Dry bones

In British author Spencer's entertaining follow-up to 2017's The Shivering Turn, Jennie Redhead, a PI with a competent upper second-class degree in English literature from Oxford University and a proficiency in karate, takes on as a client her long-time friend Charlie Swift, the greatly respected bursar of Oxford's St. Luke's College. The bodies of two men have been found walled up in an ancient, unused air vent in the basement of St. Luke's. Charlie, for reasons of his own, has had the bodies removed to the university's medical department, where the examiners determine that both men were in their mid-20s or 30s, and that they were interred at different times. Charlie asks Jennie to discover their identities before he reports the incident to the police. The novel braids together three strands: Jennie's investigations in 1974 and chapters set in 1916 and 1943 that follow the lives and deaths of the two victims. Spencer writes with verve and humor while delivering a satisfying mystery plot and some insight into the workings of a great university. (Feb.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

When Jennie Redhead's best friend Sir Charles Swift, bursar of St. Luke's College at Oxford, asks her to investigate the two bodies found interred in the cellar, she suspects he knows more than he's telling. After all, he hired a private investigator before he notified the police. And, Charles requests the names of the dead men. He doesn't ask her to find the killer. How does the new murder in 1974 tie to the past? The flashbacks to the war years of 1914 and 1939 introduce the victims and acquaintances, tragic stories Jennie uncovers as she questions the head porters, silent witnesses to student activities at the college. There's a strong sense of time and place evoking the college atmosphere during wartime. However, with the alternating time periods and shifts in points of view, this second Jennie Redhead mystery (following The Shivering Turn) is sometimes difficult to follow. The perpetrators are the only characters who are sympathetic. VERDICT Readers of Charles Todd's historical mysteries or crime novels set in academia may appreciate the ambience.-Lesa Holstine, Evansville Vanderburgh P.L., IN © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

A pile of bones brings a heap of trouble for private investigator Jennie Redhead in 1974.Jennie will do just about anything for Charlie Swift, the bursar at St. Luke's College who befriended the Oxford undergrad when she was just a shy, state-educated girl from the north trying, not very successfully, to fit in with her posh southern classmates. Now that Jennie's finished her degree and is living on her own and working as a private detective, she gets a chance to repay her old friend by helping him find out whose bones were hidden years ago in a ventilation shaft under the De Courcey Quad. The remains, definitely determined to be human, were discovered by workmen searching for the source of an odd smell below the quad. Whoever put the bones into the vent, stonemason Jim Withnell explains, knew something about masonry since he used more pliable lime mortar instead of the quicker but more rigid Portland cement. Mr. Jenkins, head porter of St. Luke's, swears he knows of no such repair in his time. The breach in the vent must date back to the time when Mr. Gough was head porter. But Gough retired in 1954. Unraveling a crime at least 20 years old would be a challenge for any detective, but it's even harder for Jennie, who discovers that her client, Charlie Swift, has inconveniently disappeared. As Spencer's second Redhead entry takes Jennie back over the course of not one but two world wars, it also takes an increasing toll on a friendship she thought would last a lifetime.Like the lime-mortared shaft that sets the plot in motion, Spencer's puzzle shows workmanship and beyond, since every piece must fit just so before the secret can be revealed. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.