Just Cozy Enough . . .

  • Book: BONES IN THE RIVER
  • Location: Appleby-in-Westmorland
  • Author: Zoë Sharp

Review Author: Tom Barclay

Location

Content

Zoë Sharp’s longtime readers will not be disappointed by BONES IN THE RIVER, her latest mystery/thriller in a new trilogy begun with 2018’s DANCING ON THE GRAVE.
New readers who never tried Sharp’s ‘Charlie Fox’ series will enjoy BONES. Still distinctly Sharpish, it’s a traditional English country police procedural – a taut and graceful ‘almost-cozy’
Sharp’s ‘Lakes Thrillers’ pairing of CSI Grace McColl with Detective Nick Weston must unravel the circumstances around the death of a child on a bike at night – an adolescent boy. Meanwhile, the Roma, aka Gypsies and English Travelers, have arrived nearby for the annual Appleby Horse Fair, where bargains are made for horseflesh, marriages, money, and political leadership among the tribes. The campground for the fair is brought to vivid life.
The investigation is profoundly complicated by the dislike and distrust of the locals for the Gypsies, and the Gypsies for the ‘outsiders’ – especially the Cumbria Constabulary. The past casts many shadows on the present, and for all involved the possibility of a knife in the back is no mere metaphor.
Zoë Sharp’s characters and plots are always fully-formed, believable, and driven by believable circumstances. In BONES IN THE RIVER, she writes an especially fine and fair portrayal of the modern Roma, living in the now while still attached to millennia of culture. There are some especially fine descriptions of the traditional varda homes-on-wheels, and of the horses so central to Roma culture.
This is one of the major differences between the ‘Charlie Fox’ and the ‘Lakes’ books; here, Sharp can allow her photographer’s eye and artist’s awareness to make us see the world she’s created.
Strongly recommended

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