The Skeleton Man

Fans of Kelly's Philip Dryden series will be happy to find the journalist's injured wife, Laura, continuing to make strides in her recovery while newcomers will be quickly brought up to speed. A former London newsman, Dryden dropped out of the fast lane to take a job on a rural weekly after an auto accident put his wife into a seven-year coma. But Dryden takes his low-pressure job seriously, keeping his nose for news sharp and his observational skills honed. The story opens with Dryden tagging along on a military training exercise in an abandoned village. The tiny village of Jude's Ferry - famous for never having reported a single crime - was requisitioned by the military 17 years before, its population expelled. The percussive shelling of this abandoned hamlet in the flat, gray, watery fens will hold readers in its grip even before an errant shell blasts a long-hidden pub cellar, exposing a skeleton hanging by the neck from a hook in the ceiling. "The cellar, uncorked like a buried bottle, gave off the stale breath of the years." A brief preface has already given us the scene, 17 years earlier, 12 people gathered around the victim, the ugly crime. But even as Dryden begins to speculate, dig and angle the story to get himself a scoop in the national dailies, some human fingers are found on the riverbank; shortly afterward the fingers' owner turns up in the river - alive. The unidentified injured man has amnesia. Dryden, naturally, is skeptical, but the man is terrified and genuinely bewildered. As Dryden digs, he discovers that quite a few of Jude's Ferry's residents have not been seen since the village's forced evacuation. As Dryden tracks down the remaining villagers the web of secrets and enmities grows more dense and tangled. Meanwhile Laura becomes a confidante of the hospitalized amnesiac. Atmospheric, incisive and beautifully written, Kelly has another winner in an exceptional series.

The military exercise focuses on the abandoned small village of Jude's Ferry off of Whittlesea Mere. Reporting on the war games is The Crow journalist Philip Dryden, who has learned the ghost town had never reported any official crime in its millennium of existence. Following the artillery shelling, a shocking sight surfaces when a grave underneath the cellar of what had been a pub has been opened. The skeletal remains of a person hung to death are found. Not expecting much from the police on this cold make that frozen case, Dryden cannot resist learning the truth about the ancient skeleton and who uncovered the tomb and why. However, the former residents are not only scattered those he interviews remain reticent not offering him much in the way of useful information. However, Dryden obstinately keeps digging until someone begins to think he is getting to close and plans on him being the second victim in the history of Jude's Ferry. This complex somewhat convoluted investigative tale is a superb whodunit as Dryden struggles with finding a nano clue at a time. The support cast is in the quadrillions with most providing cameo appearances in response to the reporter's inquiry. This makes it difficult to keep score yet for those who relish solving the case, they are each critical in what may seem incognizant as a puzzle part, but the whole is needed for lucid resolution. Although how Jim Kelly kept track is beyond me, THE SKELTON MAN is a terrific look at rural England where local talk is not a repression but a depression. Harriet Klausner