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Human Remains    by Elizabeth Haynes Amazon.com order for
Human Remains
by Elizabeth Haynes
Order:  USA  Can
Harper, 2013 (2013)
Softcover, e-Book
* *   Reviewed by Mary Ann Smyth

Annabel Hayer is not happy in her government job. The work isn't really demanding. The hours seem longer than they really are. She feels invisible to her co-workers and while they ask her to join them for tea, she never accepts. Their faces show relief when she declines. She thinks of herself as the drab and dull worker in the office. And no one seems to want to hang out with her. Every office appears to have at least one individual who fits this description.

Unfortunately, she discovers an emaciated corpse in her neighbor's house. At work, she begins to realize that this is not a random occurrence. Other bodies in the same condition are appearing throughout the community of Briarstone. Apparently these people have all died of starvation.

Enter Colin. We, the readers, are privy to his thoughts, as we are to Annabel's. Can he be responsible for these deaths? How? There are no signs of murder. We also get to hear from many of the deceased after their deaths! What is happening in this small community?

Annabel starts to put some figures on spreadsheets and believes she has found a connection between all of the deaths. Then, after her mother's sudden death, Annabel is not feeling like herself and finds that eating no longer appeals to her.

Human Remains by Elizabeth Haynes will keep you guessing and muttering to yourself that this is all fantasy. It could not happen in real life. Could it? Are you sure?

Haynes will keep you guessing to the very end. Her characters ring true. Not too sure about some of their motives, but, hey, as they say, it takes all kinds. Engrossing book. Haynes is a police intelligence analyst like her heoine and lives in Maidstone, Kent, England. Human Remains is her third book.

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