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Gritty and dark, this fourth installment in the Yorkshire Murders series is my first by this author, working well as a stand-alone read. With shades of Ian Rankin, this is a world of drug lords and bosses, rival gangs and enforced loyalties, haves and have-nots, the universally-suffering arm of revenge, and perhaps most of all, the cold clear brutality of new youth. Peopled with a complex and intricately-related cast of characters, this is a plot that winds and weaves its way across broken families and decades.

The story (or actually stories, each twisting and turning to eventually intertwine) are alternately narrated by DCI Emma Gardner, a compassionate yet deeply practical outsider now seconded to Knaresborough, North Yorkshire; and DI Paul Riddick, a haunted, grieving, and troubled man, prone to unpredictable blasts of emotion that take him to desperate and dangerous places.

When a decomposed skeleton is discovered, unearthed and displayed on a graveyard tombstone, Emma’s team and their investigation trip upon a series of events, beginning with a hit-and-run in 1980, winding through a stash of unicorn-stamped ecstasy and its holders, and always, more bodies, as hidden wounds exposed now run deep in new trauma inflicted.

An absorbing, powerful, immersive read, with a cliff-hanger of an ending that is guaranteed to leave a reader wanting more – this is an author this reader will definitely be reading more of.

A great big thank you to Netgalley, the author, and the publisher for an ARC of this book. All thoughts presented are my own.