Book Discussion : The Funeral Boat by Kate Ellis

This is the group for the book discussion by the Mystery and Suspense Group of The Funeral Boat by Kate Ellis, which is the fourth book in The Wesley Peterson Series.

All are welcome to join the discussion whether you are a member of the Mystery and Suspense Group or not, but please ensure that you you do not leave any spoilers if you finish the book before Monday 23rd September when others will be reading the final section. Questions for each section will be posted on the following dates :

Schedule
Fri 20th Sept : Prologue, Chapter 1 - 4
Sat 21st Sept : Chapter 5 - 7
Sun 22nd Sept : Chapter 8 - 12
Mon 23rd Sept : Chapter 13 - 16, Epilogue

Book Description (From www.kateellis.co.uk)

At the end of the first millennium South Devon was plagued by Viking raiders. A thousand years later history seems to be repeating itself as the police are kept busy investigating a series of brutal armed robberies at isolated farmhouses. Then young Carl Palister unearths a skeleton on his mother’s smallholding and DS Wesley Peterson and his boss Gerry Heffernan are called in to investigate.

Heffernan is convinced that the remains are those of Carl’s father, a local villain who vanished from the district three years before. But Wesley isn’t convinced so he calls in his old university friend, archaeologist Neil Watson. They find evidence that the skeleton could be a thousand years old and Wesley is intrigued by the possibility that it might be a Viking corpse, buried in keeping with ancient traditions. But then Wesley finds that he has a rather more urgent crime to solve - the disappearance of a Danish tourist.

When disturbing evidence comes to light that the attractive Dane, Ingeborg Larsen, has been abducted, Gerry Heffernan believes that her disappearance is connected to the spate of farm robberies. But Wesley begins to suspect that her disappearance is linked to far older events. For it seems that this may not have been Ingeborg’s first visit to this far from quiet West Country backwater