Love Story, With Murders by Harry Bingham

I managed to borrow another two Fiona Griffiths novels before I left, but due to general packing and busy-stuff, I only got to posting my review of the second book now. Contrary to what I thought, the Love Story in the title doesn't actually refer to the budding romance between Fiona and the normal policeman Buzz, but between two bodies.

What two bodies? Oh yeah. Ok, so one day, Fiona gets called to the scene of a now-dead old widow (not the victim), where she finds a leg. A leg complete with a pink high-heel shoe, frozen. When the police start searching for the rest of the corpse, they find other body parts, but these are male and freshly dead. Is there a connection between the two? Are the police overthinking it?

This novel brings over quite a few characters from the first over. Not Jackson, the guy in charge (there's another officer in charge for this case), but Penry, the criminal ex-officer makes his fair share of appearances, and of course, Fiona's family and friends play a part. In fact, I think that Fiona's family plays a bigger part in this mystery. Previously, it was hinted that not all of Fiona's dad's money came about legally; in this book, they tell me he's a crime boss. No wonder he wasn't happy that Fiona became part of the police force.

Fiona is as strange as ever, although she's slowly approaching normal. Very, very slowly. I mean, she still has that connection to dead people, and her illness is still casting its shadow, but she's making progress. She's becoming a normal girlfriend, she's starting to get along with her colleagues, and I forgot what, but there was a list. Fiona's as surprised as the reader.

I only have two "complaints" about the book, and one's not really a complaint. The not-really-a-complaint complaint is that the ending is unsatisfying. I want one where the bad guys die/get locked in jail, but the book mimics real life, where sometimes, bad people can do bad things and get away with it.

The other complaint is that this book seemed to have more swearing than the previous one. I'm not sure if I just didn't notice the swearing in the previous book, and was more sensitive in this, or if it was, but for readers who don't like this sort of thing, here's the warning. I don't like it, myself, but I think the novel is good enough that I'd read it.

When I next have the time, my review of the third book will be up, and I'd have caught up with the series (I think?)