Under Parr by Andrea Bramhall

Under Parr by Andrea Bramhall

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley and Ylva Publishing in exchange for an honest review.

This is a book with two main points of view (other than the prologue, there really are only two). Detective Sergeant Kate Brannon and Gina Temple.

Plotlines
Major Plots:

1) Police investigating a mystery

a) Skeleton found in a WWII bunker that got sealed by a storm that hit December 5 2013. While investigating the skeleton several other crimes were discovered and investigated
b) The police force, or at least the task force dealing with ‘the case of the skeleton’, has a certain ‘issue’ with one of their members. Personality clash? Bad cop? Something’s going on.

2) A mother and daughter attempting to deal with traumatic issues

a) Due to the nature of the events of the prior book, the townspeople and their children torment Sammy, Gina’s daughter; plus Sammy is still suffering mentally/emotionally
b) Due to the nature of the events of the prior book, the townspeople glare at and act mean towards Gina; plus Gina is still suffering mentally/emotionally

Subplots

1) Romance

a) Trouble in paradise? See: Gina and daughter suffering from the traumatic events of last book
b) Someone stalking/romancing/something Gina

2) Gina’s estranged mother pops up during the police investigation

a) Complications related to the mother being back in the picture.
b) ?

First off, though, I need to note that unlike some mystery series that involve the police, you really do need to have read the first book in the series before reading this book here. Since one of the story lines is more or less directly tied to the prior book – a reaction to the events that occurred in that prior book.

This book starts six weeks after Collide-O-Scope - well, no, literally the book starts before that first book, but that’s just the prologue. The prologue is set in December 5, 2013, when an old man stumbles around a nursing home, spots someone doing something wrong, stumbles out into a storm, and ends up in a WWII bunker. When the book moves to the main part, out of the prologue, it’s about four years later (or three?) and a skeleton has been found inside a WWII bunker on the North Norfolk Coast of England. The people from the first book fall into similar rolls as before, for the most part (and even when they don’t physically appear, they pop up in conversation, like Inspector Savage).

Detective Sergeant Kate Brannon, one of the two main points of view, works the skeleton case while her boss, like in the last book, goes off to deal with a different case (the boss, by the way, being Detective Inspector Timmons). Working with Brannon is Detective Sergeant Stella Goodwin, who both head of the investigation. Meanwhile Detective Constable Jimmy Powers is Brannon’s assistant until he is replaced by Detective Constable Gareth Collier (because of a personality clash between Collier and his partner). Len Wild and Dr. Ruth Anderson also return.

While Brannon is following the mystery angle of the book, Georgina ‘Gina’ Temple follows the PTSD angle. As in, her daughter had found a dead body in the prior book – her best friend, (view spoiler)[ and for three days she, the daughter – Sammy – had thought she had killed her friend (hide spoiler)], and Sammy also happens to go to a school where all but maybe one of the other children there were deeply impacted by the prior book ((view spoiler)[one or more parents ending up being out of work, and/or facing long jail time for the (view spoiler)[drug smuggling ring (hide spoiler)] [events] found in the prior book (hide spoiler)]) and the children blame Sammy. Bully her mercilessly. Meanwhile, Gina herself has her own emotional and physical scars to try to overcome – recall it’s only been six weeks. And so that’s the second track/plot line/angle – a mother and daughter attempting to fight the demons created by the prior book.

That second plot line is interesting, in its way, though ultimately I find/found it to be a distraction I did not wish to read. It got in the way of the mystery, unfortunately. There was even one section that I ended up skipping (until I remembered I was reading an ARC so went back and read it; normally I’d have skipped certain paragraphs/sections/etc.).

The book was interesting – following the police as they investigate one thing, a skeleton found in a WWII bunker, which leads to even more things to investigate. The mystery itself was a good twist on the standard murder mystery; the interactions between the police and others (and amongst themselves) was good. If the book had just been the Mystery, I would likely rate this book highly. But it isn’t. Frankly, while well written and seeming as if it’d make a good book on its own, the PTSD plot was, as noted, distracting to me and might have been less ‘boring’ if it had been its own book. Potentially. I mean, I’ve read PTSD books before – where that’s the main and mostly only focus.

Publication Date: May 17 2017 (though you can purchase the book now from the Ylva Publishing website).

Rating: Mystery: 4.3; Other Stuff: 3.3 = 7.6/2=3.8 overall rating of 3.8.

May 12 2017

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