{"id":68928,"date":"2025-02-05T03:54:13","date_gmt":"2025-02-05T03:54:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/entertainment\/books\/review-buried-in-the-past-by-heather-peck\/"},"modified":"2025-02-05T03:54:13","modified_gmt":"2025-02-05T03:54:13","slug":"review-buried-in-the-past-by-heather-peck","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=68928","title":{"rendered":"REVIEW: \u2018Buried in the Past\u2019 by Heather Peck"},"content":{"rendered":"


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\u2018It was that point in the evening which the poetic might call crepuscular.\u2019<\/h2>\n

Welcome to Heather Peck\u2019s Norfolk, a world where hare coursers and arsonists are causing trouble, and two young children have been missing for three long months. Norfolk and Suffolk police are low on manpower and hampered by Covid protocols, but crime has not ceased, especially where it\u2019s transformed. (Domestic violence, we learn, has increased significantly.)\u00a0 DCI Greg Geldard has a suspicion he knows who the increasingly reckless arsonist might be and DS Jill Hayes\u2019 intuition is telling her all is not right with Joanne Hamilton, a reclusive, elderly woman who lives very near where the children were last sighted.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s it about?<\/h3>\n

A police procedural that picks up after the events of book 6 in the series, \u2018Buried in the Past\u2019 focuses on Greg and his team\u2019s efforts to solve the arson and missing person cases while struggling with Covid regulations and a distinct lack of manpower. Attempts to liaise with Suffolk police fail when they are too understaffed to intercept a criminal gang, and the consequences include a death\u2026<\/p>\n

Meanwhile Greg\u2019s fianc\u00e9e, Chris, actually works for Suffolk police and is trying to persuade one of her longstanding victims to make a much needed break from her increasingly violent husband. Can she succeed or is she placing herself at risk?<\/p>\n

What\u2019s it like?<\/h3>\n

Snapshots of police officer\u2019s and criminal\u2019s lives. Readers move swiftly from an attempted illegal gathering on a farmer\u2019s field to a Norfolk police meeting with the Crown Prosecution Service, then onto a glimpse at the investigation for the missing children and then to a dangerous act by an arsonist. Together, these snapshots begin to weave together the story of \u2018Buried in the Past\u2019, which as the title suggests, ultimately introduces some historic crimes (facilitated by Peck unexpectedly wrapping up one of the cases just over halfway through the book!)<\/p>\n

Exploration of the impact of the Covid lockdowns on policing is inevitable, given Peck\u2019s chronological approach to her DCI Geldard Norfolk mysteries. \u2018Buried in the Past\u2019 is book seven in this series, set primarily in the summer of 2020, and, although I was able to read it as a standalone, the series format means that not all i\u2019s have to be dotted, or t\u2019s crossed, come the final chapter, which may be mildly frustrating for some readers. Having reflected on this approach a little, I\u2019ve decided it makes sense: Peck is writing proper police procedurals, with different tasks allocated to appropriate officers and timescales function accordingly (at least, I\u2019m assuming they do; I have no police background, just lots of other writers\u2019 crime novels still living in my head!) Therefore, some threads will be unresolved at the point where the curtain drops. All that said, it also looks like Peck is fond of a cliff-hanger, too, and not afraid to put series regulars in jeopardy\u2026<\/p>\n

Final thoughts<\/h3>\n

I really enjoyed reading this book and will definitely be looking to read not just the next but also the earlier books in the series. I like the balance of attention given here to the cases versus the private lives of the police officers and I think, now that I know what to expect from this author in terms of style and approach, I would enjoy reading other books in the series even more than I enjoyed the first (much like the Three Pines series by Louise Penny, where I had to adapt to the very philosophical style).<\/p>\n

I particularly liked the way Peck hints at the obvious only to detour into other, more puzzling possibilities around the children\u2019s disappearance. Even now, days after I finished reading \u2018Buried in the Past\u2019, I want to hear more from the perpetrator, and understand more about the subsequent revelations\u2026I\u2019ll definitely need to read book 8!<\/p>\n

Many thanks to the author and Anne Cater\u2019s Random Things Tours for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review and a spot on the blog tour.<\/h5>\n
\u2018Buried in the Past\u2019,
Heather Peck,
2025, Ormesby Publishing, paperback<\/h6>\n