Cage of Bones

At the start of British author Carver’s pulse-pounding third novel featuring Det. Insp. Phil Brennan (after 2012’s The Creeper), laborers set to demolish an abandoned Colchester house, which is not “just derelict but desolate, collapsing under the weight of its own despair,” make a horrific discovery in the basement: a feral boy inside a cage of bones. Brennan, who’s with Essex Police’s Major Incident Squad, is disturbed to find strange symbols on the wall of the basement room as well as indications that whoever abused the boy had killed previous captives. Meanwhile, the Elders (known only as the Lawmaker, the Missionary, and the Teacher), who are somehow connected with the crime, seek to impede the police inquiry. In the end, Carver (the pseudonym of the husband-wife writing team of Martyn and Linda Waites) ensures that the plot twists all pay off handsomely with one surprising but logical revelation after another. (Feb. 15)