‘Quiet Bones’ by Sarah Ward

Published by Canelo,
5 June 2025.
ISBN: 978-1-80436676-9 (PB)

Quiet Bones is the second novel in Sarah Ward’s series featuring Carla James, a professor of archaeology who has relocated from Oxford to take a post at Jericho, a prestigious college in New England. As with the first in the series (Death Rites) Carla is called in by the local police to help with an investigation and ends up by solving the case.

The body of a baby wrapped in a swan’s wing is found in woods. Discussions take place as to whether this unusual attempt at burial is significant. At the same time Lucie Tandy, a student at Jericho College, has disappeared. The police believe she went of her own accord, but Carla is not so sure as the young woman told nobody she intended leaving and there have been no communications from her.

Following an overnight stake-out, another body is found during excavations on a nearby farm. There are a number of interesting points about the burial, amongst them the fact that the body was face down and a beaker was found next to it. Connections are made with rites other than those usually associated with New England burial practices. When the deceased (Frederika Brown) is found to be related to local detective Baros (who, in Carla’s words ‘had proved a royal pain in the arse’ during her previous case), matters rapidly develop. Before long a policeman, Jeb French, is murdered in a particularly brutal manner, Carla’s home is ransacked and later she is nearly killed.

There are thus four apparently unconnected investigations going on. Who was the mother of the baby, what has happened to Lucie Tandy, who killed Frederika Brown, who murdered Jeb French – and are the cases linked? As previously, Carla is supported by Erin Collins, the state medical examiner.

The novel ranges through a number of themes which will come as no surprise to those who have read Death Rites. Student life is examined, as are society rituals such as initiations (hazing is a matter of particular concern). Local families come into focus. The closed world of influential people in Jericho, which Carla has previously faced, is a dominating thread, particularly in the guise of a society called the Norseman. The shadow of local businessman James Franklin, prominent in Death Rites, again hovers over everything and everybody.

I commented when reviewing Death Rites that it left plenty of scope for further novels. Quiet Bones lives up to that. I wondered then if after successfully solving her first case Carla might be more readily accepted by the Jericho community. You will have to decide. As with its predecessor, Quiet Bones has a plot that keeps you reading and is thoroughly enjoyable.
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David Whittle  

Sarah Ward is the author of four DC Childs novels set in the Derbyshire Peak District where she lives. She is also writes gothic historical thrillers as Rhiannon Ward. The Birthday Girl, is the first book in her new Welsh based series, published 6th April 2023. She has also written Doctor Who audio dramas. Sarah is on Board of the Crime Writers Association and Friends of Buxton Festival, is a member of Crime Cymru, and a Royal Literary Fund fellow at Sheffield University.  

www.crimepieces.com  

David Whittle is firstly a musician (he is an organist and was Director of Music at Leicester Grammar School for over 30 years) but has always enjoyed crime fiction. This led him to write a biography of the composer Bruce Montgomery who is better known to lovers of crime fiction as Edmund Crispin, about whom he gives talks now and then. He is currently convenor of the East Midlands Chapter of the Crime Writers’ Association.