Stevie‘s review of Little Girls Tell Tales by Rachel Bennett
Crime Fiction published by One More Chapter 29 May 20

I don’t think I’ve read any mysteries set on the Isle of Man before, and it’s one of those places I’ve yet to visit, so everything about the location for this story was new to me. Quite a few of the themes and character tropes were familiar, of course – isolated communities tend to attract similar eccentrics and have common issues for all those living there. One twist on the usual plots for these types of books was that neither of the siblings at the centre of the story was entirely a local or entirely an outsider. Dallin grew up in the village, but moved away as an adult, whereas Rosalie visited her mother and brother as a child, but only settled in her mother’s former home as an adult, following her marriage to Dallin’s childhood best friend, and after life-changing injuries left Rosalie and Dallin’s mother unable to continue living in the house herself.

Now widowed, Rosalie continues to live in her marital home, but rarely ventures out due to a combination of grief and anxiety, the latter compounded by her reputation as the girl who’d claimed to have found a skeleton while lost on the desolate curraghs – wetlands – close to her house fifteen years earlier. No one else has ever found the body, and Rosalie’s tale is mostly dismissed as a story she made up to atone for so many people having turned out to search for her. Even her brother seems sceptical, and yet when he returns to visit, with a new friend in tow, it turns out that he’s been telling Cora all about Rosalie and the skeleton.

Cora, it transpires, has her own reasons for wanting the skeleton to be real, and to be uncovered once again. Her older sister disappeared twenty years ago, and she has come to believe that the skeleton might be her. Cora has a plan, and having already convinced Dallin to help her, she now needs Rosalie’s assistance as well. Together the three begin to search the curraghs, in spite of opposition from some of Rosalie’s neighbours, and soon it becomes clear that at least one person on the island will do everything they can to sabotage Cora’s hunt.

I liked the atmosphere of this book and enjoyed the quirky background characters, especially the history various of them had with Rosalie and Dallin. I found Cora and Rosalie a little difficult to warm to, and Dallin was particularly annoying – although that was almost certainly deliberate on the author’s part. I would have liked a little more resolution of some of the family tensions, especially those relating to Rosalie’s deceased wife, but overall this was a good introduction to a setting and an author that I’d like to read more of.

Grade: B

Summary:

Some of the boggy ponds were so deep that if a girl stepped into one it would swallow her forever…

2004: Rosalie is walking through the wild wetland behind her mother’s home on the isolated Isle of Man when she stumbles across a body. Having strayed from the path and lost her brother, Dallin, it’s hours before she’s discovered, shaken and exhausted. With a reputation for telling stories, not many believe the little girl’s tale of the body in the marsh.

2019: Dallin, estranged from his family, returns unannounced with a woman named Cora by his side. Cora’s sister went missing fifteen years ago and she believes Rosalie was the one who found her. As dangerous secrets are unearthed, Cora and Rosalie start asking questions about a girl who some would rather keep buried…

Read an excerpt.