Dead People

February 17, 2014
Hutton’s absorbing second mystery featuring Det. Sgt. Glyn Capaldi (after 2013’s Good People) finds the disgraced detective stationed so deep in the wilds of Wales that he’s literally investigating crimes against sheep. Relief, of a sort, comes with the discovery of skeletal human remains at a wind farm construction site. Both the head and hands are missing, and the remains appear to have been in the ground several years. Glyn discovers a corpse of a much more recent vintage soon after, followed by a second, then a third skeleton. The skeletons can’t be readily identified, but DNA analysis confirms that the intact body belongs to Evie Salmon, a young woman who disappeared two years earlier. While his superiors are quick to lay the blame for all the murders on apparent suicide Bruno Gilbert, Glyn has his doubts. Under the guise of tracing “the Evie connection,” Glyn sets out to piece together the scant clues pointing to the actual killer. Hutton is definitely a writer to watch.