Posted by 
A Shroud of Leaves
Sage Westfield #2
mystery
Titan Books
April 9th 2019
Paperback
400 pages
Copy provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
“Finely observed beautifully written” Daily Mail on The Secrets of Life and Death
Archaeologist Sage Westfield has her first forensics case: investigating the murder of a teenage girl. Hidden by holly leaves, the girl’s body has been discovered on the grounds of a stately home, where another teenage girl went missing twenty years ago - but her body was never found. With mysterious links between the two disappearances, the police suspect the reclusive owner, Alistair Chorleigh, who was questioned twenty years ago but never charged. But when Sage investigates a nearby burial mound - and uncovers rumours of an ancient curse - she discovers the story of Edwin Masters, his friend Peter Chorleigh, and an excavation over a hundred years ago, that also ended in a mysterious disappearance. Still recovering from the traumatic events of her recent past, Sage will need both her modern forensics skills and her historical archaeological knowledge to unearth the devastating truth.
Hello.
I hope you are having a great start of the week. Today is Monday and I have another review for you. But this time, the book is a little bit different. “Why different”?- you’ll ask. The main character is archaeologist, not a police officer. And she has a murder to solve.
Sage Westfield finally has her dream job. She has her first forensics case: investigating the murder of a teenage girl. The body has been found in a shroud of leaves. Sage is investigating the bones. Many years ago, another girl went missing and her body was never found. The circumstances suroounding the two cases are similar, and there might be a connection between them. The main suspect, now and then, is the owner of the land. But there is no proof. No witnesses, no evidence, nothing. Working on the investigation, Sage finds out about an old case of a missing person. Edwin Masters disappeared nearly one hundred years ago.
Can his disappearance be connected with the recent murder? Can it be connected to the disappearance of the girl twenty years ago?
A Shroud of Leaves is the second book in this series, but it can easily be read as a standalone. I haven’t read the first one, but that didn’t stop me from connecting with the characters and enjoying the plot.
I liked Sage as a character, she is a woman who tries to deal with everything that is happening at her job and at her home. Sage is suffering from PTSD and tries to deaI with it on her own. I have no idea what happened to her, haven’t read book number one, but I liked the way her vulnerability was presented. I like when the characters aren’t so perfect, but very down-to-earth and real.
I liked the plot and the writing style in the story. It is not fast-paced but slow and surrounded with mystery. Sometimes I need reads like that. Will be in the search for the next in the series!