3 Mystery/Police Procedurals

A Restless Evil - Ann Granger - from Library Journal: "About 20 years ago, the woods at Lower Story were frequented by a still uncaught serial rapist. Now, shortly after a hiker discovers skeletal remains in the woods, a female churchwarden meets her untimely end in the local church: could the two events be connected? Supt. Alan Markby (Shades of Murder) thinks so, especially since he failed to find a perpetrator in the earlier case. With assistance from lover Meredith, he delves into the rumors and facts surrounding both cases, hoping for a break. This is a rock-solid British village procedural, complete with detailed setting, slightly degenerate denizens, and ongoing personal conflicts. "


Not bad.  I enjoyed it enough to be interested in other Mitchell & Markby mysteries, especially since other reviewers indicate that this is not the best in the series.  If A Restless Evil kept me interested and it wasn't the best, then maybe I'll enjoy others in the series, too.


Fiction.  Mystery/Police Procedural.  300 pages.  2002.

Among the Departed - Vicki Delany.  A constable Molly Smith novel.  When bones are discovered in a wilderness hiking area, an old missing persons case comes back into play.  As it turns out, the bones belong to the father of one Molly's childhood friends.  Brian Nowak's  disappearance fifteen years earlier has left the Nowak family weird and dysfunctional.  Many had written Brian's disappearance off as an escape from his wife, but the bones prove otherwise.


 Nicky Nowak returns home for the funeral, and the small town of Trafalgar, BC must look again at a disappearance that is now classified as a murder.


Fiction.  Mystery/Police Procedural.  277 pages.  2011.

Woman with a Birthmark - Hakan Nesser.  This is the second Inspector Van Veeteren mystery that I've read; only four of his 20 Van Veeteren novels have been translated into English.  I read The Return earlier this year and plan to read all English translations in the series.  


Hmmm.  Just discovered that there are several films based on Nesser's books.  Will be adding to Netflix que.


If you enjoy Scandanavian crime fiction, do give this series a try.  Woman with a Birthmark finds Van Veeteren and his crew confronted with a strange murder and no indication of a motive.  Then another similar murder, and Van Veeteren, Reinhart, and the other detectives begin searching for any connection between the two men.  And then another murder....


Fiction.  Mystery/Police Procedural.  1996.  Trans. 2009.  336 pages.