A well plotted and twisty police procedural that I thoroughly enjoyed. It kept me turning pages and guessing.
I liked the well developed characters, the setting, and the tightly knitted plot.
Can't wait to read the next one.
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

Matt Lockyer is a policeman but has his own sense of justice. His neighbour has told him a secret which puts him in a dilemma. His mother is seriously ill in hospital and his father is struggling to manage the farm on his own. Matt is feeling guilty that he wasn't able to prevent his brother from being killed several years ago. ow bones have been found on Salisbury Plain and its not known whether the victim was murdered or whether it was an accident but this case has links to an old case nine years ago. This novel started slow but once I got into it I enjoyed it.

The 2nd in the DI Lockyer series is, if anything, better than the first.

A strong police procedural that is more than the sum of its parts, this is involving and clever storytelling with an addictive feel.

The characters are hugely relatable and the twisty mystery is intelligent and unexpected.

I loved the first one and I loved this one. Let's hope there are many more to come.

Hugely Atmospheric..
A human skeleton has been discovered on Salisbury Plain, brought to the fore by virtue of flash flooding. On investigation, it is revealed that it belongs to a man previously reported as missing and known to the police. DI Matt Lockyer, despite others not agreeing, is convinced that they are dealing with a suspicious death. It is not long before events become complicated. Hugely atmospheric and with an excellent sense of time and place, this is an engaging and immersive mystery with a firm place procedural aspect which is well done.

'If equal affection is
not possible, let me be the one who loves you more.'

- W.H. Auden.

I'm so excited to share my thoughts on this stand-alone sequel after thoroughly enjoying the author's previous novel, 'Staying Buried'. It's such an emotional tale that I can't recommend enough!
The exceptional writing and character development that impressed me in the previous book are once again on full display, and this story left me in tears.

Matt Lockyer and Gemma Broad were left stunned by the discovery of human remains on Salisbury Plain. The size of the bones suggests that the deceased was a very large individual, leading them to wonder if they were dealing with a giant! The man was buried near a sacred hawthorn bush. In life, he was known as a 'gentle giant' despite his ferocious appearance. He was a gullible man with a heart of gold who wouldn't hurt a fly.

Meanwhile, Gemma Broad is going through a tough time with a controlling partner, while Lockyer is dealing with the challenges of caring for his ageing and frail parents. His mother was hospitalised with Covid and later developed Guillain-Barre.
Similar to the first novel I read by the author, this book allows for plenty of character development without relying on endless chases or interrogations.
Instead, it focuses on the human experience, portraying vulnerability and exploring facets of love, including suffocating love that destroys everything.

I can completely understand Matt's personal situation. Dealing with ageing, ill, and frail parents can be incredibly challenging. It's a role reversal that can be both confronting and saddening. Suddenly, the parents who have supported and loved you for a lifetime need your support and care. It's a reminder that the child roles of the past can resurface when you're in your 50s or 60s and see your father struggling with the imminent loss of your mother, or vice versa.
As a caregiver for my elderly parents, I can relate to the range of emotions that come with it, including anxiety, sadness, and gratitude. The story is poignant, and I empathise with Matt's situation. The transition between generations is a natural process, but it can be difficult to accept.
The author conveys this struggle, and readers with elderly, vulnerable parents will find Matt's experience of helplessness relatable. Hedy's lack of response may also be frustrating, adding to his despair.

I really enjoyed reading about how synaesthesia is a significant theme in the novel. As a parent of a child on the autism spectrum who also experiences synaesthesia, I found this aspect of the story very relatable.

As the investigation progresses, they come across a new-agey commune run by Trish and Vince. Any traveller is welcome there, they eat from the land, from the honey they make and from some mind-altering drugs they sell.

And then suddenly I saw one of my favourite films was mentioned in the book! (Note: I rather liked the original version, which I thought was much more lurid and so much better, than the remake of later years).
By that time I had already kind of figured out who and how and what, but I read on to the end anyway. I don't want to talk too much about the film because I might give away too many clues, its ‘theme’ focusing on being ‘beware and be careful what you search for. You may not like what you find, and the truth can be brutal.’.
I lived near the Avebury area and to this day find it a very atmospheric place.

Readers seeking fast-paced action may be disappointed! Despite the plot meandering, it is definitely worth reading the story to the end!
And what a great ending. Is Matt finally finding love? And if not, I'll come and hug him and stay on the farm to take care of his parents and read him poems of W.H. Auden!

Easiest 5 stars. I would like to thank the publisher for sharing this with me.
*****

Kate Webb introduced us to DI Matt Lockyer and DC Gemma Broad in Stay Buried, which I read, reviewed and found most impressive. Briefly, Lockyer is a single man, son of Wiltshire farmers - who would be described as 'hard-scrabble' in America. His younger brother, Chris, was murdered in a street brawl a few years earlier. He is involved - at a distance - with Hedy Lambert, a woman whose murder conviction he helped overturn. She still served over a decade in prison.

Because of a previous professional misfortune, Lockyer has been sidelined into cold-case crimes. One such is the death of Holly Gilbert who fell - or was pushed - from a bridge into the path of a an HGV. Now, the remains one of the men suspected as having being involved, and who disappeared shortly after, have been discovered on Salisbury Plain. Lee Geary was a giant of a man, superficially very scary with his height, skinhead hair and tattoos, but he was simple in mind and spirit and his criminal convictions were all for minor and non violent crimes.

Three other twenty-somethings who were suspected of being involved in the death of Holly's death have all since died in ambiguous circumstances. Lockyer has much on his mind. His mother lies dangerously ill in hospital, infected by a Covid variant, while his father struggles to keep the farm going. Lockyer lives in - and is slowly renovating - an old cottage, but he discovers that something horrific happened within its walls decades ago and, as is often the case, the past can often rear its ugly head to disrupt the relative tranquility of the present. I'll give you a teaser - the book's title is shared with another of the same name. If you take the trouble to Google, you will discover a rather delicate and elegant connection.


In trying to find out the truth about Lee Geary's death, Lockyer is drawn, as if pulled by a magnet, to Old Hat Farm. It is owned by Vincent and Trish O'Neill, who lead something of an alternative life. They are are almost cartoonish 'hippies', with lives organised around the ancient festivals such as Samhain and Beltain. Fellow seekers after truth are welcome at the farm but, unfortunately all of the key residents had lives in the real world, and it is their misdeeds in their previous lives which make up the puzzle Lockyer and Broad have to solve.

The novel is lovingly set in a part of England that the the author clearly knows well, and Lockyer's intimate connection with the landscape - the vastness of Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire's ancient sites and old trackways - brings a literary sense of place that was pioneered by Thomas Hardy, but has been used by more recent writers in the crime genre such as Jim Kelly and Phil Rickson. As locals will know, the ravages caused by military training are brutal scars on the old fields and byways, but they are what they are.

Laying Out The Bones is not just a superior police procedural novel, but a powerful evocation of how historic lies and misjudgments can return to plague those involved. The empathy between  Lockyer and Broad is utterly convincing, as is the awareness of what happened to us all during the Covid outbreak. The book's  plot is intricate, but beautifully wrought, and although Matt Lockyer has something of a shock in the last page, I am sure he will survive to feature in a future episode of his career story.

Following flash floods, something sinister is brought to the grounds surface; a human skeleton. Forensic tests soon reveal that the body belongs to Lee Geary, a man who went missing nine years earlier and the case is passed to DI Lockyer to solve.

As Lockyer digs into Geary’s past he unveils the fact that Geary was questioned during the same year he went missing in relation to another crime- the murder of Holly Gilbert.

Alongside DC Gemma Broad, Lockyer delves deeper and discovers a web of mysteries which he is left to untangle.

At last! The long awaited sequel to Stay Buried has arrived. Laying Out The Bones is the next in the DI Lockyer series. With such a high standard to follow I was relieved the second book in the series did disappoint!

Laying Out The Bones is another fast paced, multifaceted mystery about unsolved murders and buried secrets. The story spans over a long timeframe, and involves many characters with intertwining stories- the fact Kate Webb pulls this off is truly a testament to her writing skill. Very much like the first book – every character is well thought out, and despite there being so many you really gather an insight into each of their histories, struggles and motivations.

Similarly to its prequel the series continues to highlight themes surrounding inequalities, grief and injustice. I thought these were presented well and added substance to the story, evoking emotion beyond your typical crime mystery/thriller.

Overall, Laying Out The Bones is masterfully crafted, from compelling characters to intricate plot twists and with the book ending on a cliffhanger, I am very hopeful this is not the last of DI Lockyer. 5 stars.

Following on from an earlier crime mystery, “Laying Out The Bones” is a complex, multi layered story about unsolved murders and hidden secrets.
During a long hot Summer, the body of Lee Geary is discovered. A known drug user who disappeared 9 years earlier it’s possible his death could be related to his lifestyle. However when Detective Matt Lockyer starts to investigate he connects it to another unexplained death from the same time period , that of Holly Gilbert whose dead body was found beneath a bridge over a motorway and ruled as suicide.
As Matt delves deeper some more deaths are revealed and secrets going back decades come to light.
At some points in the novel it looks like Matt and his partner, DC Broad, are never going to get to the bottom of what happened so complex are the strands of the plot.
It becomes apparent that Holly’s father and his wife are hiding something but is it to do with the deaths?
Meanwhile Matt’s Mother is in hospital after an accident and a bout of Covid- the book is set at the height of the pandemic. Visiting is difficult and no one is sure if she will actually recover.
I really enjoyed this atmospheric follow up to “Stay Buried”. The location of Wiltshire is well described and the characters really come to life for me, particularly Matt who has a lot going on including his mother’s situation , a problem relating to his elderly neighbour, his guilt over his younger brother’s death years earlier as well as the disappearance of his girlfriend, Hedy, who has run off to find herself. It’s surprising he has any time left to solve a string of murders!
This is a worthy successor to Kate’s earlier book and the last page left me desperately hoping the next book would not require too long a wait.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for my advance copy.

A body has been found on Salisbury Plain, a man of giant height, a man known to the police. Lee Geary disappeared several years ago, he was linked to the death of a young woman but the cases have gone cold. Now Lockyer and Broad have picked it up as a cold case and find themselves converging on Old Hat Farm, a hippy haven. For Lockyer there are still questions to be answered about the background of the owners of the farm and he also begins to question his relationship with his family. Can any closure be found?
I hadn't read the first book in the series but this one picks up nicely and doesn't really expect the reader to have prior knowledge. What really stands out is the love of the Wiltshire countryside and the slightly underplayed 'pagan' ideas. this is a solid police procedural in which the answer was obvious fairly early on but which didn't make it any less enjoyable.

DI Lockyer series proved to be. The plotting of this complex mystery that goes back nine years following the discovery of a skeleton after flash flooding causes earth movement is just superb. The hippy dippy characters in the farm/ commune were particularly well drawn.
Can't wait for the next one !

Laying Out the Bones by Kate Webb

First time read by this author so came into the series not at the first one.

However , enjoyed getting to know DI Matt Lockyer. The story took my interest quite quickly and I enjoyed seeing where the plot took him , a few twists along the way to keep us interested.
I enjoyed it and will look other for other books by the author.

Gah! Just decided to finish this ahead of its imminent publication only to discover I finished reading it two weeks ago.

This is the second book featuring DI Matt Lockyer who has been demoted to solving cold cases after suspicions were raised that he covered up the involvement of a personal friend in an arson attack.

After the long hot summer is broken with a torrential downpour a skeleton is uncovered. Forensics confirm the skeleton is that of a young man called Lee Geary who disappeared nine years ago. Lea and two others, one man and one woman were suspects in the disappearance and suspicious death of another young woman, Holly Gilbert. The other two are both dead and the discovery of Lee's remains lends credence to the theory that the three of them were perhaps killed as revenge for Holly's death.

Meanwhile, Matt is pining over Hedy Lambert, a woman wrongly incarcerated for fourteen years for a murder she didn't commit. Matt had feelings for her then, and they briefly rekindled their relationship on her release, but she left him to go travelling. In addition, his mother is desperately ill in hospital during the COVID-19 pandemic and his taciturn father is stubbornly refusing to acknowledge that she might not recover. If that weren't enough, at the end of the last book his elderly next door neighbour admitted to her part in covering up a death, something which has put Matt in a very difficult position.

The mark of a good story for me is whether or not you can recall it. When I started flicking back to see what had happened (so I could write this review) it all came flooding back to me. Who killed Lee, who killed Holly, what had happened and why. So even though I didn't remember finishing the book, it only took a moment to recall it perfectly. In fact, the only weakness in the book (in my opinion) was Matt's love life, it felt like the author didn't want to commit to Matt/Hedy and wrote her out of the picture just to be able to introduce potential other partners.

Also, and I usually complain the other way, I could have done with more of a reminder of what had happened in the first book between Hedy and Matt.

Otherwise, a nice twisty turny cold case mystery solved.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley for an honest review.

I like the plot, and the police procedural, but the book was simply too long, and some editing out would have made the book, I believe, excellent. There was quite a lot of repetition, and taking too long to progress to the next thing. Otherwise an enjoyable read.

DI Matt Lockyer returns in Laying Out the Bones which is the second book in Kate Webb’s cold crime police procedural series and it is another winner.

The main storyline moves along at a good pace with the other underlying arcs allowing the novel to breathe without distracting from your enjoyment of the book.

Overall the first 2 books have been a great start to the series and hopefully there are more books to come.

Highly recommended.

Laying out the Bones by Kate Webb
Meet Detective Inspector Matt Lockyer. Lucky to still have a job at all, he’s heading up the cold cases team for the Wiltshire Constabulary. In this second book of the series, he finds himself looking into a string of deaths, potentially murders and each of which are highly likely to be related to the murder nine years previously of a young woman called Holly Gilbert, whose killers had never been found.
On a hot summer’s day, Lockyer and his colleague DC Gemma Broad are on the scene where the body of Lee Geary has been discovered. He was an acquaintance of Holly Gilbert. In the weeks following Holly’s death, Lee and two other suspects were questioned in connection with her death. As Lockyer and Broad start their investigation, each of those three suspects have since died or disappeared. Lockyer doubts that the four deaths of these connected persons in the space of a decade can have been a coincidence, but proving otherwise was going to take a lot of hard work and patience.
Having read the first DI Lockyer mystery, I was interested to read more about the main detective, who carries the burden of his own brother’s unsolved murder with him. Lockyer is one of the good guys but he doesn’t always follow procedure when justice would not (in his view) be best served. This has landed him in hot water before, almost costing him his career, but he doesn’t seem to have fully learned his lesson, and this book also sees him making a few unorthodox moves when he discovers a mystery closer to home, in his own home in fact.
The book is a slow burn but once the story catches it rips along to a conclusion, tying up all the threads, not without a few twists along the way. In this second book, we get better acquainted with Lockyer and Broad and how they work together. I’m sure this will continue to be a good series as there is more for each of these characters to reveal.
I read an advance reader copy from Netgalley, courtesy of Quercus. I give this book 4 stars.

A long, hot summer in Wiltshire is broken by a sudden downpour. Flash floods bring something sinister to the surface - a human skeleton. When forensic testing matches the bones to a man named Lee Geary, reported missing nine years earlier, the case is passed to DI Matt Lockyer.

This is a very enjoyable read. It has believable, three-dimensional characters with a strong storyline throughout. It’s tales within tales but held together well by the insecurities of the investigator. They have back stories aplenty which although divert the reader have a subtle way of moving the pace forward.

Laying Out the Bones is the 2nd book in the DI Lockyer Mysteries series by Kate Webb.
In short, DI Matt Lockyer’s latest case is a curious one! Following flash flooding on Salisbury Plain a human skeleton surfaces and is forensically matched to a man reported missing 9 years earlier. Alongside this case which DI Matt has been assigned to he also finds himself involved in a personal tricky situation which mentally tests him.
I loved this book, not only am I familiar with the locations, after starting the book realised that I had read and thoroughly enjoyed the author’s previous work under the slightly different name Katherine Webb, I was drawn in hook line and sinker, Kate is such a great storyteller. It’s a gripping, well executed plot with a compelling story of buried secrets and hidden demons…an intriguing whodunnit for ‘farmer Giles and Laptop’! After I finished the book I immediately bought book 1, Stay Buried. Very much looking forward to reading more mysteries from here in Wiltshire.
Big thanks to Kate Webb, Quercus Books and NetGalley for this eARC which I chose to read in return for my honest review.

This book did not particularly grab me at first, I found the first 100 or so pages quite slow moving and the stories of the different deaths did not really pique my interest. I have read others in the series involving Matt Lockyer, which encouraged me to keep going. I am glad I did because the plot definately picked up and the different storylines started to come together and make more sense as the book went on.
I like Matt's way of working and thinking and like to puzzle along with him and his collegues to solve the crimes. There are a few twists in this book and Matt is not always in a good place in his personal life , but the writing makes the situations feel believable and the settings are well described so that you get a good picture of where you are . I am definately looking forward to the next episode.
So after a shakey start, this book really picked up . Thanks to Net Galley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review

Second in this series featuring. DO Lockyer. A cold case throws up plenty of twists an turns. An eclectic bunch of characters adds to the mystery.

Character driven mystery with an unusually empathetic detective. Second in the series, having not read the first, was not really at a disadvantage. A cold case mystery that involved going back nine years to uncover new evidence. Well developed characters. Should appeal to many. Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read an advance copy.