A drunk comes to the Mickelgate Bar Police Station in York with a tale from 20 years ago that he has just recalled: he witnessed the murder of a young woman on a piece of waste land, and after all this time he can still tell the police exactly where to look. They do, and indeed the man’s memory was correct; not only that, but there are three other skeletons found in the same vicinity, matching perhaps four missing young women from 20 years past. One skeleton had an odd object in its mouth, an object that is the only lead DCI Hennessey and DS Yellich have…. This is the sixth Hennessey and Yellich novel, and like the ones preceding it, the story is tightly plotted and the characters are very well drawn. The attentive reader doesn’t really learn anything new about the two main characters because their most salient points have already been established in the earlier books, but enough information is given in the text here that a newcomer to the series would have no difficulty understanding their circumstances. I really love this series, but am having a hard time finding the books in sequence - it appears that e-book editions begin with something like the 20th book in the series, so finding the earlier ones is a matter of scouring library book sales, used bookstores and the like. However, I will persevere in my quest to find them all, because the stories are beautifully told and the characters fully-realized human beings on the page; recommended! ( )