‘Dead Reckoning’ by Lea O'Harra

Published independently
3 November 2022.
ISBN: 979-836183193-7 (HB)

Present-day Indiana, and following her mother’s death, Gilly Blackstone has returned with her Japanese husband, Toshi, to the town where she grew up. They plan to attend the funeral and meet with her brothers to wind up her mother’s affairs but find her mother’s house is in a state of squalor. Gilly’s visited straight away by her former best friend, Sally, with the news that the strange events that drove her from Byron have begun again.

This dramatic Gothic chiller hooks you in straight away with the opening back-story: Gilly and Sally’s discovery of a dead baby in the graveyard when they were twelve. We gradually find out more about this event and its aftermath through sentences from Gilly’s old diary, which spark off her memories of the time. Gilly’s the narrator of the story, and we quickly see her lack of confidence, both as a child, when her nickname was Mouse, and Sally bullied her, and now, with the bullying behaviour of her husband, who, she realises, has only come with her because he thinks there’s money to inherit. The cultural differences and expectations between them are vividly evoked, but we also see how much of a facade Gilly is hiding behind, and how little she’s told Toshi of the events of her childhood: her mother’s alcoholism and her difficulties with her brothers – difficulties which reappear when they meet again. As children, Sally and Gilly “investigated” the dead baby, trying to decide whose it was, and O’Harra shows us the townsfolk they suspected as they were then, and now, twenty years on: the dysfunctional Maloney family, the Collins family, with the frightening father, the unpleasant bullying brothers, their kindly mother and their beautiful sister, Melody; Mrs Sullivan and her creepy husband; the kindly policeman Officer Kowalski.

As the hostility to Gilly intensifies to attack, the tension ramps up, especially when Toshi leaves, and she’s alone in her mother’s chaotic and dilapidated house. Gradually the full consequences of their discovery are recalled, and the present danger closes in on her.

A compelling stand-alone thriller, with believably flawed characters whose past has impacted on their present, a vividly-depicted small town and a wonderfully atmospheric build up to a dramatic finish.
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Reviewer: Marsali Taylor

Lea O’Harra.  An American by birth, did her postgraduate work in Britain – an MA in Lancaster and a doctorate at Edinburgh – and worked full-time for 36 years at a Japanese university. Since retiring in March 2020, she has spent part of each year in Lancaster and part in Takamatsu on Shikoku Island, her second home, with occasional visits to the States to see family and friends. An avid reader of crime fiction since childhood, as a university professor she wrote academic articles on it as a literary genre and then decided to try her hand at composing such stories herself, publishing the so-called ‘Inspector Inoue mystery series’ comprising three murder mysteries set in rural, contemporary Japan. She has also published two standalone crime fiction novels.  

Marsali Taylor grew up near Edinburgh and came to Shetland as a newly qualified teacher. Marsali is a qualified STGA tourist-guide who is fascinated by history, and has published plays in Shetland's distinctive dialect, as well as a history of women's suffrage in Shetland. She's also a keen sailor who enjoys exploring in her own 8m yacht, and an active member of her local drama group.  She lives with her husband and two Shetland ponies.

www.marsalitaylor.co.uk