RATING: VERY GOOD
SPOILERS!!!
Cathbad takes a turn for the worse and is taken to hospital where he is transferred to intensive care and intubated. Judy, his children, Ruth and the rest are very worried.
While checking information about the hospital, Judy discovers that there was a case years ago of a nurse, Dawn Stainton, who was accused of murder and later acquitted. The interesting thing is that Dawn is Zoe, Ruth’s neighbour, and Judy recognises her from the time when she joined Ruth on a zoom session of Cathbad’s yoga. When she tells Nelson, he gets worried and drives to the cottage. At first, Ruth is not there, but when she returns with Kate, Nelson tells her, but there is no one at Zoe’s. She is still missing the next day, and Ruth gets worried. Ruth is also concerned about Zoe’s cat so she tries to get into the house, and she can because the back door is unlocked. What surprises Ruth is that next to Zoe’s wedding framed photograph there is a photograph of Jean, Ruth’s own mother. Now that she knows that Zoe’s real name is Dawn, she can see a link between the photograph she found among her mother’s things and which was titled ‘Dawn’, Zoe and the cottage. Ruth suspects that Zoe is her half-sister, and she was fostered in the cottage by the previous owners.
Zoe is not the only one missing. Nobody knows where Joe, the student is, and Eileen, his friend, is also missing. And Leah, Nelson’s PA, hasn’t come to the office for days.
The chapters are interspersed by sections in which a woman is locked in a dark place, and a man brings him little food and pills, telling her that she should kill herself.
Ruth gets a text from Janet, her friend who works for the museum, asking her to help her. Ruth tries to phone Nelson, but he won’t pick up, so she calls the station and talks to Tanya. After she explains the situation, Tanya tells her to meet her at the station, and while they go to Tombland, Tony can look after Kate.
Meanwhile, Nelson has also got a text from Leah with the same plea, “Help”. When he gets to her house, her husband opens the door, but refuses to let him talk to her, and when Leah appears coming down the stairs, he realises that Leah is an abused wife. Nelson orders Leah to pack a bag, and when the husband stands in his way, he hits him.
After Nelson leaves Leah at a safe house, she discovers the dozens of texts from Ruth and the calls from Tanya, and after hearing to her message on voicemail, he knows that they are in Tombland.
In Tombland Ruth and Tanya call on Janet, who says that she didn’t send any text to Ruth. Actually, she has lost her mobile. The three women go around the building, and they discover Eileen. She says that she and Joe have been using one of the rooms, seeing as they were empty. Eileen says that she has heard sobbing and there must be someone else, and Janet has heard some noises too but she has always thought that there the sounds of ghosts.
Nelson arrives but as he is standing outside the building, she is hit from behind and knocked out cold. While he is unconscious, he has a vision of Cathbad and he tells him that it is Nelson who is in his dream as he has come to help him.
Tanya tells Ruth to go outside and see if Nelson is around. Before doing that, Janet tells her to go into the shop and find something. While she is there, she hears a noise, and hidden behind some cabinet, she sees an old man enter. The old man walks and opens a door, and Ruth recognises Zoe’s voice. Ruth makes her presence known, and the old man uses the opportunity to push her inside and lock her as well. Zoe tells her that on Tuesday she got a call from an old man, saying that he felt ill, so she came here, but the man tricked her into coming to the room where she has been since.
Joe appears and opens the door, and he says that he followed a dark man and hit him. Ruth knows he is describing Nelson, so she hurries outside. Tanya and Eileen is also there, and Nelson is coming to. Tanya has got a text from Judy, saying that Tina, the cleaner, had a photo of the day Avril died, and in the photo which Tina’s daughter got for her, there was Hugh, Avril’s friend. What Tina tried to tell her daughter was that it was Hugh, not it was you.
Hugh is arrested. From the testimony of the dead women’s family and friends it seems that Hugh belittled them, making them feel unhappy and it seems he talked them into killing themselves. When he is questioned, Hugh claims not to remember. Nelson says that they can charge him with illegal imprisonment for Zoe, but it won’t be easy to prove his part in the other women’s deaths.
That night after all the turmoil Nelson comes to Ruth’s to stay with Kate while she goes next door to talk to Zoe. The woman confirms what she knew. They are half-sisters. Zoe contacted Jean a few years ago, but she wrote back, saying that she couldn’t meet her yet because neither her husband nor her children knew about her. In her letter she explained that she got pregnant after an affair with Derek, who worked in the bank with her, but she didn’t know he was married. Her parents sent her to a home where she had the baby, and then Zoe/Dawn was placed with a foster family for a while, who lived in the cottage where Ruth lives. In the letter Jean tells her about Simon, who is married and has two sons. And she also tells her about Ruth, her courage to be a single mother and how intelligent she is. When Ruth reads the letter, she is really moved. Her mother was never very affectionate, and those words in the letter, showing how proud she was of Ruth, makes her day.
Nelson talks to Joe, and he explains that he admires Ruth but he means no harm. Nelson is not so sure, so he orders Joe to change courses and go to study to another university. Otherwise, he will report him for hitting him. Nelson also talks to Eileen and tells her to go home.
Cathbad gets well. For one moment I thought that I was in for a shock and he was going to die. Thankfully, he is still alive. He returns home to a street full of neighbours, Ruth, Kate, and his family. He feels the luckiest man in the world.
Michelle returns home after a couple of months away. Georgie is excited to be back home. Michelle is more contained in her feelings, and when she and Nelson are alone, she tells him that they need to talk. I wonder what she wants to talk to him about. Is Michelle sick? During a zoom meeting Nelson noticed that she looked worse than her mother, who she was supposedly looking after. That is the last sentence of the book, so what she and Nelson talk about will appear in the next book.
I enjoy the book, and I have to say that I was completely thrown off the scent. I am so glad that now Ruth has a sister!
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