Bury Her Deep

Our intrepid private detective Mrs Dandy Gilver is invited by one of her husband's friends the Reverend Mr Tait to his small hamlet near Fife to investigate a series of attacks on women as they leave the monthly Scottish Women's Rural Institute (SWRI or the Rural) meetings. The local police have dismissed the claims as hysteria, others claim the attacker is a spirit in thrall to the Devil, others claim it is a newcomer to the area, Jockie Christie, some wonder if it is a local man trying to prevent the Rural from meeting. Dandy enters a region of superstition and secrets, but there doesn't seem to be any pattern to the attacks, although there seems to be a tenuous connection to the excavation of a local ancient burial chamber and the discovery of a skeleton of a young girl lying on the floor of the chamber. Half the villagers want to give her a christian burial in the churchyard, the other half fear she was a witch or other criminal and don't want her on sacred ground. As her trusty side-kick Alec masquerades as an artist drawn to the local scenery things build to a crescendo. I liked this least of the four books I have read in this series. I found it difficult to distinguish one farmer's wife from another and the premise was a bit fanciful, or perhaps I should say there were two plots each of which was a bit fanciful, put the two together and I was left a little underwhelmed. However, I loved the insights into the reason for a morning room (makes so much sense) and I was amused that neither Dandy nor Alec had ever made coffee in their lives! On to the next one.