The Hidden Graves of St. Ives is the second book in author Sally Rigby’s Cornwall Murder Mystery series. I found the series through an advanced reader copy I received of one of the later books. I enjoyed it so much I wanted to go back to the beginning. What I didn’t know until I started reading another series by the author was that this was a spin-off of her Cavendish & Walker series. Matt Price originally appeared in that series, and I now understand some of his references to his other boss much better after having read the first few books in that series as well. You don’t have to read any of that to enjoy the books, but there are many small things that made sense only after I read the earlier books and other series.

In The Hidden Graves of St. Ives, Freya Kempston has gone missing. Her husband is begging the police to investigate after she didn’t come home from a shopping trip. There’s some belief that she might have run off from her marriage, no matter how much her husband protests that she wouldn’t do that. They locate surveillance footage that shows Freya talking to a local mechanic before she disappeared. He has an alibi, however, and claims he just happened to run into a customer while they were out.

When a second woman goes missing after a work shift at a local supermarket, DI Matt Price and DS Lauren Pengelly begin to believe there is more going on than they first thought. As they look for a connection between the two women, a third goes missing after a night out with friends. In less than a week, three women have gone missing from St. Ives without a trace. For the police, it’s a race to hopefully uncover what happened while the women are still alive.

I’ll start by saying Sally Rigby’s writing style isn’t for everybody. She writes in a very matter-of-fact style that I think works well for police procedurals. It’s not for everyone, though. I don’t think it works as well when she delves into the personal lives of her characters. In this case, it happens that one of Lauren’s beloved dogs is quite ill while all of the disappearances are happening. I found it hard to grasp the emotional pull this put on her. It’s there; Rigby tells us how upset she is, and Matt does his best to support her as she needs it, but I didn’t feel it.

Her storytelling is still good, however, and the way the story unravels as to what happened to the women and how the investigation plays out is very well done. Laura’s still getting used to Matt’s presence, which allows her to step back a bit from micro-managing the investigations. She’s not had a great relationship with her team because of that, but things are slowly changing. Having her distracted a bit by her pet’s illness also allows the team a bit more room to perform the investigation without being micro-managed. They are discovering what they are capable of as well.

Until the team uncovers the link between the women, there was no way to figure out what was happening to the women and who was involved. Once that link is revealed, it becomes obvious. The Hidden Graves of St. Ives isn’t a whodunit as much as it is a procedural. The ending is rather unexpected in that regard as well.

The audiobook is read by Clare Corbett, who also read the previous book in the series. I find she handles the story very well, especially considering the author’s style. It can be hard to act out characters when they don’t seem to show a lot of emotion and not sound like you’re just reading a book. Corbett seems to fit perfectly with Rigby’s style.

If you’re looking for a good police procedural where you won’t be able to figure out who the villain is until the end, this is a great book in that regard. The characters are interesting, although I still don’t feel like I know them all that well. I think that’s perhaps due to the lack of emotion. Still, I like them enough to want to continue the series.

Previous book in the series:

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