Beneath a quiet village, dark crimes lie buried.When decomposed human remains are discovered in a suitcase behind a locked door in the home of an elderly man, Detective Karen Hart thinks the facts speak for themselves. That is, until she finds the warning: It’s time to pay for your crime.The body belongs to a former teacher, Oliver Fox, who vanished from the village thirty years earlier. Hart’s … thirty years earlier. Hart’s instincts tell her there is something untoward about this rural Lincolnshire community—especially when she uncovers evidence suggesting that, although Fox was a victim, he certainly wasn’t innocent. As the extent of Fox’s crimes becomes apparent and the web of lies continues to unravel, almost nobody in the village is above suspicion.
When there are whispers of child abuse in connection with the case, it’s clear someone is willing to do anything to keep the sinister truth buried. Can Hart find the culprit before more lives are lost?
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This is a thinking person’s police procedural murder mystery. Taking place in England, you have the detectives finding bodies, suicides that were murder, family secrets, and revenge.
What starts as a man confessing to a friend, then ends with his death and the false theory of death by suicide or drinking. Then police are called to a retired old gents home to find an injured man telling them to not go upstairs.
And from here, a very dead body in a suitcase and the body belongs to a school teacher presumed missing for years. You then meet detective Morgan, the lead, and Karen Hart along with their subordinates Sophie and Rick.
You will be involved in peeling back the onion, all the layers to find the center and the truth. Did Oliver Fox leave his family, was he killed and why is his family acting so odd?
Good look at the procedures used, at how the crimes affect the detectives, and how false clues can hide a lot of evidence. And how a very old rumor about Oliver Fox causes more deaths and fears now.
You see the lifestyles of each detective, what they each bring to the table, they are human, tired, sifting through old records and pasts and as deaths mount, they have to unite and solve the crimes. Each person they question has been affected in some way. And the clues tie up nicely and the murderer was a bit of a surprise. 4 stars
October 19, 2020
Another twisty good mystery!
Some really interesting characters working together to solve a number of deaths and what, if any, connections link them all together. Some sensitive subjects touched on.
What started off as a routine well-check call turns into a murder investigation when human remains are discovered in a suitcase. DI Karen Hunter and her partner find themselves investigating a case that has many twists and turns that are 30yrs old. How does that tie in to a rash of suicides with acquaintances of the victim? The first few chapters are a bit slow but it gets better once you stick with it.
I listened to the audiobook of this. It was pretty awesome! The British Accent took a bit to get used to but the language itself would have been harder to read I think!
I started this one instantly after finishing Bring Them Home. I just needed more of DS Hart. This one was wow, maybe the secrets should have stayed buried? I never would have guessed what really happened, but not to worry, you will find out at the end.
Where Secrets Lie
by D.S. Butler
Amazon Publishing UK
Dectective Karen Heart Book 2
DS Heart is called to the scene where a man fell, or was pushed down the stairs. At the scene they find a suitcase with a badly decomposed body. Who is it, and how long has it been there ? This book explores some sad subjects in life, about abuse, it weaves a tale that will keep you turning pages way into the night. Her caracters are very well developed, and extremely interesting, the book will keep you on your toes. A great detective story!
This is book 2 of a series
Thank you to Netgalley and Amazon Publishing UK for there ARC of this book in exchange for my honest opinion
Beverly E /ladyedan
Good characters. Interesting police procedural series. I’m looking forward to reading more of them.
This is a good new series especially if you are a fan of British procedurals. A tad slow to flesh out main characters, but I’m looking forward to seeing where she takes them in the future. Book held my interest throughout.
This is the second book in the Karen Hart series and it reads well as a stand-alone. Butler does well to provide an adequate background to the characters, making the reader feel comfortable diving right into this novel without having any prior knowledge of the previous story line.
The plot of this book is complex, weaving through the twists and turns of a murder mystery from the past and that of the present. The narrative is character driven, mainly by that of the book’s main protagonist, DS Karen Hart. Parts of the narrative do stall with time spent on unnecessary details that ultimately circumvent the primary plot. However, while the story is slow to build, and has a few trivial moments of plot stall, it picks up midway through and concludes with that “shock-value” that so many readers of this genre crave. Overall, a good read. 3 stars