The Unburied Past

Character rather than police procedure drives this suspenseful mystery from British veteran Fraser (Shifting Sands). In 1986, the double slaying of Mark and Emma Franklyn at their home in the Lake District results in the separation of their two small children, Adam and Kirsty. In 2012, Adam, who has been raised in Canada, leaves the Toronto college where he heads the French department for a sabbatical year in England. There he reunites with his sister, whom he scarcely knows and doesn’t particularly like. Determined to learn the truth about the murder of their parents, Adam spends all his free time retracing the inconclusive investigation of 1986, while Kirsty wants only to unmask the man who has been sending her anonymous gifts. Fraser strikes a good balance between the siblings and between past and present as flashbacks slowly reveal the events that led up to the tragedy. Readers will be sufficiently enthralled to forgive the deus ex machina ending. (Sept.)