'The Forest of Souls' by Carla Banks

Published by HarperCollins,
7 March 2005.
ISBN: 978- 0-00719210-6 (HB)

Academic Helen Kovacs is brutally murdered, leaving behind a broken marriage, two children and unfinished research into the Nazi occupation of Eastern Europe.  Her close friend and colleague Faith Lange attempts to piece together this research in the midst of her grief. The hostile attitude of Helen's husband and his resentment of her academic work also gives Faith problems and she is anxious over her increasingly frail grandfather. The arrival of journalist Jake Denbigh, interviewing him in the course of researching a book triggers memories of the old man's own past in war torn Eastern Europe.   

Eastern European wartime connections are explored in some detail, through personal recollections, letters, academia and even children's stories. Jake Denbigh's research also opens up possible elements of her grandfather's history which Faith is reluctant to face. The personal effects of this history are stronger than academic thirst for knowledge. Carla Banks knows her subject well and creates a haunting tale, where ghosts of past events impact on events of the present.

The Forest of Souls is a multi-layered, interesting combination of contemporary crime and disturbing history. Carla Banks has spun an intricate web which draws the reader in and holds the attention until all the tangled threads are clearly visible.
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Reviewer: Mary Andrea Clarke
For Lizzie Hayes (Mystery Women Group).

Danuta Reah, who also writes under the name Carla Banks and Danuta Kot, was born in South Yorkshire. She comes from an academic family but opted out of formal education at the age of 16. She worked in a variety of jobs from barmaid to laboratory assistant, in a variety of locations, including a brief spell in Kingston, Jamaica. She went to university as a mature student and then went on to teach adults in Further and Higher Education. She taught linguistics and creative writing, and in the course of this, refined her own writing style. She published her first novel Only Darkness in 1999.  Danuta lives in South Yorkshire. She is past Chair of the Crime Writers' Association.

http://www.danutareah.co.uk