Jericho College is on summer break, but Carla James, professor of archaeology, is running a summer school for amateur archaeologists, looking at various aspects of local history, but the focus on the course soon settles on Meg Woodthorpe.

Meg was killed a hundred years’ previously, executed for being a witch. A stone was placed atop her grave to prevent her soul from escaping. But while her soul may not have escaped, excavations soon show that her body has. Another body has replaced it, though, the body of the last member of Carla’s course, one who they had assumed never made it to Jericho…

The third of Sarah’s Jericho series, a college town where you’re no-one if you don’t belong to at least one secret society. There are plenty of dark undercurrents going through the series, and this one brings a new strand with the people inspired by Meg Woodthorpe.

It’s another great read – there’s not a massive amount of movement on the overall plot of the dark secrets beneath the town, but instead other plot strands move forward. Most interesting was the humanising of the police characters, notably Detective Baros who has been a bit of a dick up to this point – it’s a smart move, and makes the character much more interesting.

As a mystery, it ticks along nicely. I never lost interest in what was going on, and I was caught out by the reveal at the end. It’s a great series and I’m looking forward as to where it goes next.

Grave Intent is out on June 11^th in paperback and ebook from Canelo Crime. Many thanks for the review copy.