Disordered Minds by Minette Walters

 

Dr. Jonathan Hughes has written a book about false confessions and uses several cases to illustrate his point.  One is the case of Howard Stamp, a young man, shunned because of his disability, a harelip and stuttering.  When his grandmother is found slashed to death in her house, Stamp is quickly arrested and after hours of interrogation, he confesses.  He later disavows his confession but is found guilty and sent to prison where he commits suicide.

Jonathan is contacted after the book's publication by many people, but he is intrigued by one, a local council woman named George.  He agrees to meet her in a pub and after a bad start, they agree to look into the case.  A few days before the murder, a local girl, thirteen, had gone missing just a few streets away from the murder scene. There was talk that the girl had been gang raped shortly before her disappearance. She has never been found although thirty years has gone by.   Could the two cases be connected?

The two work on the cases along with the help of Jonathan's agent.  They realize that the owner of the pub where they met, a man who had befriended George, was living in the same neighborhood as all the crimes.  Was he involved?  One of his ex-wives looked like the missing girl and went by her nickname.  What was her part in all this?

Minette Walters was known for her eerie mystery novels when she started out, although lately she has been concentrating on historical fiction.  Whenever I find one of her mysteries I haven't read, it is like a present as her novels are intriguing and different from that of others.  In this one, the two cases which had always been treated as separate crimes, turn out to be twisted together.  It also illustrates the way that crimes against women are often not taken seriously, especially when the victims are teenage girls who are known to not be the best of witnesses.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.