands clasped, the couple’s embrace looks loving and warm, but an icy chill grips the air. Their lips are blue, and blood is dripping on the floor. They have been silenced forever…
When sweet-natured teaching assistant Rosie Waite, and her boyfriend Matt, are found dead in their quaint family home in the Lake District, Detective Morgan Brookes is horrified. Sleeping just two doors down, she heard no screams for help, no slamming doors, or alarms in the night. A twisted killer nailed the couple’s lips shut, and Morgan vows to keep watch over every innocent family in Rydal Falls until this monster is brought to justice.Climbing the narrow attic staircase as she searches every inch of the property, Morgan finds a mattress on the floor, empty food wrappers, and a letter that reads: if you’ve found this, you’re next to die. Fear washes over Morgan’s team; the killer was watching his victims, and now her life is at risk.
Ignoring pleas that she take a step back, Morgan throws herself harder at the case discovering that the nails used to bind the victims’ lips were pierced with expert equipment. And Matt had been asking questions at a local tattoo parlour. Everyone thought he and Rosie were a quiet, kind-hearted couple, but was Matt hiding a dangerous secret? Did he betray the woman he loved?
Moonlight shines over the cottage by the river, casting a shadow over the frozen water. Silk fabric rustles in the reeds, moving ever so slightly to reveal five thin bones…
When Detective Morgan Brookes is urgently called to her Aunt Ettie’s cottage, hidden in Covel Woods, she rushes to the scene. Panicked Ettie is shaken having discovered the chilling remains of a woman in the river, one skeletal hand reaching out from the deep water.
The unknown woman was dressed to walk the rugged trails of the Lake District, so Morgan’s team assume she fell in the water and was taken by the current. But thin diagonal bruises on her neck suggest something far more sinister. A faded red rose tattoo helps Morgan identify her as a homeless woman named Martha who went missing seven years ago, and Morgan is horrified to discover Martha stole nappies and baby formula just before she disappeared. Did she have a child? Where is the poor baby now?
Desperately searching through cold case files, Morgan discovers that schoolteacher Aria Burns went missing from the same busy area. But her horror quickly turns to hope when she sees the autopsy results from Martha’s frozen remains. She was killed recently; if Aria was taken by the same killer, she could still be alive.
Morgan is certain a twisted individual is stalking Rydal Falls, and Martha’s body was dumped to signal the beginning of his cruel game. But just as she finds a clear suspect in a visitor with links to the area where Martha and Aria went missing, another body surfaces. Can she uncover the truth about Martha, and find Aria alive? Or is she already too late?
Fans of Lisa Regan, Melinda Leigh and Rachel McLean will hold their breath as they read this addictive and utterly unputdownable crime thriller.
My Rating:
Favorite Quotes:
I definitely don’t expect you to cook, Morgan, I don’t want to add food poisoning to his list of problems. He has enough without forcing your cooking onto him.
She felt her skin crawl, this guy had to be in his late fifties, with a receding hairline and a comb-over. Thick wire-rimmed glasses made his small, narrow eyes look as if they wouldn’t be out of place on a rat. If she had to pick a serial killer out of a seventies’ line-up, he would be the one standing nestled between Dahmer and Nielsen; he gave her the creeps.
My Review:
Another well-crafted, smartly paced, and unpredictable case for the superior detecting skills of Morgan Brookes. No serial killer gets past her spidey senses. However, this time, the culprit was not even on her radar, or mine, for that matter. As always, Ms. Phifer’s writing was absorbing and easy to fall into, with lots of red herrings and misdirection to keep us scratching our heads, and our curiosity well and truly poked. I continue to enjoy this series and look forward to her next installment.
