Black Hearts by Doug Johnstone

The Skelf women, Dorothy, Jenny and Hannah, run a combined funeral business and private investigation firm. More often than not one arm of the business develops into work for the other side of the firm. In this fourth outing we see the women deal with a missing person case, a vengeful spirit and a stalker.

Black Hearts is set a year after the events of book three in the series, The Great Silence and the family are still trying to come to terms with what happened. Jenny, more than anyone, has been effected the most by what her ex-husband did. This has surfaced in self-destructive, risky behaviour. Readers of the series will be empathetic towards Jenny, knowing full-well the terror she faced and the actions she had to take. For the past year Jenny has been waiting for news, for confirmation, so that she can begin to let her guard down, start the healing process and learn to live again. Unfortunately someone has other ideas.

Dorothy, the matriarch of the family, plays a lesser roles this time around. Her Californian upbringing is reflected in her spirituality so it's not surprising that she is drawn to a case of a spirit haunting and physically hurting a widower.

Hannah, Jenny's daughter, discovers she has a stalker. I found this to be the most unsettling part of the story. We learn how easy it is for someone to gain access to your life through social media and how your life can be turned upside down by identity theft. 

There are some lighter moments; the opening chapter features a family funeral which descends into a fight at an open graveside and ends with pure slap-stick comedy. However, it's the all consuming darkness of grief that is at the heart of each part of the story, as we discover that everyone handles grief differently. 

Black Hearts by Doug Johnstone is available now in paperback, ebook and audio format.