The Craftsman by Sharon Bolton

 

Florence Lovelady is a new policewoman in Lancashire, a small village up North from where she grew up. She is low man on the totem pole and rooms with the local undertaker as does another policeman who doesn't have his own home.  She usually does routine tasks like checking out car accidents or cases of shoplifting but today is different.  Today a little girl is missing.

It turns out that this is the third child to go missing in Lancashire and none have been found.  Then the last girl, Patsy, is found by Florence and things are worse.  For Patsy is found in a casket, buried alive in the local graveyard and she died a horrific death.  Has this been the fate of the other two children?

The village is horrified and the press is going nuts.  Flo is brought up in the ranks to work on the case as something this big needs everyone.  Against her better judgement, she shares the techniques and insights she has, something a new recruit is never expected to do.  Is there a sexual sadist on the loose?  There are also rumors of witchcraft in this small village and an active coven.  Are the children sacrifices?

Sharon Bolton is a Mary Higgins Clark Award winner and one of the leading suspense authors in England.  She is a master of the shock the reader doesn't see coming and her books are fast paced.  This book, told from the time of the events and then thirty years later when the murderer has died and Florence returns to Lancashire to attend his funeral is intriguing and a great introduction to this author if the reader isn't familiar with her.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.