Books round-up: Quiet Bones by Sarah Ward and Overnight by Dan Richards

Desmond Clifford

Quiet Bones by Sarah Ward

The long lazy summer days are perfect for thrillers. Quiet Bones is the second in the “Carla James” series.

Carla James is an “archaeology professor and police consultant”, which gives her wide cover. In this story she is on secondment from her normal life in Wales to Jericho College in New England, an affluent, conservative community where people would prefer to keep secrets hidden from view.

The story revolves around an archaeological dig and the discovery of a baby’s skeleton – wrapped, weirdly, in a swan’s wing. Clearly something is amiss, and Carla is the woman to help unwind the mystery in the face of local inertia.

At the same time, a student has disappeared from Jericho College. The police are complacent – or complicit? – and are determined that she left town of her own free will. Carla is unsure and starts connecting dots on a community that is less harmonious and structured than it seems at first glance. A spooky and obsessive interest in Norse culture emerges as connecting tissue to the unfolding drama – a little reminiscent of the classical culture theme of The Secret History by Donna Tartt, also set at a liberal arts college in Vermont, and one of the most influential thrillers of recent times.

Tension

Quiet Bones sustains its narrative till the end. Tension mounts and Carla’s instincts prove correct as she leads the police to the end game rather more dramatically than they had envisaged when they recruited her with an archaeological brief. Carla James works well as a character – both clever and kick-ass. It’d be great to see her working back in Wales, and the book ends with a hint that may happen.

Sarah Ward is a Trustee of Gwyl Crime Cymru Festival; she has also written three thrillers in the Mallory Dawson series.
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Overnight: Journeys, Conversations and Stories After Dark by Dan Richards

Around half of our time is spent living in darkness, although it can feel like much more than that by the end of January in this country. Most of us live most of the time by day and the night-time hours can feel unfamiliar and disorientating. Dan Richards explores the night-time world through spending time with people whose work or calling takes them through the dark. He attempts to see the world through their eyes at those unfamiliar hours.

The essays take in hospitals, postal workers, bakers, helicopter rescue crews, rough sleepers and their network of support workers. He spends time on a ferry plying the 125 mile passenger route between Kirkwall in the Orkneys, and Lerwick in the Shetlands. On a calm summer’s evening this might be a transcendental experience; on a rough winter sea it sounds like hell on earth – making Fishguard to Rosslare seem like a pond for slackers. Yet the staff who steer the ship, sometimes in near invisibility, relying on instruments and radar, sound insouciant and relaxed, as you must be if it’s your job.

Comfort

It’s no comfort to be told by one mariner that the boats are only cancelled in the most extreme weather, and even then, it’s not because of the boat’s capacity but because it’s too uncomfortable for the passengers.

The books divides into two parts. The first part deals with night-time jobs, the second covers what might be called “night-time states” – so, looking after babies, studying bats, people who study sleep (which seems to be taken seriously these days after decades of being ignored as a condition). Any parent will empathise with the baby experience: the disrupted body clock, the blurring of night and day, the cumulative effect of mounting sleep deprivation and the desperation and hopelessness that can come with it.

People sometimes feel at a low ebb in the dead of night, including, sometimes, the author of this book. He is inspired by many of the people he encounters in these essays, people who bring comfort to others and who carry the night-time burdens so the rest of us can live “normally” during the day. It’s a good and interesting read.