Yorkshire Dales, Summer 1997. Vicky Mott slips out the door of her remote cottage, and into the pale dawn light. She scrawls a note for her friends.

Gone to see the sunrise. V xxx That’s the last anyone ever hears from twenty-year-old music lover Vicky. Another victim of the Fellside Strangler?

That would make Vicky the fourth young woman to lose her life this summer. Snatched by a mysterious killer who stalks the fells . . . But Vicky’s body is never found.

2019. A skeleton is discovered in a twisty network of caves beneath the fells. Detectives Leo Donovan and Shan Young think they can finally give Vicky’s mother the closure she so desperately wants. After twenty long years of questions and anguish.

But the deeper they dig into the past, the less certain they become. And nothing can prepare them for the shocking truth . . .

THE DETECTIVES
Detective Leo Donovan is a veteran of the Yorkshire force. A true empath, he’s happily married, but prone to low mood and bouts of arthritis. Compassion motivates him, and a need to see justice done in a flawed world that is seldom fair. Leo’s wayward son drives him to distraction, but working with his partner Shan is a breath of fresh air.

Detective Shan Young is a rising star of Leo’s team. She lands her first case as detective while pregnant. Not that she’s fazed by it. A salt-of-the-earth Yorkshire lass with Chinese heritage, she often feels caught between two cultures — something which makes her appreciate Leo all the more, as a mentor and a friend.

THE SETTING
Welcome to the Yorkshire Dales, an untamed landscape of fells and valleys, waterfalls and ruined barns, deep, dark caves and windswept limestone pavements.

My Review

The story is told from four different points of view. We have Detective Leo Donovan, Detective Shan Young, the missing woman’s mother Elizabeth, and the victim herself, Vicky. I wasn’t sure about Vicky’s POV, because it felt a bit like I was cheating. As the reader, I can see what happened, but no-one else can – it was speculation from everyone else’s point of view in 2019.

Vicky went missing in 1997, her body never discovered. Or maybe she isn’t dead at all, but decided to disappear. No-one believes this is likely – she had too much to lose, too much planned. There were people who suggested Lucy Partington ran off to join a cult (I knew her though not well) in 1973. Then her body was found in Fred West’s house in 1992 along with his other victims. In The Fells, a serial killer nicknamed the Fellside Strangler is in prison after being convicted of the abduction and murder of three young women. So it makes sense that he took her as well, like West.

Twenty two years later, a pot-holer discovers a skeleton in a cavern. the police can use DNA and other methods to find out whether it’s Vicky, and of course it is. But did she fall, was she pushed or was she killed and thrown in afterwards? Even with the most sophisticated means, it will be impossible to know, and even harder to prove. And that’s what bothered me about hearing from Vicky.

However, it’s a really good story and the detective team of Leo and Shan are brilliant. They obviously have their own stuff going on – this is the first of a new series of books – Leo’s son Luke being not just a pain in the neck, but a racist with a hideous agenda. Shan is in a relationship with Erin and is pregnant. There’s a lot more to come I’m guessing, and some things remain unresolved at the end of the book. Bring on book two!

Many thanks to The Pigeonhole, the author, and my fellow Pigeons for making this such an enjoyable read.

About the Author

Cath Staincliffe is a best-selling, award-winning novelist, radio playwright and the creator of ITV’s hit series, Blue Murder, starring Caroline Quentin as DCI Janine Lewis. Cath’s books have been short-listed for the British Crime Writers Association best first novel award, for the Dagger in the Library and selected as Le Masque de l’Année. In 2012 Cath won the CWA Short Story Dagger for Laptop, sharing the prize with Margaret Murphy with her story The Message. Cath was shortlisted again with Night Nurse in 2014. Cath’s Sal Kilkenny private eye series features a single-parent sleuth working the mean streets of Manchester. Trio, a stand-alone novel moved away from crime to explore adoption and growing up in the 1960s, inspired by Cath’s own experience. Letters To My Daughter’s Killer was selected for Specsavers Crime Thriller Book Club in 2014 and featured on ITV3s Crime Thriller Club.

Cath also writes the Scott & Bailey novels based on the popular UK TV series. Cath’s latest stand alone book, The Girl in the Green Dress, was inspired by her experience as the parent of a transgender child. It tells the story of a transphobic hate crime and asks the question: how far would you go to protect your child? Cath is one of the founding members of Murder Squad – a group of Northern crime writers who give readings, talks and signings around the country. Cath was born in Bradford, Yorkshire, UK and now lives in Manchester, Lancashire with her family. You can follow her on Twitter @CathStaincliffe, which she does when she should be busy writing!