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A Readers Musings and Reviews
Crossbones Yard (Alice Quentin 1 ) by Kate Rhodes
Book blurb
Introducing Alice Quentin, a London psychologist with family baggage, who finds herself at the center of a grisly series of murders
Alice Quentin is a psychologist with some painful family secrets, but she has a good job, a good-looking boyfriend, and excellent coping skills, even when that job includes evaluating a convicted killer who’s about to be released from prison. One of the highlights of her day is going for a nice, long run around her beloved London—it’s impossible to fret or feel guilty about your mother or brother when you’re concentrating on your breathing—until she stumbles upon a dead body at a former graveyard for prostitutes, Crossbones Yard.
The dead woman’s wounds are alarmingly similar to the signature style of Ray and Marie Benson, who tortured and killed thirteen women before they were caught and sent to jail. Five of their victims were never found. That was six years ago, and the last thing Alice wants to do is to enter the sordid world of the Bensons or anyone like them. But when the police ask for her help in building a psychological profile of the new murderer, she finds that the killer—and the danger to her and the people she cares about—may already be closer than she ever imagined.
With gripping suspense and a terrific new heroine, Kate Rhodes’s Crossbones Yard introduces a powerful new voice in crime fiction.
My thoughts
Another quick review.
The first book in the Doctor Alice Quentin series in which the author delivers a well paced, very well written book. Kate Rhodes writes of London with a wonderful eye for place.
The story will keep you gripped and gives a fascinating insight into tortured minds. The ‘heroine’ Dr Alice Quentin is quite a character feisty and yet has her own demons. It will be interesting to read more of her in the future books. (I have also read Fatal Harmony and it continues to be an excellent series).
Readers of my blog will know I really enjoy Kate Rhodes’ Hell Bay Series (the first books of hers I read, although written after the early books in this series) which is an excellent series. So I suppose it’s not surprising that I think this series is as also very good, although possibly somewhat darker. I have the rest of the books in the Dr Alice Quentin series awaiting my attention and look forward to reading them.
Highly recommended.
Information
Publisher: Minotaur Books (USA)
Mulholland Books (U.K.)
Buy: AmazonSmileUK
Author:
Kate was born in London and tried many jobs before starting to write. She spent time as a cocktail waitress, a theatre usherette, and more recently as an English teacher before writing two prize-winning collections of poetry. Her crime novels have been translated into ten different languages, and have received high acclaim from the press. The Guardiandescribed her books as ‘beautifully written and expertly plotted, a masterclass in crime fiction.’ Her Hell Bay series set in the Isles of Scilly has been optioned for TV.
Kate’s latest crime novel, featuring forensic psychologist Dr Alice Quentin, Fatal Harmony, was published by Bloodhound Books in March 2019.
https://twitter.com/K_RhodesWriter
Other Books by Kate Rhodes
Hell Bay Series : Hell Bay, Ruin Beach, Burnt Island
Dr Alice Quentin Series : Cross Bones Yard, A Killing of Angels, The Winter Foundlings, River of Souls, Blood Symmetry, Fatal Harmony
Poetry: Reversal ; The Alice Trap
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