Sleeping Beauties by Jo Spain

Sleeping Beauties by Jo Spain

For a man who would rarely read a novel because I love accumulating knowledge, I seem to be getting into reading fiction more and more. And at the moment,  I am enjoying two Irish writers Jo Spain and John Boyne to the point that Julie is constantly scanning the shelves of charity shops and second-hand bookshops for them. I did rather well at Christmas and Sleeping Beauties was one of them.

This is again one involving Detective Inspector Tom Reynolds and his team. These characters help keep the consistency in the stories and obviously allow the author to add some back story and various deviations from the main theme along the way. These are, in my opinion, at about the right level, just enough to keep the interest but not overwhelming to the extent that they take over the main story.

The pretext of this story is a young woman, Fiona Holland, who goes missing. She has a bit of a wild reputation and the question is, has she just gone away or has something more sinister happened. However, shortly afterwards the graves of five women are discovered in the valley of Glendalough which leads the team into an inquiry of a possible serial killer as they discover these women were all very vulnerable and sadly, Fiona Holland fits the profile. Examination of the bodies shows that there was some time that passed between when they went missing and when they were killed so the race is on to try and find Fiona before she becomes the latest victim while still investigating the murder of the recently found victims.

Another great story of intrigue, detective work, drama and suspense. Another excellent read and I guess I might manage a couple more Jo Spain’s before I get bored with the format but for someone who like a puzzle to solve these definitely fit the bill.

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