WHITBY ROCK

In Freeman’s debut thriller, set in the 1990s, a peculiar murder occurs in an English village.

The residents of serene Sneaton Thorpe are horrified to discover a dead body in their church. It’s a puzzling, surprising case—the unidentified victim is hanging upside down by a bell pull. Candy was scattered under the body, and several graves were dug up in the church graveyard. The story hops back decades and introduces other characters. In 1941, teenager Edelborg Peterson is a rail porter in Sweden covertly working for the Swedish resistance. He helps a Norwegian woman make it safely to Stockholm and becomes a skilled smuggler. Years later, in 1992, Jack Headland is an Englishman from a family of coal miners. He plans to attend university, hoping to land a white-collar career. In his spare time, he helps a couple of “local rogues” and habitual lawbreakers, which may threaten his future. His and Ed’s lives eventually intersect in Sneaton Thorpe, where they play their parts in a crime that ends in murder. Their individual backstories are engaging and dramatic. Ed suffers a tragedy years after WWII, and Jack struggles with romantic feelings for a female co-worker. Readers won’t have to wait until the final chapter for all the answers; for example, we quickly learn the identity of the church victim. Freeman often—and fittingly—describes the church ominously: “A mist continued to hold tight to the ground and swirled amongst and between the arrangement of gravestones in front of the chapel.” While the story’s resolution gratifies, the effective ending leaves a few lingering questions.

Dynamic characters bolster this quiet, enthralling small-town mystery.