The body of a newborn baby is found in the woodland outside Jericho, New England, wrapped in a swan’s wing. Due to the similarities to a Viking rite, archaeology professor Carla James is brought into assist, but as ever, there is more going on in Jericho than this.

A student is missing from campus and while the police are convinced she left of her own accord, Carla is not convinced. But when a local dig discovers bones from recent years, it seems there is – or at least was – a murderer in Jericho. But the one thing that the town is good at is covering this sort of thing up. It’s been doing it for years…

Right, I’m back from holiday. I’ve survived Storm Floris – note to self, isolated exposed holiday cottages in Scotland aren’t the best place to shelter from 70 miles per hour storms – and I’ve got a bit of a list of reviews to write. I’ll give the usual “things might be even shorter than usual” but then probably waffle on anyway. Let’s see.

So, first off, the second Jericho novel from Sarah Ward. It’s been nine months since I read the last one, so I was quite impressed that I found myself remembering the characters from book one. This does stand alone, but I’d read Death Rites first because a) this one does spoil a lot of the plot developments from that one and b) if you read this first, you’ll probably want to read the first one afterwards.

I did think it took a little while for the three investigations to settle down into a single narrative but once it did, I was absolutely hooked. The atmosphere of Jericho with its sense of secrets that need to be kept regardless is an interesting background to the novel, and adding in the rituals of drinking clubs and college sororities and it gives a sense of the sort of secrets that might inspire enough loyalty for some people to keep them.

As the book went on, I was more and more gripped by this one. I wish I’d been a little more surprised by the final reveal, but I have to say that Sarah turned it into a cracking finale. And the hints at more to come in Jericho will certainly have me coming back for more next time.

Quiet Bones is out now in paperback from Canelo. Many thanks for the review copy.