Macmillan – nigeladamsbookworm

I want to start this review with two quotes, of quotes, from the book.

Are we just to accept you’re either the victim or the killer, and there’s nothing in between

And

A jury consists of twelve persons chosen to decide who has the better lawyer

Two paragraphs from early in the book that sum up this story.

There are twist and turns, there are hidden clues, some of which were so obvious, but only with the benefit of hindsight, and there is one hell of an ending

Leila is a Barrister and she is about to defend her client, Jack Millman.

There are a few things that make this a tense situation.

It’s Leila’s first murder trial.

The Victim was a well loved Judge

Perhaps the worst, her Husband is the prosecution Barrister.

Oh, and there’s one other thing. Millman pleads innocent but he won’t give any information to help build his defence.

He was arrested at the scene and has gone given no comment as his answer to every question the police has asked him.

A tactic he continues when he has his first meeting with Leila.

She has defended him before, on an assault case. He was innocent but found guilty.

Why?

Because he gave the police information about the girl he was protecting during the alleged assault. She was going to be his key witness, but she was got at by some powerful people and never gave her evidence in court. Worse still he was labelled a grass for accusing a gang member of assaulting the girl.

This time he’s giving nobody a chance to interfere with what he hopes will be a fair trial.

That is the main thread of the story, but there is also the nice in house soap opera that is the Chambers Laila and her husband work out of.

It’s a hard working law chambers where politics and “relationships” drive the narrative.

I like legs thrillers. The American ones are usually top of the best sellers but the British Legal system is so full of traditions and history; nepotism and old school ties, sex and scandal, that it makes for fascinating reading.

This is one of the best, in this genre, that I’ve read for a long time.

Pages: 416. Publisher: Macmillian. Audiobook Length 11 hours 40 mins. Narrator Joanne Froggart

A story of two families; neither of which are particularly happy, both of which have a child with a bone deformity, and a killer who collects bones, the rarer the better.

The Frith’s son, 6-year-old Jakey is suffering from a condition that sees him growing bone spurs and extra bones. He’s fragile and mollycoddled, but he’s also adventurous and is often on the verge of disaster.

The Foyles daughter, 4-year-old Cara, has the middle three fingers on each hand missing due to a birth deformity.

When Cara goes missing on her way home from school Detective Sergeant Etta Fitzroy is part of the team tasked with investigating her disappearance. Fitzroy has recently worked on a disturbing child abduction that was never solved, and gradually begins to think that the two cases might be connected.

The story centres around the two families, Fitzroy, and the Bone Collector

The Frith family are torn apart by the fathers drinking, Erdman tries to give his son as normal a life as possible whilst his wife panics at everything that Jakey is involved in. Meanwhile nobody notices a man in a suite who is gradually ingratiating himself with Jakey. Is this the Bone Collector, or is it somebody else with other motives? Will anybody notice in time to save Jakey.

The Foyles are distraught, their daughter is missing. So why is her father, Miles, not helping the Police. Why has he been seeing prostitutes. Is there any truth in the accusation that he held a young office worker captive in his office? Why will he not tell the police where he was when his daughter went missing.

Cara is alive. She is being held hostage, and the man that is holding her has an unhealthy fascination with her hands.

This story is so well written that it manages to entwine 3 or 4 story threads around each other, and still keep the reader guessing as to how different people are involved.

At times, I was not sure whether there were 1 or 2 villains. Will Fitzroy make the connections and catch the Bone Collector whilst Jakey is safe and Cara is alive?

Fiona Cummins employed a lovely technique at the end of some chapters. It’s simple but I don’t think I’ve read it before. On a chapter that ends a day, she gives each character a small paragraph where she describes what they can see and their emotions. That kept me engrossed throughout.

Fans of psychological thrillers will love this. It original and its good.

Hello Fiona Cummins and welcome to my MUST READ LIST

Pages:495

Publisher: Macmillan

Available on Amazon