Review of AN OLD, COLD GRAVE by Iona Whishaw

 3.5 Stars

The third book in the Lane Winslow mystery series begins with the discovery of human remains buried on top of a neighbour’s root cellar.  The skeleton is believed to belong to a child buried about 35 years earlier.  Inspector Darling asks Lane to speak to the residents of King’s Cove to help identify the child.  Attention quickly focuses on the Anscomb family who left with their many children shortly after the building of the root cellar in 1910.  Flashbacks give the reader knowledge unknown to Lane and the police, and it becomes clear that not everyone in the tiny community is forthcoming with important information. 

There are two sub-plots.  One involves a young girl who vandalizes a local saw mill.  The other, of course, is the relationship between Lane and Darling.  This latter plot is also featured in the first two books in the series; fortunately, this third book brings a resolution of sorts. 

I enjoyed reading about the investigation of a cold case.  Having watched Cold Case on television and having read Jussi Adler-Olsen’s Department Q books and others, it is intriguing to see how a cold case would have been approached in 1947.  Forensics as we know it now did not exist, so there is so much that remains unknown about the human remains. 

As in the previous book, this one touches on historical events.  This time the reader learns about British Home Children, impoverished children sent to Canada.  The novel explores what happened to some of those children.  There is also considerable discussion of gender inequality; a young girl rails at the lack of options she is given for her future. 

By the third book, Lane’s character is well established, and the reader is not surprised at her behaviour.  More than once her determination leads her into difficulty; she even acknowledges that her “single-mindedness . . . made Darling uneasy.  It led to a lack of caution.”  Gladys Hughes and her daughters Gwen and Mabel appear in the other books, but they are more central in this one, so there is more character development of them.  I’m convinced that if I were ever to meet these fictional characters, I’d recognize them immediately.

This is another pleasant read.  Especially because of the last chapter, I’m interested in following up on what awaits Lane in the next book.  This is a mystery series that maintains the reader’s interest.