Burial of Ghosts by
Anne Cleeves
hbk out March 03
Published by Macmillan
at £16.99
Twenty-five year old Lizzie Bartholomew has not had an easy life. Abandoned as a
baby, she's spent years being shuttled between foster homes and finally turned to
stealing in her troubled teenage years. Since then, against the odds, Lizzie has carved
out a career in social work but traumatic events see her on sick leave and escaping on
a much needed trip away - to Morocco, far from the nightmares that stalk her.
However on her return to Northumberland she receives a letter from a firm of
solicitors. Philip Sanson, the man she had a brief affair with on holiday, has died. He
has left Lizzie a legacy of £15,000 but there are strings attached. Philip has set her a
difficult and sensitive task. In honouring the dead man's wishes Lizzie becomes
embroiled in a sinister world of conspiracy and murder.
Ann Cleeves is an established crime writer whose work includes a police procedural
series (Detective Inspector Ramsay) and another featuring an elderly naturalist who
solves conservation crime. With Burial Of Ghosts, Cleeves successfully ventures into
psychological thriller territory but still retains her interest in the natural world with an
accurate and unsentimental depiction of Morocco and of the dramatic and harsh
Northumbrian coast. Cleverly plotted; like Lizzie we don't know who to trust and
there are plenty of puzzling questions. Sometimes we also doubt her own sense of
judgement. Using a prickly and sometimes disturbed heroine adds depth and
unpredictability to the device of reluctant amateur sleuth.
Manchester Evening News 12.4.03
(
Cath Staincliffe
author of the popular Sal Kilkenny mysteries set on the mean streets of Manchester)
Burial of Ghosts by
Anne Cleeves
