Today it's my turn on the BlogTour The Bone Jar by S.W. Kane.
SW Kane studied History of Design and worked at the RIBA before taking on a series of totally unrelated jobs in radio and the music industry, where she still works as a freelance music PR. She has an MA in Creative (Crime) Writing from City University. She began reading crime fiction from an early age and developed an obsession with crime set in cold places. A chance encounter with a derelict fort in rural Pembrokeshire led to a fascination with urban exploration, which in turn became the inspiration for her crime novels. She lives in London.
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About the book
Two murders. An abandoned asylum. Will a mysterious former patient help untangle the dark truth?
The body of an elderly woman is been found in the grounds of a derelict asylum on the banks of the Thames. As Detective Lew Kirby and his partner begin their investigation, another body is discovered in the river nearby. Gradually, the secrets of Blackwater Asylum begin to reveal themselves; there are rumours of secret rooms, unspeakable psychological experimentation and a dark force that haunts the ruins.
Urban explorer Connie Darke has her own interest in the asylum; it’s where her sister died in a freak accident and she’s determined to help Kirby expose its grisly past. Meanwhile Kirby discovers a devastating family secret that threatens to turn his life upside down. As his world crumbles around him, Kirby must put the pieces of the puzzle together to keep the killer from striking again. Only an eccentric former patient knows the truth—but will he reveal it to Kirby or Connie before it’s too late?
When the body of an elderly woman is found on the grounds of an old mental asylum it not only evokes a sense of creepy and something nefarious lurking in the shadows, it also suggests someone wants it to feel exactly that way.
Detectives Kirby and urban explorer Darke are drawn into a scene that has its roots in the past. In a building that comes with its own nightmare echo of the patients and experiences they had there. How did the victim get there and who would want to harm a little old lady?
Kane creates this interesting combination of an atmosphere of the unexplained, the reality of medical experiments and how the resulting trauma can determine the way someone lives their life. The whole sleep experimentation sub-plot was intriguing, especially because it is an area the medical world is still not quite clear on. The irony of course is the way the subconscious drives specific parts of this read and the parallel of experiments on a similar area.
Although it seems at times as if Kane goes off in too many directions she does spend time bringing everything back together and tying up all the threads. It's easy to start multiple storylines the hard part is making sure you don't drop the ball along the way.
It has a strong urban crime feel to it and simultaneously this aura of something the reader can't quite grasp as yet. Hopefully as this series evolves whatever that certain element is will become more tangible.
Buy The Bone Jar at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher: Thomas and Mercer; pub date 1 July 2020 available in Paperback, Kindle and Audiobook. Buy at Amazon com.
