Beth Haldane is someone you can root for. She isn't perfect, which she acknowledges to herself rather frequently, but she cares about people and wants justice done where there is injustice. This brings her into contact and frequent conflict with Harry, the Detective Inspector. What I particularly liked about this story is that we get to spend time in not just Beth's head, but Harry's, giving us insight into who he is as a human being, too. Heck, we get to visit quite a few different minds in this installment of the series, including that of pouty, self-centered, and, oh, so spoiled and neglected schoolgirl Sophia. Even her drug wasted "boyfriend" gets a turn and, quite frankly, I hope he doesn't pop up again. Let's just say, bad news.
The mystery begins benignly enough. Beth, playing a childhood game in her head of "Which work of art would you save in a fire?" is making a quick visit to the upscale school museum where she works. Instead of a fun, relaxing visit, however, she finds a body. Well, not quite a body. The mystery girl is still alive but in what appears to be a coma. She's wearing a flowing white dress and has her hands folded against her chest, recalling several works of art that Beth is familiar with. It's the folded hands that won't allow Beth to let the image go and next thing we know, she's off on her own investigation. Her budding friendship with Harry is already shaky but this time it takes off on a roller coaster of a ride as he alternately shoves her away and allows her into his world as the investigation goes along.
The case is baffling. How did the comatose girl get into the mausoleum? Who arranged her so picturesquely? More importantly, who is she? Why haven't her parents reported her as missing? Why is she comatose? Drugs? Why is the upper crust school so shaken? How does a parent make the horrendous decision of life or death for the child they carried within them? What does the Blue Whales challenge have to do with anything? Is social media to blame? How powerful does being a known influencer make a teenage girl feel? Do we blame society? Busy, distracted parents? Seriously, what sort of nasty secrets are lurking under the veneer of upper crust Dulwich? I know I didn't see the ending coming, that's for sure. It was at once satisfying and saddening. Author Alice Castle made me care about her characters, even the ones we only meet in passing, and I was fully, intently invested until the end. And, hey, what about that ending?
If you like multi-layer mysteries with well-defined characters and suspects, you will surely love this one. Go into it with an open mind and be prepared to think, "Whoa!", sit back and think periodically. There's a great deal to this book and this is just an overview of all that is tackled. The world we live in is a complicated one and one never really knows what is going on behind closed doors, be they at home, school, or elsewhere. This one made me think, reflect, and as a former teacher, feel the pangs of knowing I can't gather all my students under my wings and protect them from real life. Kudos to Alice Castle. This series has me hooked.
Thanks to #NetGalley and #Bookouture for inviting me back to Dulwich. It was an uneasy trip occasionally but I adored the moments when the prose flowed and we saw the world through Beth's whimsical, romantic eyes. I'll be diving into book three asap.
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