WHEN THE DEAD CRY OUT

Hilary Bonner

3 Stars

St. Martin’s Minotaur, $23.95

NOT technically a who-dunit, this novel is more of a howdunit – an element you’d think would put a con-siderable dent in the suspense of this mystery novel. That isn’t the case with Hilary Bonner’s novel. Clara Marshall and her two daughters disappeared without a trace from their home. The townspeople were suspicious, but no bodies were ever found – and the prime suspect, her husband Richard, wasn’t yielding an inch on his story that Clara had angrily left him, taking the children with her.

Twenty-seven years later, the skeleton of an adult female is discovered in the ocean, and is positively identified as Clara. As circumstances would have it, the detective inspector assigned to the case, Karen Meadows, lived next door to the Marshalls when she was a child – while her mother was having an affair with – yup, that’s right – Richard Marshall. The resolution of this decades-old mystery lies in the satisfying sorting of details.

The investigation team is eager to find something to pin on shady Richard, who has since moved to another town and changed his name. His guilt is never really the issue; rather, it’s how to make his crime stick. “He’s like an eel, that man,” warns Clara’s father. “You grab hold of him, take him in your grasp, and he just slips away.”

Meadows is an agreeable narrator to follow through this case; she’s a tightly wound, highly disciplined woman who’s always about one step away from completely losing it. Subplots can sometimes be distracting in mysteries, but here, the deliciously tormented tryst between Meadows and her subordinate is every bit as interesting as the rest of the novel.