Seeking the Dead

There would always be wrongs and rights, thieves and murderers to apprehend it's the way of the world ever since Cain first lost his temper with his brother Abel. These thoughts plagued DI Joe Plantagenet as he was just another official trying to bring the wrongdoers to justice, a serial killer was on the loose in the historical Yorkshire city of Eborby. The town will always be imprinted with Roman, Viking, medieval and Civil War but death from unnatural causes seemed to be captivating the news of late. The killer no doubt had his own sense of humor; managing to get the right location for his naked bodies, isolated churchyards but instead of six feet under he'd rather have his handiwork on display, the press had already named him the Resurrection Man. To add to Plantagenet problems his murdered ex partners daughter Carmel Hennessey moves to the historic city for work and secures a flat in Vicars Green not far from the Cathedral. The flat belonged to one of the victims, Carmel begins to receive anonymous threats from someone who knew the former tenant. Worried about the killings in the press she calls Joe Plantagenet because of his past connections to her father he feels overly responsible for her well-being. Joe also has a new female boss DCI Emily Thwaite which he has to deal with; brought in on the quick for this case after his former boss had a heart attack; she has worked hard for her position but at the same time carries her own past secrets. As bodies turn up Joe's job makes him feel like a seeker of the dead; a person sent in to confirm that dead was the only verdict. Joe fights to stop the killings, forcing himself inside the killers mind, where the situation can only become Ruthless. Well done to Kate Ellis the dark humor in this novel was throughly enjoyable to read. Let loose in the killers mind from the first page and every few chapters going forward even if only for a paragraph letting us readers touch base with the Killer. The sense of fun starts with him making a list how to ward off evil, not his evil of course other peoples. The killer reminds us his disposing of vermin; it's his beautiful ritual, planned always with loving care his seeking of anticipation and thrill excites him, the chase and kill; clearly outlining to all us readers this Resurrection man's scared duty is his life's work. The atmospheric scenery of the churchyards for the dead bodies is a nice touch with gargoyle hanging over head mocking everyone below. I always did ask for the love of art why would someone put something so hideous, demonic evil-looking on a religious building and always went with fun, medieval sense of humor; where others like our killer in this novel uses their interpretation as to scare off any evil spirit that came along, they were there to show any passing demon that evil spirits were already at work, so it wasn't necessary for other demons to stop. The title of the book Seeking The Dead refers to the plague epidemics through history

I've been a fan of Kate Ellis and her D.S. Wesley Peterson mystery series from the very first book. I love her characterizations and the blending of an old mystery with a new one. When I learned that she had begun a second series featuring D.I. Joe Plantagenet set in North Yorkshire, you know I couldn't rest until I had a copy of Seeking the Dead in my hands! As I began to read, it was obvious to me that the book was written by Kate Ellis. Her love of history and archaeology just can't be disguised. Seeking the Dead is set in "Eborby", and the more I read, the more I was convinced that Eborby was really the city of York. When I visited Ellis's website, I saw that my guess was correct. "Joe had heard that plague victims had been buried beneath these banks in the seventeenth century and he wondered whether the mothers would have let their children play there if they'd known. Probably. The past was the past." Detective Inspector Joe Plantagenet has a new boss, Detective Chief Inspector Emily Thwaite, and they both have a very big problem: someone is binding and asphyxiating victims and leaving their nude bodies in isolated country churchyards. The ever-witty media has dubbed the killer "the Resurrection Man". On the surface the victims appear to have nothing in common except the manner of their deaths, but as Plantagenet continues to investigate, he begins to wonder if there isn't an occult connection. The clock is ticking while Thwaite and Plantagenet race to find the killer before there's another victim. As I've said before, I've been a fan of Ellis's Peterson series from the get-go, so I was a bit surprised to realize that I was enjoying this new series even more. The characterizations seem even richer in Seeking the Dead. Plantagenet spent a year in the seminary, thinking to become a priest before he discovered that the priesthood was not his real vocation. He is an excellent listener, but doesn't divulge much of himself, so there's that air of mystery to pique a reader's interest in him. His boss, DCI Emily Thwaite is also well drawn, a woman in a difficult career position that's made even more stressful by events in her current investigation. Even when stressed, she can show more than a glint of humor: "I had a gran like that." Emily smiled at the memory. "Expert on surveillance she was and all. I sometimes wonder whether MI5 have ever considered the effectiveness of the net curtain." In this series, there isn't a resident archaeologist and a separate mystery involving the past, but Ellis uses the setting to such excellent effect that it is a character in itself, as when Plantagenet does some research for the case: "The city archives-- those that weren't housed in the history department at the university-- were housed on the second floor of the library, a red-brick product of Victorian civic pride built on the site of a medieval hospital whose undercroft still stood next door, all that remained above ground of a once vast c