Silent Scream
by Angela Marsons
Even the darkest secrets can’t stay buried forever…
Five figures gather round a shallow grave. They had all taken turns to dig. An adult sized hole would have taken longer. An innocent life had been taken but the pact had been made. Their secrets would be buried, bound in blood …
Years later, a headmistress is found brutally strangled, the first in a spate of gruesome murders which shock the Black Country.
But when human remains are discovered at a former children’s home, disturbing secrets are also unearthed. D.I. Kim Stone fast realises she’s on the hunt for a twisted individual whose killing spree spans decades.
As the body count rises, Kim needs to stop the murderer before they strike again. But to catch the killer, can Kim confront the demons of her own past before it’s too late?
A fine police procedural set in England’s Black Country. Back in 2004, five people are depicted at an open grave, hoping to bury secrets of an innocent young life taken.
Now - present day - Teresa Wyatt is in the bath when she hears a break-in at her home. The head teacher is pushed below the surface as she recognises her killer whilst sucking her last breath. She realises that her co-conspirators could not even imagine who it was they had to fear.
Before her drowning, Wyatt had spent a few days investigating an archaeological dig beside Crestwood , a local former children’s home that had burnt a decade earlier. The now abandoned home was the venue of historical cruelty. Physical and metaphorical digging ensues.
Instead of finding Wyatt’s body in the morning, a fire had been started, hastening the police attention, so when we meet DI Kim Stone - raging at the injustice of a not guilty decision and feeling she’s let a victim down – the body hasn’t been there long.
The 34-year-old Stone has an apt surname; with a reputation for being cold and emotionless. She’s a hard-working cop, with little time for the rules. Given Stone’s blunt manner and lack of social skills, it’s no shock that pretty much her only friend is her partner DS Bryant. The relationship between the two adds a light touch to Stone’s overall likability.
Stone herself grew up in care and has her own tragic past. So when the evidence takes her to the old facility for girls she feels a strong pull to find justice for those discarded by society. These particular victims are bodies of young nameless girls: bodies that are connected to the body in the bath, though the connection is not made immediately.
Told with different POVs all the ingredients are there for a cracking crime novel. With red herrings, credible suspects, missing people and murders, the stories interweave all the way to a great, surprise twist at the end. Silent Scream has the makings of a fine mini-series or movie, and this is only the start of the Kim Stone series.
About Angela Marsons:
Angela discovered a love of writing at Primary School when a short piece on the rocks and the sea gained her the only merit point she ever got. She wrote the stories that burned inside and then stored them safely in a desk drawer. After much urging from her partner she began to enter short story competitions in Writer's News resulting in a win and three short listed entries.
She used the Amazon KDP program to publish two of her earlier works before concentrating on her true passion - Crime.
After many, many submissions Angela was signed in a 4 book deal to http://bookouture.com as their first crime author.