Kate Rhodes (1) (1964–)

What's it about?

Alice Quentin is a busy psychologist with a back story her own colleagues might enjoy analysing - an abusive father, a manipulative mother and a deeply troubled bipolar brother. One evening, whilst running, she discovers a woman's body in Crossbones Yard, an old burial ground for prostitutes. This incident leads to her becoming involved with DCI Burns and DS Alvarez, who want her expertise to help discover the killer.

This is particularly urgent since the crime itself bears a show more striking resemblance to a previous series of murders by a married couple who owned a local hostel. Could there be another serial killer on the loose?

However, it seems that it's not only the police who want Alice; the killer wants her too, and the answers she's seeking may be frighteningly close to home...

What's it like?

Very well-written with consistently dark imagery employed throughout. Alice perceives the world around her as grey and threatening: the apostles at St Paul's 'seemed to be eavesdropping on the sightseers' conversations'; one distressed character pushes a photograph of people into a table and 'held them there for a long time, as though they were kittens he needed to drown'.

'Crossbones Yard' is easy but enjoyable to read because the characterisation and dialogue are usually so well-handled. Alice is convincingly damaged - fragile yet strong, she makes an effective first person narrator, even though her actions and convictions often cause the jaws of the police officers to drop. She understandably chafes at the restrictions placed on her freedom and is not prepared to sit and do nothing.

What's not to like?

Mmm. I had some minor niggles. The killer's behaviour towards one of his victims felt a little perfunctory. Alice is very ready to take the blame for everything the killer has done upon herself, which is understandable (given her history, not the killer's,) but also frustrating.

A few of the characters are perhaps a little clichéd, from the carefree actress / singer / party girl Lola (presumably introduced as a character in this book primarily to draw another potential male suspect into Alice's small world) to the obese, work-obsessed DCI Burns who somehow always manages to wheedle one more favour out of his pet psychologist.

Most annoyingly, I wasn't at all convinced by the villain. I was at an absolute loss to understand what the killer's motivations were meant to be and there was no real explanation given. It seemed readers were meant to believe the killer had simply become 'unhinged' or 'deranged' through a combination of professional and personal circumstances, but the rationale behind that was weak.

Final thoughts

I do admit, I rather like endings where you gradually realise whodunit, then get their backstory in some form or other. Done badly it can be tedious and repetitive, but done well it neatly ties together the overall package. The crime and the criminal are solved. In 'Crossbones Yard' Rhodes suddenly reveals the killer and silences him in almost the same moment; her heroine reels, asks a few questions at an opportune moment and reflects on how stupid she's been, then starts to move on.

'Readers will care as much about Alice as they do about identifying the murderer.' - Sophie Hannah

I'm always a little wary of crime novels and series where the reader is meant to bond with the key protagonist as much if not more than focusing on the crime itself. It's the motivations of the victims and villains and solutions to the crimes I find fascinating, not the private lives of the investigating personnel.

However, Alice's personal life is sufficiently relevant to the novel's criminal focus for me to have really enjoyed reading this book and I would definitely try another in the series.

Overall, Rhodes effectively combines a vulnerable but determined protagonist in a convincing setting with an intriguing and fast-paced plot. More of a crime thriller than a psychological thriller, perhaps, but still a gripping read which I really enjoyed. show less

Though this is my first book by this author, I’ve learned that this is actually the eighth book in the Isles of Scilly Mysteries.

DI Ben Kitto unearths the body of a young Vietnamese girl buried near ruins on the island of St Helen’s. With no connection to anyone on the “tiny archipelago with less than two thousand souls,” Ben suspects that she may have been the victim of human trafficking. As Ben and his team investigate and try to find the person responsible, they come to believe show more that there may be another girl being held captive somewhere, so locating her adds extra urgency.

Most of the novel focuses on Ben’s perspective. The reader follows the investigation from his point of view and sees his struggles: foul weather, an antagonistic supervisor, and people keeping secrets. We also learn about Ben’s home life with his wife Nina and their one-year-old son Noah. Though there are some tensions, it is home that provides Ben with stability and a respite from his work. His love for Nina and Noah is very evident.

There are also brief interludes from the point of view of Mai, a sixteen-year-old Vietnamese girl who has been held captive by a man for six years. She has recently given birth to a son Lao whom the man has taken away. I found her sections a harrowing read though her descriptions of all she has endured ensure that the reader becomes invested in her fate. She emerges as an amazingly strong person. Her parents taught her about kien, a word meaning “strength and resilience, the ability to survive disasters” and she certainly proves to possess those traits. In the end what is also impressive is her choice to put the protection of others ahead of her own safety.

Not having encountered Ben before, I enjoyed learning about him. He’s obviously intelligent and skilled at his job, but what stands out is his determination; “I need to know exactly what happened or her image will stain my memory forever.” He admits that he likes to do things at his own pace, but it’s
clear that he will let nothing stand in his way. His boss is demanding and not especially supportive, but Ben perseveres. When he needs to question the islands’ power holders, he doesn’t hesitate. I also appreciated Ben’s comment about his “blunt communication style.”

The book has the reader playing detective along with Ben and his team. Because we are given Mai’s perspective, we know a bit about the perpetrator (such as his claim that music gives his life balance) and the type of place where she is being held captive, so as each man is questioned and his property searched, I asked myself whether he could be the one holding Mai captive. Of course there are several men whose musical interests are mentioned and almost everyone has an old shed or cellar or access to an abandoned building that could serve as a hiding spot. Several men behave suspiciously but then they have seemingly credible explanations. Teenagers spread rumours about a cabal of influential people involved in human trafficking. So there are many potential suspects. About three-quarters of the way through the novel, I had strong suspicions - which proved to be correct - but I wasn’t convinced and was strongly motivated to continue to the end. I appreciate when an author follows the fair play doctrine.

The book is a page turner. With the discovery of the body at the beginning, my interest was captured and it never waned thereafter. I was concerned for Mai’s fate as soon as she was introduced, but suspense ramped up when the case takes a personal turn for Ben and there really is a race against time.

I love touring islands. I love Canada’s Les Îles-de-la-Madeleine; Croatia’s islands such as Pag, Krk, and Korčula; Ireland’s Inis Mór and Skellig Michael; Holland’s Texel; Scotland’s Skye and Iona; and Denmark’s Faroe Islands. The author paints such a vivid picture of the Isles of Scilly and their sense of community that they have been added to my bucket list of places to visit.

I will have to backtrack and read the first seven Isles of Scilly books when time allows, but I will definitely read any books that continue the series.

Note: Please check out my reader's blog (https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.com/) or substack (https://doreenyakabuski.substack.com/) for over 1,200 of my book reviews. show less

As DI Ben Kitto and his team are out practising their swimming they discover the body of a young woman dressed as a bride and hung from a local landmark. It soon becomes clear that this is not a suicide and the Islands Police have a murder on their hands. Reacting quickly they shut down St Mary's but another woman is murdered and now there is a serial killer on the loose. One of Ben's childhood friends is an easy suspect but things don't add up and the race is on to save another girl's show more life.
I haven't read all of Rhodes' books set on the Scilly Isles but the couple I have read have impressed. Unlike many in the genre the central character, Kitto, is not necessarily the focus, more a narrator with personal insights. The love for the islands and their historic way of life is evident and the isolation and small population lends a different slant to what might otherwise be a fairly generic (if strong) police procedural. show less

The Winter Foundlings – Stunningly Brilliant

I would love to know why I have not heard of Kate Rhodes because I have just finished her latest crime and psychological thriller and oh wow what a stunning read. This is one of the most intense, compelling and absolutely convincing read I have had in a while. Rhode’s prose is excellent and the imagery it gives off is so evocative you feel that you are in the centre of the plot.

The Winter Foundlings is now the third book in the Alice Quentin show more series and now I have read this I want to read more of her series. Dr Alice Quentin is a Forensic Psychologist who is usually based at Guys Hospital in London but at the moment is on a six month secondment to Northwood high security hospital. For those who were scarred by the TV series Cracker Alice Quentin is the absolute opposite, she is intelligent willing to look at the wider picture and more importantly she works in the field rather than the cosy world of academia.

Alice Quentin is on a research secondment at Northwood looking in to the care and mental health treatment of some of society’s scariest criminals. When a colleague from the Met DCI Don Burns contacts her to approach and interview Britain’s most prolific child killer Louis Kinsella for help in finding a killer who is copying or carrying on his body of ‘work’.

Kinsella rarely communicates with any of the therapists at Northwood unless it is by a handwritten note and he is the reason his last therapist has had a breakdown. It is through his note and her interviews she is able to guide the Met in the investigation, even though her old Masters supervisor Professor Alan Nash is doing everything he can to undermine her.

When Ella Williams goes missing Quentin promises her sister Suzanne that she and the Police will do everything they can to bring her home. In what becomes a race against time and more girls being taken Quentin realises that Kinsella is conducting the disappearances somehow even though he has no contact without the outside world.

It is by finding out about Kinsella’s obsession with The Foundling Museum that somehow Quentin will be able to crack the case. Unfortunately that just seems to be yet another blind alley for the investigation, but Quentin is positive that there are unseen connections that she cannot see. It is by finding what connects the abducted children, Kinsella and his proxy will she be able to crack the case.

Kate Rhode’s has written a stunningly brilliant thriller in The Winter Foundlings a psychological thriller at its best. This is a fast paced evocative read that draws you in and holds your attention all the way through to the end. This is a thriller you just do not want to put down it is so well written you just do not want the book to end.

Kate Rhodes has brilliantly researched this book and especially the high-security hospital aspects, having visited one here in the north the only thing not mentioned are the airlocks between the outside world and those patients. But with Kate’s description of the Laurels she could be describing the many therapy rooms that these hospitals have that and the magnolia paint that seems to be widespread.

The Winter Foundlings has been researched with care and love so everything is on point and no creative licence has had to be used. Alice Quentin is a well developed and developing character as are all the other supporting characters. Through her writing Kate Rhodes has written an atmospheric and in places quite terrifying read and the central character of Dr Alice Quentin is one of the best I have read in a long time.

Kate Rhode’s is another example of an excellent female writer taking crime fiction to another level and long may she continue. show less