Not all secrets remain buried forever…

Archaeologist Cherie Hope makes a gruesome discovery in the grounds of a local cemetery. She’s desperate to know more, and wonders why caretaker Ash Black is being so guarded.

Delving deeper, and liaising with the police, Cherie is drawn into a story that spans back fifty years. Entangled in a web of deceit, she soon uncovers a missing person, an inherited heirloom and hidden cemetery logbooks.

The lodge has been in Ash’s family for generations, but his elderly father’s dementia means unlocking the truth of what really happened all those years ago will be a challenge.

Is the caretaker really protecting his father, or is he worried about what his father is hiding?

My Review

Recently divorced archaeologist Cherie Hope has a new job. She is going to look at an old church and the surrounding cemetery grounds and take lots of pictures. She will have to work from the cemetery lodge, where Ash Black is the caretaker. He seems OK but he can be very prickly and not good around women. In fact he expected the archaeologist to be a man. Here we go again thinks Cherie – her ex-husband struggled with her ‘superior intellect’ or that it was the way she saw herself. In fact Cherie is lovely and never comes across that way to me, though she can be a bit tactless at times.

As well as being the caretaker of the cemetery, Ash looks after his father Hal, who has dementia, though he can be left on his own for short periods of time. Hal was the caretaker before Ash and his father before him.

Initially they all toddle along quite happily together, in fact Hal seems comfortable with Cherie’s company, but then Cherie and Ash make a gruesome discovery in the old church, which starts the ball rolling on a fifty-year-old mystery. Ash is being guarded about it, while Cherie is desperate to discover the truth. That’s her job after all, uncovering historical mysteries.

But is it because Ash is worried what Hal knows about it? Hal can’t remember, but the police aren’t going to let that stop them.

It’s a very clever story, with some really likeable characters. I became very fond of Cherie, her boss Will, Hal and even Ash – he grows on you after a while.

Many thanks to @lovebookstours for inviting me to be part of the #CemeteryLodge blog tour.

About the Author

“I live in Cumbria, in Barrow-in-Furness, which is on the coast near the foothills of The Lakes. I studied science at college and specialised in it for my Bachelor’s teaching degree, but my heart has always been tied up with books and reading. I walked away from a long teaching career because I wanted to write. I am married to a photographer and have two children- a thirty-nine-year-old daughter, and a twenty-two-year-old son, who is still at home with us. I am a passionate advocate for local communities- Barrow has a deep Victorian heritage and a Cistercian Abbey- and I have studied these in depth for my own interest and within my teaching career. Barrow people are community driven and welcoming, and their character is unique in so many ways. I want to capture all of this in the books I write. I’ve got a master’s degree in Creative Writing, and a post graduate diploma in regional and local history. I have six novels published with Bloodhound Books: Seaview House; The Cottage; Blackthorn Wood; Chapel Field; Halfmoon Lane and Cemetery Lodge.”

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