A Black Notice means one thing: unidentified human remains. And this time, five skeletons lie interlocked in the darkness of a wartime pillbox.
Rowan Jackman and Marie Evans are the detectives who take on the toughest cases on the Lincolnshire fens. And trouble always comes in threes.
6 a.m. on a dark autumn morning. Retired detective Bob Ruston is about to feed the dog when the doorbell rings. The man on the doorstep has blood running down his cheek and a look of terror on his face. ‘Please! Let me in! They’re going to kill me!’
Bob sees a handcuff dangling from the man’s lacerated wrist.
Later that day, a stylishly dressed woman marches into Saltern-le-Fen police station demanding to see Detective Marie Evans. ‘I want you to find my husband.’
Then a homeowner clearing undergrowth in his back garden makes a horrifying discovery. The decomposing remains of five bodies tangled together in an old WW2 pillbox.
Detective Jackman asks Interpol to issue a Black Notice. But little is he prepared for the shocking results that come in . . .
I was born in Kent but spent most of my working life in London and Surrey. I was an apprentice florist to Constance Spry Ltd, a prestigious Mayfair shop that throughout the Sixties and Seventies teemed with both royalty and ‘real’ celebrities. What an eye-opener for a working-class kid from the Garden of England! I swore then, probably whilst I was scrubbing the floor or making the tea, that I would have a shop of my own one day. It took until the early Eighties, but I did it.
Sadly the recession wiped us out, and I embarked on a series of weird and wonderful jobs; the last one being a bookshop manager. Surrounded by books all day, getting to order whatever you liked, and being paid for it! Oh bliss!
And now I live in a village in the Lincolnshire Fens with my partner, Jacqueline, and three Springer spaniels and four little rescue, Breton spaniels. I had been writing mysteries for years
but never had the time to take it seriously.
Now I write full-time, and as my partner is a highly decorated retired police officer; my choice of genre is a no-brainer! I have an on-tap police and judicial consultant, who makes exceedingly good tea!
I have set my crime thrillers here in the misty fens because I sincerely love the remoteness and airy beauty of the marshlands. This area is steeped in superstitions and lends itself so well to
murder!
I am lucky enough to be one of the amazing Joffe Books team of authors and am really enjoying being able to spend time doing what I love… writing!
My thoughts: This was really good, if a little gory. When five bodies are found in an old WW2 pillbox in a field, the police must find out who they are and who put them there.
At the same time they’re also looking into a missing man – out on parole, his wife is worried because he wouldn’t just take off and risk his liberty like that. It turns out he’s connected to something much bigger.
The cases are complicated and require the whole team to get involved, handling different elements and working through all the evidence.
I don’t want to spoil this but the reveal is shocking and rather brilliant, I was totally gripped. Joy Ellis is a great writer and her stories are so clever.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
ramblingmads 
Thank you so much for being a part of the tour x
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