Genevieve, 34 is walking through backstreets to the Cambridge Beer Festival when she sees a stabbed women in a garden. While she's giving CPR she's stabbed too.
7 years later, a burnt out car is found, conspicuous on the Gogs outside Cambridge. A dead man (Paul Marshall) is tied to a nearby tree. A tall blond barefoot girl is seen there.
Jane Osborn, living near Leeds, has had her hair done. A new start. She's leaving Ade. She's caught shoplifting. The Cambridge police are contacted - she's been a missing person since she was 15. Her sister Becky was the stabbed woman in the garden. She died but Gevenieve survived. Her husband Jimmy talks to DI Goodhew, saying that her wife hasn't mentally recovered. She's not sure that Jackson (who was convicted of the crime and has recently been released) is guilty. Vital evidence has somehow been comprised - a police error.
Jane is questioned. She knows about her sister but doesn't say. She moves into the family house, which is about to be sold (father lives in his studio, mother gone, brother and family live nearby). Jane tells the police she wants to contact her mother, Mary. Meanwhile she cleans the cellar. The police track "Mary Oliver" to France, but it's someone who exchanged identities with the real Mary.
Like the Oliver family, the police characters also have their pattern of interaction. Goodhew and Kinkaid don't get on. Kinkaid seems strangely sociable.
Jackson pleads innocence to Jane. He's living in a house while he's doing up. Jane knows that he had sex with her mother and with Becky.
Marshall owned a boat. Initially his widow says that she didn't know about it. Later, after forensic analysis she admits that her husband had aggressive sex urges and she knew he'd been with prostitutes. The police track down the stray girl by her tattoo. She's a student, Andy, who worked for an Escort Agency. Marshall had hired her for a weekend when anything was allowed, for £5,000. He'd hurt her. The agency was run by her landlord and his wife - the Daltons. Jackson is repairing one of their houses. They used to work with Mary, whose body is found in the Osborn's cellar. Becky had been a prostitute with the same Escort Agency.
Jane knew Marshall?
Kinkaid had invalidated the evidence for the sake of the Daltons (Kinkaid had been using their services too). Dan had killed his mother (so an immoral person like her wouldn't benefit from the divorce). His father's artwork had risen in value because of Becky's death. Dan gained from that too. He killed Becky. He tries to kill Jane but is stopped.
I like the internal monologues and the dialogues. The plot mechanics aren't too creaky.
- There's little or no action on "The Backs" - 2 woman were stabbed in the back though
- "Following the road as it slipped up Castle Street" needs tidying up
- The Cambridge police drove Jane from Leeds to Cambridge for questioning then released her in the night. That doesn't sound right.
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