PLACING a Liverpool-born black Detective Inspector into a small police district in Devon smacks of contrivance.
However Kate Ellis then proceeds to turn her detective, Wesley Peterson, into just a normal bobby -- with a wife and one small child and another on the way.
I could not guess whodunnit in The Skeleton Room, but then neither does central character detective Wesley Peterson or his boss and colleagues. Rather, a very well put together tale of police work leads us -- and the police -- to something of a surprise ending. Kate Ellis' way of weaving a number of stories together keeps the reader interested and guessing throughout. Builders converting a former girls' school into a hotel find a female skeleton walled up in a hidden room; a dead body is found in the sea by marine archeologists while a man wanted for murder in London is being hunted. The characters are believable as is the reason for the murders. One does wonder, however, if it might not give ideas to the ungodly.
The Skeleton Room by Kate Ellis (£5.99, Piatkus).
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