Just Jennifer

In Bitter Chill by Sarah Ward (Minotaur)

In Derbyshire 1978, Rachel Jones and Sophie Jenkins were kidnapped on their way to middle school.  Before the day was over, Rachel was found walking around, no memory of the kidnapping, except that her abductor was a woman, and she doesn’t know where Sophie is.  Sophie was never found.  Now, some thirty-five years later, Sophie’s mother commits suicide and detective inspector Francis Sadler and detective constable Connie Childs wonder why, after all these years and wonder if there is any connection to the kidnapping and decide to take a look at the kidnapping again, which means starting with Rachel.

Rachel’s mother has died, but her grandmother is still alive and kicking, though has little she is willing to offer by way of memories.  Rachel, a genealogist by profession focuses on material lineage, especially with respect to her own family, her own father dying before she was born.  Rachel is happy leading a quiet, almost reclusive life, but Yvonne Jenkins’s suicide sends reporters to her door and ever more after the death of a teacher who was a the school when Rachel and Sophie were kidnapped, feeling that the answers are just outside of the grasp of her memory.  Rachel uses her research skills to investigate her family and finds a secret so horrific it can’t be true, but if it is, will point the way to a kidnapper and modern day murderer.

This debut novel is a reliable addition to the English police procedural genre.  Sadler and Childs are a little vague as characters, Rachel the more developed.  Rachel’s perspective is unique and offers some awareness into the investigation that detectives wouldn’t have thought to pursue on their own, helping them get a complete picture and offer some closure to Rachel.