Remember Where You've Buried the Bodies by Julie Lancaster

 

About the book

What happens when a serial killer forgets he's a serial killer? 

At Sunset House the tea is barely introduced to a teabag, the carpets are permanently flecked with glitter and care assistant Jolene would rather be watching daytime television than caring for the elderly - but someone might just have confessed to murder.

Most think Gilbert's sudden claim - 'When I killed her' - is likely to be the dementia talking. Or a spoiler for Midsomer Murders. Probably. Now, between bingo, staff drama and a suspicious game of pass the parcel, someone's about to dig up more than buried memories...

Darkly funny, sharply observant and unquestionably deadly, this is no Thursday Murder Club. 

What I thought 

I'm not sure what genre you'd put this in. It's a bit of everything. It does involve a serial killer, but to be honest by the time I got to the end, there had been so many missing people and murders I was left wondering who had actually done what. But never mind, I like ambiguous endings.

There's a dry, dark humour all the way through and I really enjoyed that aspect of the book. The story can feel quite disturbing at times, so the humour gives it a bit of a lift. It was very different to how I anticipated the book might be. I thought it would mainly be set in the care home and the residents would play a much bigger part, but it turns out to have a varied range of characters all with interesting back stories.

As well as a murder mystery, the story is also about loss, in all its forms. Children who've suddenly gone missing, never to be seen again. How their parents can never stop looking for them when there is no closure. Jolene's sister went missing when Jolene was still a child. It tells of the effects on Jolene. Her parents divorced, her mum can never stop looking for her missing daughter, and as a result her mum is paranoid about losing Jolene, always wanting to know where she is, when she'll be home from work. Jolene at times finds this stifling and resents her sister for the way her disappearance has affected Jolene's life and her relationship with her mum.

There's a lot to this book, mystery, lots of twists and you're never quite sure who the abductor might be. But it also has an emotional depth to it too. I thought the setting within the care home was very reflective of the general atmosphere in these homes having experienced two myself last year where my father stayed.

I thoroughly enjoyed it, it kept me intrigued and gripped all the way through even if I was left a little confused at the end.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

💙 Happy Reading 💙

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Thank you to the publisher One More Chapter for an advance review copy via Netgalley.

The book is out today 19 September in e-book, paperback and audio available from bookshops and Amazon