Just Jennifer

Behind Closed Doors by Elizabeth Haynes (Harper, March 2015)

DCI Louisa Smith has long regretted not being able to find fifteen-year-old Scarlett Rainsford who disappeared ten years ago while on holiday in Greece with her family.  A recent brothel raid in Lou’s district, Briarstone, has turned up Scarlett who appears to be in good physical and mental condition, though she is very tacit and less than forthcoming with information and not at all interested in seeing her family, only asking after her sister Juliette whose own emotional state is considered tentative.  DS Sam Hollands takes the lead on working with Scarlett, trying to uncover the secrets she harbors, secrets Hollands feels goes much deeper than Scarlett’s ten year absence.  Lou and her team are busily working on the murder of a bar owner and the beating of a nineteen-year-old male, two crimes that Lou is certain are connected if only they could just catch a break; when that break comes, no one is more surprised than Lou where it leads.

Haynes’s style of telling the story from various points of view, past and present with short time and date stamped chapters is, for the most part effective, but does get a little confusing with Scarlett’s narrative.  The insertion of police reports helps summarize certain events and interviews without having to devote several pages to them.  Lou is an interesting character, seemingly tough as nails and wholly devoted to her career, but in reality is more fragile and affected by things than she’ll admit to herself and certainly not to her boyfriend Jason.  This second entry into the Briarstone crime series has a different feel from Haynes’s earlier stand-alone novels, but still has the same psychological tension and twisty plots she is noted for.