Detective Fiona Griffiths takes us across Southern Wales in a bizarre search for body parts. The parts start showing up in a freezer, a shed, a loft and are eventually identified as belonging to a young female university student who was reported missing five years prior to the first gruesome discovery. The young woman also worked as a waitress and dancer in the local Cardiff bars, like the one owned by Fiona’s father. Soon more body parts are discovered, but this time they belong to a young male metallurgist, who worked for a firm with links to the arms trade.
As Fiona works on the investigation she begins to believe there is a
connection between the two murders.
Suffering from Cotard’s Syndrome, Fiona has developed her own peculiar
investigative process that helps her relate to her victims and understand their
lives. Bingham is clever in how he reveals the story behind the murders all the
while using the investigation to reveal more about Fiona. How she struggles in her relationships with
family, boyfriend and colleagues, to understand, analyze and respond to their emotional
signals (think Sheldon in the Big Bang Theory), and how her
reflections on these relationships as well as her self-reflection, are
connected to the unravelling of the murders. Because I haven’t read the first book in this
series, I may not have appreciated the aspect of Fiona’s personal growth as
much as readers who have read Talking to
the Dead.
Eventually, Fiona discovers the connection
between the two victims and how that connects to the export of arms. The development of this political aspect to
the story brings her into contact with the UK Trade & Investment Defence &
Security Organisation (UKTI DSO) that actually does exist and whose aim is to
help UK companies to export arms. Apparently,
they aren’t too picky about where they export to, even though they are using
tax dollars. The
selling and export of arms/technology is a key aspect of the plot.
I found this book to be a little over ambitious
in the amount of ground the author wanted to cover. There is a lot of information, the
descriptions are very detailed and the plot itself is complicated. As a
result, I didn’t find the writing to be as tight as it could have been. The suspense is there, and it did hold my
interest, but I was able to put the book down and return to it a day or two
later.
Bingham’s characterizations are definitely
his strong point. I felt each character
was distinct and that I knew each one well.
It is also clever how the title can refer to both the victims and Fiona
herself.
Definitely a worthwhile read.
