11/20/2019 ARIA Book Tour and REVIEW: 

THE SCORCHED EARTH 

TITLE: THE SCORCHED EARTH
PUBLISHER: HEAD OF ZEUS
PUB DATE: 14th NOVEMBER 2019

Book Tour

SYNOPSIS:

Who really killed Leo Fenton?

Two years ago, Ben Fenton went camping with his brother Leo. It was the last time they ever saw each other. By the end of that fateful trip, Leo had disappeared, and Ben had been arrested for his murder.

Ben's wife Ana has always protested his innocence. Now, on the hottest day of 2018's sweltering heat wave, she receives a phone call from the police. Leo's body has been found, in a freshly dug grave in her own local churchyard. How did it get there? Who really killed him?

St Albans police, led by DCI Jansen, are soon unpicking a web of lies that shimmers beneath the surface of Ana's well-kept village. But as tensions mount, and the tight-knit community begins to unravel, Ana realises that if she wants to absolve her husband, she must unearth the truth alone.

THOUGHTS:


The Scorched Earth is the second book in the DCI Maarten Jansen police procedural series. The story begins when Ben Fenton wakes up covered in blood in a camping trip with his brother Leo. Leo’s body was never found, but Ben was convicted for his murder. Ana Seabrook, Ben’s girlfriend always believed his innocence. Present day 2018, one of the hottest days on record, bones are found in the Hertfordshire Village of Ayot, close to Ana’s house, in a local churchyard. Ana seems to know so much more than she is letting on, and the police is on her to solve this case.

The story is told between two different timelines, present-day and the night Leo disappeared, and also between various perspectives, mainly those of DCI Jansen, Ana and Ben. I loved the seamlessness of the stories and how it added to the tension it created for the storyline.

I enjoyed reading this book for its characters and the story telling. The pacing was fabulous and had me so intrigued with the different POVs on how the story was told, that I was so engrossed with what is to come next. The slow reveal of the story line was masterfully told, and is Rachael Blok’s enigmatic ability to tell this story full of all the suspense and thrill that I was craving for.

Book Extract:

The earth is hard. The garden parched; cracked and faded, its colours leached and bled.

Every morning, too early, the sun wakes her, burning in from the east. Will not be ignored. They’re both thirsty from the run. Jam with her tongue hanging out. Ana feels like doing the same.

Standing in bare feet on the yellow grass, it’s barely 7 a.m. and already the ground burns like coals. The light is hot on Ana’s face; she closes her eyes to it, turning towards it. So many hot days without a break. She’s already singed.

There had been a storm last night. She was sure there would be some sign of it but it barely registers. The wind is the only force to leave a trace. The dry leaves have been knocked from their branches; the bins are tilted or fallen, rubbish splayed and rotting. A glass left out on the patio has smashed. Its shards catch the light of the morning sun. Their edges flash with the early heat; Ana shivers.

Jam barks at her feet, then runs to scratch at the compost heap. She’s Ana’s shadow on her morning run. The dogs all get their walks early now, their paws burning on the ground once it approaches midday. Jam has been shorn, like a sheep. Her golden coat is cropped close. Her tongue lolls and pants, and Ana imagines she can see the steam rising from it.

‘Kettle on?’

The voice of her mother rattles through the windows Ana had opened on coming downstairs. The pub smell, with its morning belch, is too much for her first thing. Coming home, an unwanted surprise in itself, offers its familiar scent without request, telling of weariness, of one drink too many, like an uncle with bad breath in unwashed jumpers.

‘Coffee? Here.’ Her mother lands a mug on the bar as Ana ducks under the low stone doorway. Her mother is pushing up her sleeves in her faded tartan shirt. She’s wearing Marigolds.

‘Mum, the cleaner is starting this morning. You don’t need to do in here.’

‘Ana, love. I’ve cleaned this bar at 7 a.m. for thirty years, and a bit of…’

‘Mum, look, she’s here.’ Ana opens the door, watching Jess arrive in flared jeans and Rainbow T-shirt, smiling at the sixty-year-old; her hair catches the sun, glancing off the purple tinge from a dye grown out, and the rest fading upwards into a soft grey.

Her mum looks nervous as she smiles ready for Jess, who shouts ‘Bye, love’ outside the open window, in answer to the male voice saying, ‘See you later, Mum’. The back doors of a white van are visible through the window.

It must be hard for her mum, handing the reins to someone else. But watching her mother wince when she stood after scrubbing, pull her shoulders with a grimace – well, Ana had insisted. She can see the cracks in her mother. She’s grown brittle, like the earth.

Ana needs to be useful. Now she’s here.

‘I’ll get started then. This for me? Ta.’ Jess picks up Ana’s coffee and takes a drink.

Ana catches her mother’s eye and they smile.

‘Got police out already I see, up at the temple graveyard.’

‘Police?’ Ana asks quickly.

‘Yes, I got Charlie to stop the van and I asked on my way past. Anyway, the police are there for something to do with a body, I’m guessing. Sunny Atkinson was there. I know his mum. Said I wasn’t to say anything as he’s not supposed to talk about it. Got his police gear on and all that, but I’ve known him since nappies.’

‘A body? What? Someone’s died?’

‘Well, that’s the thing.’ Jess leans in for a second, hand on the wooden bar, cloths hung over the real ale handles, ice buckets empty and upended. ‘It’s not just someone’s died. Seems someone’s gone and been buried. In a new grave. Done it in the night. Not supposed to be there is what Sunny says. Someone’s put a body in a grave what they’ve dug themselves. Must’ve been hard in that wind. I wouldn’t have wanted to hang around a graveyard in that.’ She leans out and reaches for the bucket, shuddering.

‘Who is it?’ Ana’s mum leans over the bar, mug in hand. ‘Who’s dead?’

‘Well, ain’t that the thing. They don’t know. Sunny tells me, it’s not a new body. Looks like it’s been dead a while. No question, right queer affair.’

 Author BIO:

I grew up in Durham and now live in Hertfordshire. My crime series is set in the cathedral city of St Albans. Here, Maarten Jansen struggles against his plain-speaking Dutch upbringing when faced with the seemingly polite world of the picturesque city.

Under the Ice is the first novel in the series, available now from bookshops and online. The Scorched Earth is out in hardback in November.

I'm constantly surprised how differently stories turn out on paper than in their original planning. Fiction has a life of its own.

Follow me on Twitter at @MsRachaelBlok