Crossbones Yard

Alice Quentin #1

by Kate Rhodes

Mulholland Books presents...CROSSBONES YARD Ray and Marie Benson killed 13 women before they were caught, tried and imprisoned. Five of their victims were never found. Six years later, psychologist Alice Quentin discovers a woman's body on the waste ground at Crossbones Yard. The wounds are horrifyingly similar to the Bensons' signature style. But who would want to copy their crimes? When Alice is called in to consult, her first instinct is to say no. She wants to focus on treating her patients, not analysing the mind of a murderer. But the body at Crossbones Yard is just the start, and the killer may already be closer than Alice knows.

Genres: Mystery, Crime, Thriller, Fiction, Mystery Thriller, Audiobook, British Literature

310 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2012

About the author

Kate Rhodes is a bestselling UK crime writer. Her latest books are the acclaimed ISLES OF SCILLY MYSTERIES, which have been optioned for TV. Kate has been nominated for the Crime Novel of the Year award and a Library Dagger.

Kate did many different jobs including working as a theatre usherette, a cocktail waitress, and an English tutor at a liberal arts college in Florida. She was born in London but now lives in Cambridge with her husband Dave, and works part-time at Cambridge University, as a creative writing fellow.
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Reviews

[Phrynne · Rating 3 out of 5]

First in the Alice Quentin series which I read because I had already read book 4 and enjoyed it very much. This one not so much!

Alice is a psychologist with a practice in London and she is sometimes called out by the police to help with profiling murderers. She has a lot of hang ups due to a very sad childhood and is also hampered by an awful mother and a brother who really needs to be in a psychiatric ward himself. She is frequently careless with her own life, for example running for exercise in the dark in the back streets of London. Not the most sensible thing to do. Nevertheless she is a fighter and when it is needed she shows it.

This was one where I guessed the murderer quite early in the piece - my profiling skills were better than Alice's who ignored a number of clues along the way. It was a good story with lots of action and interesting if unlikeable characters. Just three stars for this book but I will read more of the series.

[Maxine (Booklover Catlady) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I deliberated between 3 and 4 stars for this book, I am settling on 3 stars in the end (I will explain why). So, I am a huge crime fiction reader, it's my most read genre, I have no secrets around that, and as the years go on I find I am getting fussier with this genre, largely due to some spectacular 5 star reads I have read in the last year.

What's this book about then?

Alice Quentin is a psychologist with some painful family secrets, but she has a good job, a good-looking boyfriend, and excellent coping skills, even when that job includes evaluating a convicted killer who’s about to be released from prison. One of the highlights of her day is going for a nice, long run around her beloved London, it's impossible to fret or feel guilty about your mother or brother when you're concentrating on your breathing until she stumbles upon a dead body at a former graveyard for prostitutes, Crossbones Yard.

The dead woman’s wounds are alarmingly similar to the signature style of Ray and Marie Benson, who tortured and killed thirteen women before they were caught and sent to jail. Five of their victims were never found. That was six years ago, and the last thing Alice wants to do is to enter the sordid world of the Bensons or anyone like them. But when the police ask for her help in building a psychological profile of the new murderer, she finds that the killer and the danger to her and the people she cares about may already be closer than she ever imagined.

My Review:

Alice Quentin has had a traumatic childhood, not surprisingly she is now a Psychologist, helping others heal their trauma. She is asked to become involved in helping the police after a murder occurs that bears the hallmarks of two horrific husband and wife serial killers who are both out of action now. Do they have a copycat killer? Alice is asked to assess.

Very early in this book, a few chapters in I picked out the killer, unfortunately the author left too many pointers and clues and although I had doubts here and there I hung on to this early instinct and was right.

The bad thing about knowing early is you look at the entire book differently, the interactions, the conversations, it's almost like the mystery is taken away. For me this dropped my rating to 3.5 stars, as I don't want to guess the killer a couple of chapters in please.

So, I tried to put that aside (but could not), and read on. It's a pleasant and easy read, easy on the brain, no need to concentrate intensely, I read the book in less than two hours. Nothing complex about it.

I found Alice's character annoying a bit as a professional woman, she shows some very gullible traits for a woman versed in the world of psychology (like letting in an ex-con who is being watched into her home and offering a cup of tea!) Um. No. You just don't do that, even the average woman knows that. I mean, why? Anyway, you get what I mean. Maybe I am being picky, but that just sounded weird to me.

She runs a lot too, you get a tour of London, street names, famous landmarks, buildings whilst she is jogging around town, she runs even though women are being murdered on the streets. Not sure if she is fearless or stupid.

The plot starts to pick up pace with events coming close to home for Alice, things are NOT making sense to her at all (it did to me because I had guessed the killer). She suddenly finds herself in danger and a target and has no idea why.

One of the better characters in this book was Lola, her housemate, her bouncy personality and zest for life came across as very genuine in the book, I liked her. She was fun. And the opposite in personality to Alice, so a good balance for each other as friends.

Alice digs into the old case files from the murders of the five girls who have not been found, she is trying her best to piece it together to help the police. Meanwhile her love life is all over the place, hot and cold, will she ever let anyone close to her heart again? Don't worry, it's not overflowing with flowery romantic moments but we do get insight into her heart and mind.

There are some scenes that did not ring accurate to me in relation to police procedures like the police allowing Alice to close the eyes of a murder victim she views at the crime scene, even though the police comment forensics won't like it. Of course they won't, she's contaminating a fresh crime scene. Ahem?

It's not a bad book, I did like it overall, I think if I did not read so much crime fiction my rating might be higher but I saw too many flaws in the killer's identity being hinted at too early and inaccurate procedural details.

The positives are that I was pushed on to keep reading, and whilst I felt the ending was too quick and could have stretched on a bit longer to create more tension and suspense, it was okay. A middle of the road crime thriller. I will try another book in this series to see how it may be improved upon.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is actually the first novel read this year and it is at the same time the debut novel of this writer who has done well in the field of poetry. Which is an art form I am not very comfortable with even if I can enjoy them on occasion.

The main character Alice Quentin is not your average easy going female with a smart lip. She comes from a traumatized family where violence was common. Her brother being the genius suffered a psychosis and lives from his van and his sister who became a psychologist tries to help him and does a really poor job.
Alice is not very good at relationships but can help other people very well, she is more of a solo person who trusts nobody really well. During one of her long distance runs she needs to get her head clear she finds the corpse of a lady of the night. It will prove to be the first of many and she and her brother get far more involved than they really want or need. When Alice gets pulled into the police investigation as a professional she gets over her head. And if that is not enough the killer has found out about her and really wants her.

As a thriller it was a rather nice first attempt but nothing spectacular, however the world according to Alice is actually quite well done and you get swept away with the heroine of the tale. Kate Rhodes does write an interesting leading character and gives the people around her a real-life feeling of being a person that actually is more than a description. I really liked that aspect.
I will visit Alice Quentin for sure in the near future (having the next two books on my shelves somewhere kinds does help)

An interesting debut with an interesting female perspective on the genre.

[Olivermagnus · Rating 3 out of 5]

Crossbones Yard is the first book of a series featuring Dr. Alice Quentin, a psychologist who comes from an abusive background herself. In the prologue we see Alice as a child, hiding in a closet while her drunken father beats her mother. Then we leap forward twenty five years where Alice is consulting for the police to determine how closely they need to monitor the soon to be released Morris Cley, a suspected serial killer. One night while jogging, Alice, who is an obsessive runner, stops for a rest at Crossbones Cemetery. She notices the remains of a naked woman with knife cut crosses all over her body. Alice tries to help the police with the investigation but before long she is trapped in the middle of a horrifying escalation of murders and anonymous letters.

Most of the characters in this story are unsympathetic. That includes Alice herself, her obsessive surgeon boyfriend, Sean, and Will, her drug-addicted and mentally ill brother, who lives in a van outside her building. We also get a chance to meet Marie Benson, an imprisoned serial killer, who along with her dead husband killed visitors to the hostel they owned.

I didn't like this book much in the beginning but eventually I became intrigued by the story. It is the author's debut and I see there are four other books in the series. I always like to give a 3 Star book a second chance so I'm planning to pick up A Killing of Angles sometime in the future.

[Cookie M. · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF
I am getting tired of reading thrillers and mysteries where the main character has a major, debilitating flaw or disability. Please note, I do not mean any disability. I mean one whereby in actual, physical meat space no one would be able to function under the constraints on the protagonist.

I am particularly unnerved by the idea of A psychiatrist or psychologist who has such severe un-dealt- with trauma in her own past that she has severe claustrophobia and climbs 9 flights of stairs rather than take an elevator to her own office?

How can she effectively help her clients? She can't! Believe me. I have been in therapy most of my adult life, and I can tell within two sessions when a therapist has got problems of his or her own.
So can both if my kids. You get really attuned to detecting it. You have to, for your own safety.

Anyway, our hero breaks other rules of good therapist behavior, including not having one of her own, who should have been her second call after the police when she stumble over a couple of dead bodies. She also surrounds herself with a collection of clearly unwell characters and has zero stability in her life.

So, although there may be a good mystery in here somewhere, I reject the basic premise of this novel, that the British Healthcare System would actually license a person as screwed up as this one to be practicing therapy anywhere in their system.

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m wary of dark crime fiction, preferring to read just a handful of authors I know I can trust, but I read words of praise that made me think I might have found another name to add to my list. Now that I have read her first novel, ‘Crossbones Yard’, I can say that I have.

There are many elements that are familiar in this book, but the quality of the writing was such that I didn’t mind. It made the characters, their worlds, their situations lived and breathed. And, as this is the first book in a series, and a first crime novel by the author, I see great potential for future books.

The central character, Alice Quentin, is rather like so many other women at the centre of crime fiction series; highly capable in her professional life but rather less capable in her personal life. But she is much better drawn, much more credible, than most – if not all – of the others. She’s a psychologist, and she is clearly driven, she clearly works hard, and so she has done well. Particularly since she didn’t have the best of starts in life. Her father was abusive; he tyrannised his family. Now he has died, Alice’s relationship with her mother is strained, and her relationship with her mentally ill brother, who she desperately wants to help and support, is strained. She holds people at a distance, and her relationships with men tend to be short term; but she is a loyal friend. And at night she runs. Coping strategies maybe, but she was coping with life not just with her past. As we all do. The point I’m trying to make is that there was cause and effect, that there was depth, that the psychology rang true, and that Alice was a credible, believable character.

Alice asked by the police to assess Maurice Cley – a known associate of Ray and Marie Benson, who had been convicted for murdering thirteen young women at the London hostel they ran – as he was due to be released from prison. Her assessment was that Maurice wasn’t likely to reoffend, but soon there was another murder bearing all of the Bensons’ trademarks – including some that had never been made public. And it became clear that Alice was at risk …..

The story had many familiar elements, and the Benson case was clearly inspired by the case of Fred and Rosemary West, but the story played out well enough. What brought it to life though, was Alice’s story. She ended one relationship and began another – with a policeman. She was putting up an actress friend. She was deeply concerned about her brother, who had parked his van nearby, and she feared that he might have seen things or done things.

It was a wonderful human story, and it was clear that Kate Rhodes really understood her characters and difficult mental heath issues. The psychology was pitch perfect, and her view was clear and unflinching. And I see so much potential here for a series.

Alice did, to some degree, place herself at risk. But I did understand that she wanted – needed – to keep running, to stick to her usual routine. And I realised, near the end, when she paid the price, that what she did that night she did in the heat of the moment, without thinking it through. She wouldn’t be the first, and she definitely wouldn’t be the last.

That set up a dramatic conclusion. It felt inevitable, and I had identified the killer correctly, but it was the sort of book that made that not matter. I was caught up in Alice’s story, in an excellent psychological drama.

And I must praise the writing – Kate Rhodes uses words very, very well, and she has the rare and wonderful gifts of being able to load a sentence with meaning and be subtle at the same time. That quality of writing, and fine creation and understanding of character and relationships, are more than good enough for me to want to keep reading her books.

[Siobhan · Rating 3 out of 5]

For my birthday a friend bought me the second Alice Quentin book, A Killing of Angels, thus making it necessary for me to hunt down Crossbones Yard in the library. Although I could have entered A Killing of Angels as a standalone novel, I’m well aware that part of the fun of crime series is following the characters as they develop across books. With how intriguing A Killing of Angels sounded, I was curious about what Crossbones Yard would deliver.

If I’m being honest, my feelings towards Crossbones Yard are rather mixed. It was interesting enough, I was willing to keep turning the pages to see how everything came together, but I was not as invested in the story as I would have liked to be. The reason is twofold – the predictability of the story and my inability to connect with the characters.

The predictability element I could deal with. I often work out who is behind the crime when reading crime fiction. It’s why I do not read such stories as much as I used to, despite crime being one of my favourite genres. I’ve reached the point where the mystery is very rarely a mystery, and I stick to authors I know will surprise me. Therefore, when I worked out who the bad guy was early on in Crossbones Yard I was hoping I was wrong, yet I was not at all surprised when my assumption was confirmed. There were plenty of red herrings thrown in to keep me interested, even if they did not catch me off guard, and that is why I was able to deal with the predictability of this one.

My inability to connect with the characters was more difficult to overcome. There were times when the story did interest me, yet we became so focused upon the drama of the characters and I really didn’t care. There was the potential for interesting elements – as I stated, following characters as they develop throughout series is one of my favourite things with crime books and it’s why I prefer to enter a series at the start so I can follow all the drama – yet I found myself unable to care about what was happening with this book. I felt as though there was too much, with nothing being given the depth it deserved.

I’ll certainly be giving A Killing of Angels a read, as I own the book, but I’m unsure as to whether I will continue beyond the second book with this series.

[Carol · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thanks to Goodreads for the chance to read this book.

The story line was a bit predictable. It felt more like a TV series than a novel. I did not feel that there was much character development or much of an interesting plot. The main character was a Psychiatrist which could have been written with a lot more enthusiasm. The concept of the novel could have made a chilling novel and am disappointed in the lack of effort.

[Katrin · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ich hab es versucht, aber es war wirklich schnell klar, dass mir das Buch nicht gefallen wird.

Der Schreibstil kam mir schon ab der ersten Seite irgendwie lieblos dahin gerattert vor, ohne das ich ein Gefühl für die Szenen oder die Personen entwickeln konnte.
Alice war mir dementsprechend auch sofort unsympathisch, so dass ich es nun aufgebe.

Schade, hatte mich auf die Reihe gefreut. Aber es sollte wohl nicht sein.

[Albert · Rating 3 out of 5]

Crossbones Yard is a good atmospheric mystery that adds to the genre of Scottish and English novels that are coming out lately a la S J Bolton and Tana French.
This is a novel about murder and mental illness as well as the lingering effects of family dysfunction and the result of living throught it.
A well crafted novel that at times moved slowly yet still delivers on all levels.

[Marcia Ferguson · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was a no-brainer to choose this book ... gorgeous cover and Louise Penny recommending it in her 'blurb'.

Now I'm wondering if Louise read it. I appreciated the intelligent way author Kate Rhodes depicted each of the detectives. They were unique and interesting people, with plenty of small details to bring their personalities out to the reader. And it was a page-turner because I suspected red-herrings half way into the book, chose my 'culprit' and kept reading to see if I was correct. I wasn't. And yet my choice made much more sense than 'whodunit'. One reviewer on Amazon said that it was as if Ms. Rhodes put all the men's names in a hat and drew one out as the murderer. Sounds about right to me.

I view reading books as an investment in time. If a book has a great sense of place, it's usually good enough for me ... a main character I can relate to or cheer for, I'm in ... a tedious book until the very end when it's redeemed, and I'm satisfied.

This however, featured a main character that was unlikeable and foolish to the nth degree. And a very bizarre ending, with seemingly unexplained bits all through it, particularly the main character's brother.

Let me say, though ... I purchased another book at the same time I bought this one. A Terry Shames book ... and as soon as I finished Crossbones Yard, I began reading The Last Death of Jack Harbin, and it's terrific! In the vein of William Kent Krueger, it's well-written and a joy. So that's my recommendation - not this, but that.

[Renita D'Silva · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thrilling

[Jade Hoggins · Rating 3 out of 5]

This novel hits all the tropes in a mostly fulfilling way.

Alice is a high achiever with a terrible past, which, of course, makes it difficult for her to let anyone get close to her.

As usual, as protagonist she makes a lot of stupid decisions in order to advance the plot. Going for runs at night in East London when there is someone killing young women in the area and sending her death threats. Escaping those whose job it is to protect her. Having sudden bursts of lust for men who are aggressive and controlling towards her. So far so female protagonist of any romance/crime/UF/paranormal romance.

However, I think Rhodes made a strong case for Alice's bad choices being a result of her 'terrible past'(tm). Psychologically, she hit a lot of the main criteria for someone with those kinds of experiences, and it was conveyed without being too heavy-handed, which was refreshing.

That being said, Alice Quentin was a terrible, terrible psychologist. Certain things stuck out to me in particular: her positive prognosis for recovery in a patient suffering from anorexia, based on behaviour that was fairly standard for someone suffering from an eating disorder. Her belief in a convicted murderer's innocence after a brief conversation that made me wonder if she was hearing and seeing an entirely different exchange to the one printed on the page.

At the very least she was a terrible judge of character, but the whole book was her using her skills as an accomplished and celebrated psychologist to make snap judgements about people that were consistently and completely proved utterly wrong.

I also got tired of reading about her scorn for people's weight problems, eating habits and television watching. Yes, you run every day, congratulations, you're better than everyone else. Even if you do it because standing still might mean you have to face up to some of your problems for once.

Which is to say that Alice was an engaging, well-written character with dimension, who confounded, irritated and amused me at various different points.

I predicted the killer quite early in the book, but to be honest, it was pretty easy to separate the good from the bad by seeing how Alice felt about them and believing the opposite.

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a story about damaged people and the damage they inflict on one another; it threw me for a loop, but I won't say why. Although the story has a formulaic plot and predictable structure, there is a refreshing aspect that turns the damsel-in-distress genre on its head. There are some rather tired plot points, obvious red herrings and many of the characters seem to come from a writer's stock catalogue, but Rhodes manages to do some interesting and surprising things with them.

The actions of Alice, the main character, are designed by the author, to have her run (sometimes literally), into the brooding Alvarez who manages to turn up in some pretty contrived circumstances; there are times when one questions if this is a mystery/ thriller, or a harlequin romance. While Alice is a more interesting character than usual, she still makes bonehead choices and is frustratingly uncommunicative and lacking in personal insight for an admired psychologist who is supposed to be at the top of her game. Alice's character is emotionally stunted and often lacks credibility, but Rhodes does a good job of depicting her restless nature, need to run and feel physical autonomy.

I also applaud the author's descriptive passages of London; she brings the city to life in a meaningful way and proves that she can be a capable and thoughtful writer, and despite some clunky passages and unrealistic action, there was enough substance to this novel that I felt it deserved three stars.

[Cheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Alice Quentin is a psychologist. Alice has a routine. She loves to run alone at night. This is a bad combination, especially running through a bad neighborhood filled with gangs and murders. During her run, Alice spots something on the ground at Crossbones Yard. Crossbones Yard is a former location for prostitutes.

With the murder, it brings back an reference to an old case of the Bensons. The Bensons were a husband and wife couple who killed about a dozen prostitutes and buried them all over their property. Alice helps with the case.

Crossbones Yard is a very nice debut novel from new crime author, Kate Rhodes. This book did deliver on my expectations. Kate Rhodes delivers up a nice sampling of what she has to offer as an author and why she is making a name for herself with Crossbones Yard.

Alice is a strong female lead. She can take care of herself. Even among lots of male testosterone. I had my mind made up between two suspects as to whom the real killer was. Let’s say that I was wrong and did not put it together until the last part of the book right before the killer’s identity was revealed. While there was a possible romance trying to start for Alice, I like that it never fully blossomed into anything serious. Alice may fall for a guy quickly but she still has her guard up. This book is milder in regards to crime novels go. There is not a lot of gore, so readers of this genre who do not like lots of blood or swearing will enjoy this book.

[Mary · Rating 2 out of 5]

The main character was just so unbelievable. All this information dropping into her lap and she never tells the police. Pictures, writings from the killer in prison it just goes on and on. She's being stalked and the security door on her building never works but she never thinks to care. Just another example.

I'm familiar with the whole necessity of some unrealistic things in order to further plot. Like in horror movies, who would go down the basement stairs? No one. But then there wouldn't be a movie. Same happens in mystery novels etc. But this was just sort of over the top. And in the end, the who of who dun it just didn't resonate for me.

[Jacqueline · Rating 2 out of 5]

Utter nonsense on a stick, with a deeply unlikeable central character, and a plot so full of ridiculousness that I partly only continued reading to see when the next ridiculousness would come. Oh, and it's sizeist too; the endless jolly quips about DI Burns' weight are vaguely amusing at first but soon become unnecessary & cruel. I did like Lola, but Alice is cold, unselfaware, and possesses the judgement of a slightly mouldy potato lying in a puddle. Derivative, fat-shaming, vaguely diverting, flimflam.

P.S: Crossbones Graveyard is a real place and it's marvellous. Do look it up!

[Jo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Alice is a psychologist in London, unwillingly drawn into the serial killing of prostitutes whose bodies are carved with crosses reminiscent of a previous serial killing couple. There are comparisons to be drawn with Fred and Rose West but that's all. This was a real page turner and gets 5 stars for me not being able to spot who the killer was. Talk about a shock ending.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this in 24 hours! I couldn't put it down. A thriller that draws you in and won't let you go.

Thanks to Goodreads for my copy, it came with Winter Foundlings which I am to start now.

[Beth Peninger · Rating 3 out of 5]

Alice Quentin is a psychologist who is part of a group of on-call shrinks that consult with the police department when they require the expertise of a psychologist. When a dead body is found with carvings on her body, just like the serial killers Ray and Marie Benson used to do with the girls they kidnapped, tortured, and killed, DI Burns calls in for help, and Alice is the top name on the rota. She has no desire to dive into the sick and twisted world of the Bensons and their copycat, but as a professional, she has a job to do, so she commits to the work. In the course of the investigation, Alice starts to suspect that the killer might be closer to her than she ever thought possible, and the possibilities are equal parts distressing and terrifying.

While Rhodes' character development and storyline development are a little lacking in this first title of her Alice Quentin series, there's potential. Alice is a psychologist who consults, on a rotating basis, with the police on cases they believe need a different perspective. It's clear Rhodes is building a layered life for Alice Quentin, who has become a psychologist in response to the extremely dysfunctional and violent childhood she lived through. Alice has a brother who is equally damaged, but he went a different direction than she did. As for the case in which we are introduced to Alice, it was okay. It would have been a bit more interesting for me without the whiplash Rhodes pivot on the who and why provided. About halfway through the story, maybe a little less than halfway through, I figured out who the murderer was, but the why wasn't clear. Truth be told, once the why was revealed, it still seemed murky and didn't quite ring as believable to me. However, this was a decent start to a series. I liked it enough to look into borrowing book 2 and seeing what Rhodes does with Alice in a second title.

[Claire · Rating 2 out of 5]

Didn’t enjoy this one at all . Very confusing.

[Lizzie Hayes · Rating 5 out of 5]

‘Cross Bones Yard’ by Kate Rhodes
Published by Mulholland Books, June 2012. ISBN: 978-1-444-73875-9

Psychologist Alice Quentin is approached by DCI D on Burns of Southwark police to visit Morris Cley who is being released from prison the next day owing to a technicality. Cley’s mom was close friends with Ray and Marie Benson who had killed 13 women before they were caught, tried and imprisoned. Five of their victims were never found. What Burns wants to know is how much of a threat to society is Morris Cley.

A few days later running off a difficult telephone conversation with her boyfriend Sean, who is making her feel suffocated, Alice finds a body at Crossbones Yard, now a waste ground partially cleared, which was the site of Crossbones Cemetery where over a thousand prostitutes where buried between the 1850’s and 1994.

Later DCI Don Burns contacts Alice to look at the body as he says the wounds are similar to those on the victims of the murders committed by Ray and Marie Benson and he suspects Morris Cley. Then Don Burns brings in DS Alvarez, the bad-tempered detective whom Alice had met the night she found the body, a man with a permanent scowl, who feels that Alice maybe able to help.

In the midst of this Alice is dealing with her brother Will who is bipolar and lives in a van in her drive, refusing to move into the house. Will is unpredictable alternating between docility and violent episodes. Into this uncomfortable situation arrives her friend the actress Lola who despite being exotic and excitable seems to be able to calm Will.

Soon the letters start and then another body - someone Alice knows, so is the killer someone close to Alice?

The book is beautifully written with many atmospheric descriptions of London. Alice is an interesting character with issues, the history of which is slowly revealed to the reader as the book progresses. This is a fast paced compelling story that has a stunning climax that left me reeling. I just didn’t see it coming. Put this on your ‘must read’ list.
----
Lizzie Hayes

[Debbie · Rating 1 out of 5]

i just cannot believe that Louise Penny actually said this book as 'an atmospheric, smart, of ten terrifying read." If you read mysteries then you will know exactly what is going to happen in this book - THERE ISN'T ONE SURPRISE...NOT ONE.

And to even make it even worse is the lack of depth and development the author gives to the police characters...they are like cartoons.

SPOILERS AHEAD>

We have a shrink who is extremely claustrophobic and a killer who kidnaps and locks women into small tight boxes - so does anyone think that our shrink will be captured and locked into a box? - Check

We have unsympathetic and apparently stupid cops - her brother is a suspect (to everyone but the reader), she is being stalked, getting threatening letters, her house broken into, and women are being dumped where she will find them...and then her best friend goes missing - but the above mentioned unsympathetic and apparently stupid cops don't take the missing friend as anything to worry about. Has the friend been taken by the murderer? check.

We have an ex-lover with apparently anger issues - is he the one? Do I even have to answer that..

Maybe it is her new mysterious lover- a cop with a past he keeps hidden, a cop that upset her drugged addled brother, a cop too good to be true..of course it's him.

I burst out laughing at her snarky jab at Starbucks - 'but at least they're easy to find, round signs on every street corner, the same dirty green as a US dollar." Her disdain for the US dollar didn't stop her from writing a cookie cutter paint by numbers mystery selling for $24.99.

I was stuck in a waiting situation and this was the only book I had with me so shear boredom is the reason I even finished it. In a weeks time I won't even remember what it was about.

[Rebecca Bradley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Alice Quentin is a psychologist in a London hospital and loves her job. She works hard, gets on with her co-workers and listens to her patients, even taking a personal interest in a couple of them. She's human.

Early on she meets Detective Burns as on a rota the team liaise with the police on jobs as and when required. It is through this rota that Burns and Quentin first meet.

Quentin is an avid runner and runs or cycles to work and back or during the evening and through this activity we are shown London vividly in a way that only a runner could know it. Intimately. On roads and narrow footpaths, back streets and open spaces. The book has a wonderful sense of place.

It is during one of these runs that Alice finds the body of a dead girl at Crossbones Yard and becomes involved in a complex investigation with more deaths piling up and links to a past crime confusing the investigating team who need Alice's help to decifer it all.

Alice has her demons as all protagonists have in this genre and Rhodes deals with these well. Alice is conveyed in an extremely human way.

The ending was slightly cliche but I enjoyed the book, the style and voice of it and will definitely read the next in the series. I think there is lots to show that Alice Quentin is a series to watch.

[The Inked Reader · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5

I was hoping for a sort of Jodie Foster in The Silence of the Lambs and instead I got her unhinged little cousin that likes to pretend to be like her but truly has no idea what she's doing.

Also, it doesn't work that way. Psychologists would not work in that way in the UK with the police and so when I saw our main protagonist interviewing pretty randomly serial killers left and right I was just huffing and puffing.

Also what's wrong with this woman and opening her main door? Like the amount of times she spent just hearing a know to her door, opening it (without asking who it was 🤦‍♀️) and then inevitably fending off psychos was just unbelievable. Like I mean the 4th/5th time that you open the door and it all goes to shit you should learn to switch off all the lights and pretend you're not home right???
Not to mention that this woman spends more time jogging around London in circles rather than working or doing pretty much anything else...

Absolutely not a good forensic/crime thriller and yet you know those books that are so random and fast paced that you kinda want to eventually continue on with the series? Maybe I just want to see if Alice finally realised that she should be on the opposite side of the chair or see if the series can get even worse or redeem itself, who knows....but I might check out the sequel from the library. Maybe. Perhaps. Mayhaps. Perchance.

[Cleopatra Pullen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Crossbones Yard is where Alice Quentin finds a woman's body, just outside the memorial gates to the graveyard where fallen women were buried from the 16th Century.

This crime novel works well, Alice is a psychologist with a difficult past who is asked by the police to interview Maurice Cley a man who is due to be released from prison. Maurice was a close friend of the serial killers Ray and Marie Benson who had killed 13 young women . With a potential copycat killing Alice becomes more involved helping the police. Alice has plenty of other worries; her brother Will is mentally ill, her friend homeless, she is doubtful about her current relationship and she has a busy workload.

I enjoyed reading the snippets of Alice's cases in her daily working life. The characters were well drawn and realistic although the constant reference to Alice's dislike of lifts and love of running began to grate by the end of the book. The writing sets this book apart with a great pace bringing the book to its dramatic conclusion.

I believe this is the first of a three book deal for Kate Rhodes and I look forward to the next book in this series.

I was lucky enough to receive this book from the Amazon Vine Programme

[Raven · Rating 3 out of 5]

Now to London in the contemporary era in the company of Kate Rhodes’ Crossbones Yard which has been languishing on my shelves for far too long. The first of a series introducing claustrophobia-suffering, relationship-fearing psychologist, Alice Quentin, who finds herself unwittingly drawn into the world of a serial killer by virtue of her consultancy work for the Metropolitan police. Using Crossbones Yard, a neglected piece of London ground that was used as a cemetery for fallen women as a locus, Rhodes weaves an intriguing psychological thriller, with a sublime nod to the real life case of murderers Fred and Rosemary West. Alice is a likeable enough character, fitting wonderfully into the mould of psychologically troubled psychologist- physician heal thyself perhaps- who finds herself in some degree of peril throughout. Perhaps, because of my voracious crime reading, the identity of the perpetrator of the heinous crimes was a little too obvious quite early on, but despite this I had a resolute compunction to read on, as I found Alice a compelling figure throughout, and found the band of emotional misfits and miscreants she encounters both professionally and personally rather engaging. I have bought the next in the series so that’s probably a good recommendation.

[Pgchuis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Women are being abducted, tortured, and killed in the same manner as those murdered by a now incarcerated/dead couple. Alice, a psychologist, is asked to assess a former protege of the serial killing couple to see if he might be the perpetrator. (This is a little odd as it isn't Alice's area of expertise and he is just about to be released from prison, but whatever). We also hear of Alice's dysfunctional childhood and her mentally ill and drug addicted brother Will.

I really enjoyed the first 80% of the novel, which was far less gory than might have been expected. Alice's friend Lola provided a little light relief, although the way in which Alice allowed her to take over her flat seemed odd. However, I had to skim the ending, which was both disturbing and disappointing to me. Although I appreciate the misdirection, and I had been wondering at the lack of likely suspects so near to the conclusion, the identity of the culprit seemed a bit melodramatic somehow.

I don't think I'll read any more in this series.

[Beth · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars for this one. I liked it and I definitely liked it enough to read # 2. Plot, characters and setting were all excellent. My only criticism is the main character, Alice Quentin, was as stubborn as she was gutsy. I'd add dense as well, since as a practicing psychologist, she should have known better than to behave in the rather reckless of her own safety manner she did. She had a terrible and abusive childhood which left her deeply scarred and pretty damaged, so her actions in this are understandable, but the words "physician, heal thyself" did go through my mind while reading this. I'm looking forward to the next book because this was a good read, and the heroine did seem to make some headway in solving her own issues as well as solving the Crossbone Yard crimes. It was almost at the cost of her own life, but as I said, she IS gutsy!

[Ashley · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this book up because, when I was in London about a year ago, I actually visited Crossbones Graveyard (yes, it's real and still there as a semi-official memorial). This book has a great premise but fell a bit flat for me. Rhodes spends a fair amount of time harping on one of the character's weight (and there's never a point in the story where it impacts his ability to do his job). The twist at the end is good but came quite late. I wanted to see more complexity leading up to the reveal. Finally, the main character is a psychologist but she doesn't seem to draw on that knowledge much. In all, a fine and quick mystery but not a wonderful one. I may try another Rhodes novel in the future, though.