Skin and Bone
"..an excellent read with a nice twist at the end."
Synopsis:
Detective Kate Farrer returns to duty after three months of leave following her traumatic abduction. Fearing that she has lost her edge, she reluctantly partners homicide newcomer Oliver Parke, and they are thrown into the investigation of a woman burnt beyond recognition in a house fire. The post-mortem reveals she had recently given birth, but there are no signs of the baby.
With homicide short staffed, Kate and Oliver are also ordered to look into the disappearance of a teenage girl. Suspicion falls on Mark Dobbie, a steroid user who is obsessed with the missing girl's sister. When the detectives find explicit photos of unconscious women in his home they wonder if they have found their prime suspect.
While the pressure to identify the charred body and find the teenage girl escalates, a quadriplegic is burnt to death in his bed. Shocking links to all three crimes emerge and Kate Farrer's past demons come back to haunt her. But she must fight them - her partner's life depends on it.
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Review:
Kate Farrar is an Australian homicide detective returning from leave following her abduction. However, although this incident is referred to in such instances when her panic attacks occur, very little detail is given about when she was attacked. As I had not read any of Fox's previous novels, I am assuming that all this took place in an earlier book. The lack of information is a little frustrating as it could explain why Farrar is such a cold, aloof and solitary character, eliciting very little empathy or interest from the reader. There is a good mix of characters here - and an excellent plot that I feel was somewhat let down by this unappealing leading character. However, it is both of these redeeming factors that make Skin and Bone an excellent read with a nice twist at the end.