The Bones of You

The Bones of You by Debbie Howells

To be published: June 30, 2015

Rosie Anderson, an eighteen year old girl in a small English village is missing. Kate, a local horse trainer who knew Rosie, is devastated as the girl is the same age as her daughter. She is convinced that something bad has happened to the girl, and is not surprised when the police discover her brutally murdered body in the woods. The Andersons seem like the perfect family, so who would want to kill their beautiful daughter? The story is intriguing in that it alternates between the viewpoints of Kate in the present time and Rosie reminiscing about her past and how she came to be murdered. Anonymous notes start arriving at Kate's house urging her to discover the truth about the Andersons: renowned journalist father, the too-perfect mother Jo and Rosie's little sister Delphine, and of course, Rosie herself. Will Kate be able to find out the truth? 3-1/2 stars

I picked up this book because it advertised itself as like the book/TV show Broadchurch, and I really enjoyed the British version of the show, so I figured I would give it a try. Plus I love a good mystery and hadn't read one in awhile. The book definitely kept me guessing to till the end, and I changed my mind about the killer at least four times. It was fairly obvious about 80% of the way through who it was, but I was curious as to the why. It really did remind me of Broadchurch in the way that the main character was an innocent young person who died way too soon, and the wavering between possible murder suspects until the very end. My first gripe with the book was the author's tendency to alternate between Kate, an outsider's point of view, and the murder victim Rosie, as I felt that it focused too much on Kate. The second was the length, as it dragged a bit in the middle, hence the 3-1/2 stars instead of 4.