(belated post. spoilers behind cuts.)
This is the second book, following Ghosts in the Snow, in Tamara Siler Jones‘ medieval-type fantasy forensic mystery series. It’s a lot more gruesome than the first one, and just as much fun. The mystery plot was interesting, the various subplots fit in well, and the characters come across as very real people.
One of her names drove me nuts: Braoin, or Bray for short. Except I’d pronounce Braoin like “Breen”, so the short version would be Brie like the cheese. Not a big deal, and it didn’t come up much in the book anyway.
I did suffer a slight mental disconnect when the identity of the killer was revealed, because the visual image I’d had of the person turned out to be completely wrong. There were scenes with the killer in them doing the killing, and there were scenes with the killer in his normal life (not identified as the killer). The mental picture I’d built up in my head of those people was *completely* different, so that when I found they were the same person, I first had a moment of disbelief and then had to try to wrench my mental images into agreement.
Some time I’d like to go back through the book to the various scenes with those two personas, and look at what was actually described to see where my imagination had gone wrong. Or perhaps the characters hadn’t been described as vividly as I’d pictured them, allowing my brain to insert its own, incorrect, images. There’s a very interesting description lesson in there somewhere.
One minor quibble: I really didn’t think it very likely that the killer would have an adopted son, given that he’s torturing and sexually abusing teenage boys.
There was one plot event that I really felt was unnecessary.
That was the death of Aly, the little girl, near the end. I can see two things that it does: 1) drive a wedge between Lars (one of the protags) and Aly’s family (Lars wants to court her sister), and 2) provides a reason for Lars to be alone in the barn so he can be attacked by the villain.
Since this happens near the end of the book, there isn’t a long time before Aly’s family mostly forgives Lars for not saving Aly. I hope there will be further repercussions in the next book.
Now, while they’re mad, they send him to sleep in the barn, which lets the villain get him alone. Except there were dozens of other reasons he could have been alone in the barn – he’d been wandering alone in various other parts of the book.
It seemed like the little girl died just for the shock value.
But otherwise I really liked it and recommend it. Now waiting for the next one.