North West Reads Book 24: The Raven’s Mark by Christie J. Newport

When the attending officers saw the mark seared on the girl’s shoulder, they knew that the Brander was back, and this time he had killed. Rose Dane was just 15 years old and had been found in a run-down bungalow, a place that was used by the local teenagers as a drinking and drug-taking den. The tenant, Barry Knultz, had been easy push around as he had learning difficulties, allowing them to use his home as they wished. The young lads who’d come to his bungalow that night had deliberately baited him to get him to leave and Barry had spent the night at his mother’s home. He’d returned the next day and found Rose. The area was not one of the nicest parts of Preston; the sight of Scene of Crime Officers going about their job had brought the neighbours out, several still in nightwear and dressing gowns and not bothering to hide their curiosity.

For Deputy Senior Investigating Officer Bethany Fellows, known to all as Beth, this was a sobering discovery. She had attempted to solve the last case involving the Brander, a particularly brutal attack on another teenage girl, Celine Wilson. She had survived the ordeal but had been left so badly beaten that she had had to go to a care home, her life in utter ruins. Her family had never fully got over what had happened to her and were desperate for her attacker to be caught. Beth had made a promise to them, but she had been unable to solve the crime. This failure had always been in the back of her mind. Six years later and the brand of a Raven on the dead girl’s shoulder would bring it all back both to Beth and to Celine’s family, still traumatised after all these years.

First, the family of Rose had to be informed of her death and naturally they are shocked and devastated by the news. In contrast to the dilapidated place in which Rose met her death, she had lived with her family in a pleasant part of Preston, in Fulwood. Beth attended with Millicent ‘Millie’ Reid, a Family Liaison Officer, and DI Amer Anwar. Whilst Amer kept Rose’s younger sister, Sally, occupied, Beth and Millie undertake the grim task of breaking the news to Mark and Felicity and ask necessary question about Rose’s last day through their grief, distress and anger. Rose was a good kid led astray by another. Jenny Lambert was the polar opposite of Rose. From a rough background with a mother who’d been involved with the law, she’d led Rose off the rails and to the drinking den and her drinking and drug taking pals. Rose had taken to sneaking out without permission and had done so on the last night of her life. Leaving them to come to terms with their loss, Beth and Millie go to see the Lamberts.

As Nancy Lambert had previous dealings with the police, she is not happy at all at her daughter and her other child, Peter, being taken to the police station for questioning. However, she and Jenny are genuinely shocked to hear of Roses’s death. Jenny is asked to recount their last day together, but her details of what state Rose was in when she left the bungalow differs from Barry’s account. Beth and Millie sense that she is holding something back. There is one lead, however, a man slightly older than the group, maybe in his late 20s or early 30s, named Simon. It seemed strange for someone his age to be hanging around with teenagers. Jenny described him as ‘fit’ with a shaved head and whose occupation was doing ‘deliveries’. She didn’t know his full name or any other details and neither did Peter. Whoever this Simon was, he needed to be found and interviewed about the night.

Celine Wilson’s family lived out at Longridge and Beth’s visit to them was as hard as the one to the Dane family. They had never got over the attack on their daughter that had left her unable to look after herself or have any sort of normal life. Diane Wilson, still bitter that her daughter’s attacker had never been found and brought to justice, is angry that he appears to have struck again. Their other daughter, Danielle, had left home soon after the attack and even though she had never forgiven the police for their failure, she had married an officer who Beth still worked with, Tom Spencer. Updating her boss, DS Dillion West, Beth suggests that a reinterview with Danielle may turn up some small detail, one that Danielle might not see as significant but could prove crucial to the investigation. Before she sets off from the office of the Major and Serious Crimes Northwest Division, a hand-delivered parcel arrives for Beth. In it is a phone and what she finds on it is chilling. Not only was there a photo of herself but also photos of all the people closest to her. The phone is from the Brander with a message that she needs to follow ‘the rules’, rules that include complete secrecy. The hunt for a killer had become personal, but Beth has no idea why. Beth had had a troubled start in life. As a very young child she had witnessed the murder of her mother and, as her father had never been a part of their lives, she had been taken in by her Aunt Margie, an eccentric free-spirited woman who lived in Lytham St Annes. The death of her mother had spurred Beth on to join the police and help other victims of violence, in particular violence against women and girls. One of the photographs on the phone was of Margie, another was of Millie who Beth had been friends with since they were children and was the closest person to family she had. To show that there was no doubt that this was the person Beth, and her team, were seeking, there was a photo of Rose Dane.

Beth had been spending time sleeping at Margie’s place; her relationship with her partner, Yvette, was going through a difficult patch. It had been wonderful at first, but Yvette’s inability to accept the fact that Beth’s career was vitally important to her, was a part of her identity, was placing a strain on their relationship. Margie had always regarded her as too clingy, too needy and jealous of Beth’s close friendship with Millie. In fact, wouldn’t Millie be better for Beth? But Beth had only ever seen Millie as a friend and sister, never anything deeper. She does not want harm to come to any of them, and they were in danger from a violent and brutal killer. Keeping the phone a secret, Beth goes to interview Danielle, Celine’s sister.

Danielle also proves to be a difficult person to interview. Traumatised by her sister’s attack and angry at the effect it had on her family and her life, Danielle hates going over the events of six years ago yet again. Beth is sure that, as with Jenny, Danielle is holding back on something. The interview comes to a halt when Tom intervenes. He fears for his wife’s mental health by raking up the past like this. Tom can’t be involved in the new investigation because of his marriage to Danielle, but Beth wonders at his hostility towards her when she is simply trying to solve this case. Meanwhile she is at the mercy of the Brander’s ‘game’ and his taunting messages. Beth returns to the brand itself, the Raven. What could this signify? If she can work this out it could reveal the Brander’s identity and motives. While she is puzzling on this there had been a development with the case. Simon had been caught on a newsagent’s CCTV and forensics were working hard to get a clearer image of him for identification. Then the case takes a further twist when a key witness goes missing and needs to be found before they meet the same fate as Rose.

Beth can’t help feeling that events have spun out of her control. The unsolved case, the secret phone and the danger the Brander poses to all she loves, the potential ending of her career and her own relationship with Yvette, and now a missing person whose life is in danger. Millie assures Beth she is a good cop, but she has noticed that Beth is acting differently. However, Millie doesn’t know about the phone, information that Beth has kept from her closest friend and confidant. Beth knows that she will have to tell her colleagues about her contact with the Brander and face the consequences, but she continues to pursue the case and work out the significance of the Raven mark. The shocking events to come and her own discoveries would come to have a profound impact on her own life, shedding light on her own past and the tragedies she experienced as a child.

Christie Newport’s debut novel, the first of the Preston Murder series, is in parts a very dark read; the Brander is disturbing and enigmatic, a puppet master playing with his victims and the police, his cruelty and violence difficult to fathom or understand. Beth Fellows excels at her job but is also very vulnerable to a killer’s manipulative behaviour. She cares deeply for the family and the friends she has, and that love is reciprocated. However, in the case of her relationship with Yvette, Beth shows that she can succumb to, and almost be undermined by, feelings of guilt and responsibility. In the end she has to make some difficult choices and face the shock of some serious revelations that prove to be very close to home.