Grave Hand

Yorkshire Dales Mystery #3

by Susan Parry

When a dismembered hand is unearthed from peat in snow covered moorland near the Ribblehead viaduct, Millie Sanderson is called in to help with the archeological investigation. But is the hand really as old as it appears?

Some believe it belongs to a lad who disappeared from a farm in the recent past. There are more questions than answers and the police forensics team is called in. Then there are two apparently unrelated murders.

Is a third person going to die before the truth about what happened on the moor is revealed?

Genres: Mystery

300 pages, Paperback

First published July 22, 2009

About the author

I am the author of a series of crime novels set in the Yorkshire Dales, featuring Mills Sanderson a young woman trained as a forensic archaeologist. I fell in love with the Dales thirty years ago and enjoy researching the villages and fells for the books. Sense of place is an important aspect of my work. I am a university professor with experience of forensic analysis that informs my writing and I take my research for the books very seriously. There are currently eleven books in the series .

Reviews

[Gary Michaels · Rating 4 out of 5]

an interesting series

The archeology department is turned inside out as a visiting professor seems more arrogant than knowledgable, a hand that might be very old is discovered and there is a murder during a caving group’s trip. Lots going on and eventually it starts to make sense.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Probably not doing this justice because I did enjoy it. We had family over from Canada which cut down on reading session time and therefore the book suffered.

[Helen Birkbeck · Rating 3 out of 5]

As with the previous books in this series, the plot is intriguing and I didn't realise the twist though I had some suspicions. The characters are interesting and believable, though the heroine seems to get through boyfriends rather quickly! The setting is a key part of the story again and the insights into archaeology and police work are interesting. But again I just don't know why the book hasn't been checked for errors and poor punctuation - it's not just me being fussy, as lack of commas does change the meaning of a sentence. (And why does Madeline/Millicent/Millie/Mills keep changing her name?) This would make a good set of mysteries into a great one.

[Jude · Rating 2 out of 5]

I feel this author needs a better proof reader. How does one watch a train cross an aquaduct? Ribblehead's famous viaduct kept getting turned into an aquaduct. Northallertons narrow streets? I didn't care about any of the characters and found the story disjointed. I guess l just hate giving up on a book.