#BookReview Dry Bones by Sally Spencer (@SallySpencerebk) @severnhouse

Dry Bones: An Oxford-Based Pi Mystery by Sally Spencer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Private investigator Jennie Redhead finds her loyalties divided when she investigates the decades-old murder of a college student.

Oxford, 1974. In the cellars beneath St Luke's College, a sealed medieval ventilation shaft is opened up to reveal human bones. Two bodies, buried thirty years apart, but is there a connection?

Desperate to protect the College's reputation and finances - the bursar, Charlie Swift, hires his old friend, private investigator Jennie Redhead, to find out the identities of the two victims. But as Jennie pieces the clues together, it becomes increasingly clear that Charlie knows rather more about the murders than he's admitted. As she uncovers a series of scandals stretching back more than sixty years, Jennie is forced to question how well she really knows her old friend Charlie Swift and whether she can trust him?

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I read The Shivering Turn, the first book in the series earlier this year and I was thrilled to get to chance to read the sequel Dry Bones. Private investigator Jennie Redhead is back and in this book, she has to solve the mystery of two skeletons that are found in the cellars beneath St Luke's College without the police finding out about that since her friend, and the college's bursar, Charlie Swift doesn't want to involve them. The skeletons are buried 30 years apart, so now she must find out what links them together to find out who put them there.

I found the Shivering Turn to be an excellent start and I'm thrilled to say that this book is also great. One aspect I love about this series is that it's set in the 70s Oxford and I was also extra pleased that this book dealt with a cold case. We got to see flashbacks back to St Luke's both during WW1 and WW2 and it was especially interesting to get to know a younger Charlie Swift. The book really captured the atmosphere of the different periods and I always love reading a book that feels authentic. As for the case, well, it's a true puzzle, but Jennie is a good PI and she, despite, feeling let down by Charlie hiding things will do everything to solve it.

I quite enjoyed this mystery book and I look forward to reading more books about Jennie Redhead!

I want to thank the publisher for providing me with a free copy through NetGalley for an honest review!

#BookReview The Shivering Turn by Sally Spencer

The Shivering Turn: A Pi Series Set in Oxford by Sally Spencer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Introducing Oxford-based private investigator Jennie Redhead in the first of a brand-new mystery series.

'My daughter's not just run away - she's dead!' When Mary Corbet walks into private investigator Jennie Redhead's rundown Oxford office one pleasant spring day in 1974, she is a desperate woman. Although she's convinced her daughter has been murdered, she can get neither the police nor her husband to agree with her.

Jennie is not convinced either, but more out of compassion than conviction agrees to take the case. The only clue she has to go on is a fragment of an obscure 17th century poem she finds in Linda's bedroom: Or will you, like a cold and errant coward/Abandon all and make a shivering turn. But from that one clue Jennie's investigations will lead her beyond the city's dreaming spires to Oxford's darker underbelly, in which lurks a hidden world of privilege, violence and excess.

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I was a bit doubtful when I started this book. I had some problem getting into the book (sometimes going from one book to another quickly can be a bit hard), however, slowly as the story progressed I really started to enjoy the book. As a big fan of British crime TV series did the sound of a book series set in Oxford really appeal to me and I really loved that the book is set in the 70s.

Jennie Redhead is a PI, she is also red-haired which makes her name quite fitting. She recently left the police force after some problem that will be revealed in the story and now she is trying to find her footing as a PI. When the women of a missing girl approach her is she a bit hesitant to accept the case, but there are things with the case that doesn't sound like the girl just up and left. And could the17th century poem she finds in the bedroom have something to do with her disappearance.

The Shivering Turn is the first in the Jennie Redhead series and as a detective novel did this book feel refreshing. As I mentioned before is the book set in Oxford in the 70s and that was a nice change from all the present time crime novels I tend to read. The music, the events of the time and the lack of technological progress that we have today made this book feel quite nice to read. I also came to like Jennie Redhead quite a lot. She is a gutsy woman. The case took turns that I did not expect, and there is a moment when I together with Jennie realized the truth about something. A sad, sad truth.

The Shivering Turn was very refreshing to read and I will definitely read more books in this series!

I want to thank the publisher for providing me with a free copy through NetGalley for an honest review!