‘Stay Buried’ by Kate Webb

Published by Quercus,
9 January 2023.
ISBN: 978-1-529421248 (HB)

Detective Inspector Matt Lockyer has been moved to cold case review, as a result of a bad decision he made on a recent investigation. Although a sideways move Matt sees it as an opportunity to look into the killing of his brother Chris which remains an unsolved crime.

Sitting at his desk on a Friday afternoon he receives a call from a voice that is familiar but that he can’t place. ‘It’s Hedy Lambert’ says the caller. ‘I need to see you’.  It was fourteen years since he had sent Hedy Lambert to prison, but deep down he hadn’t been totally sure that she was guilty, but the investigation didn’t turn up any evidence that pointed in an another direction.

When she informs him that the man, she was originally accused of killing has turned up alive and well.  She begs him to reopen the case.

Although when he revisits the case despite that at the back of his mind he wonders if he had sent an innocent woman to prison, he still can’t find anything to support that.

Along with his assistant Gemma Broad he begins the investigation by re-interviewing all the people where she was working, and that were involved at the time.  Obviously, co-operation is thin on the ground, and the re-interviewing initially reveals nothing new, but time has moved on and the reappearance of Harry Ferris the man Hedy was originally accused of killing has brought a new dimension to the investigation, for it is clear that his return to the family has caused friction.  But no one want to talk about it. But persistence brings forth an interesting lead, will it bear fruit?

This is a truly fascinating mystery. A compelling read.  One of those books you just can’t’ put down. I am hoping that it is the start of a series. Highly recommended.
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Reviewer: Lizzie Sirett.

Kate Webb was born in 1977 and grew up in Hampshire before reading History at Durham University. She has since spent time living in London and Venice, and now lives in the countryside near Bath, UK. Stay Buried is her debut crime novel and Book 1 in the DI Lockyer series. She also writes historical fiction under the name Katherine Webb, which have included several Sunday Times Top Ten Bestsellers and been translated into 26 languages around the world.