THE LAST KASHMIRI ROSE by Barbara Cleverly

FROM THE PUBLISHER:

"It is 1922, in Panikhat, located on the plains fifty miles from Calcutta. In March of each of the past five years the wife of a cavalry officer in the Bengal Greys has met with a violent and terrifying death. One died in a fire, another by a cobra bite, the third from a fall, and the fourth victim drowned. Of course, they all might have been accidents, while the death of Captain Somersham's pretty young wife, who was found with her wrists cut, could be ruled as a suicide. Yet each of the memsahibs died in the manner she would have feared most." Only one link between the five cases points to foul, disturbing play. On the anniversary of the deaths small red roses mysteriously appear on the women's graves. With only a few days to go before the end of March and with faith in the new Western science of psychological profiling and the able assistance of an Indian police havildar, Naurung Singh, Joe Sandilands finds himself running a race against time and a serial killer who alone knows the recipient of the next Kashmiri rose.

RATING:

While the locale & setting takes a new twist on the traditional serial killer storyline, I found this an enjoyable but rather ordinary read nothing close to all the hype that was given the book (ie NEW YORK TIMES "Notable", etc., etc.). Sandilands is an appealing character and Cleverly definitely has style & flair in her writing so I'd read another in the series.

THE DISTANT ECHO by Val McDermid

FROM THE PUBLISHER:

It's four in the morning, mid-December, and snow blankets St. Andrews School. Student Alex Gilbey and his three best friends are staggering home from a party when they stumble upon the body of a young woman. Rosie Duff has been raped, stabbed, and left for dead in the ancient Pictish cemetery. And the only suspects are the four young students with her blood.
Twenty-five years later, police mount a cold-case review. Among the unsolved murders they're examining is that of Rosie Duff. But someone else has his own idea of how justice should be served. One of the original quartet dies in a suspicious house fire. Soon after, a second is killed in what looks like a burglary gone sour. But Alex fears the worst: Someone is taking revenge for Rosie Duff. He has to find out who it is before he becomes the next victim. And it might just save his life if he can uncover who really killed Rosie all those years ago.

RATING:

Surprisingly for McDermid, I had the identity of the killer figured out about 100 pages too soon but that aside, it's still an excellent story evolving over the twenty-five year span with McDermid's trademark of vivid characterizations and wonderfully written descriptive prose.