Into the Fire

A Place to Bury Strangers is Book 2 in the Atticus Priest Series by Mark Dawson. 

In an obscure church graveyard, a dog finds more than historical corpses which sends "Mack" (Detective Chief Inspector Mackenzie Jones) up to Imber, an old city that no longer is. Now it's sometimes used as a military training area, but when a dog out for a walk with his owner retrieves what looks like a femur, Mack and her team must trudge out in the cold and wet to determine, if the bone is human, where it came from.

Atticus Priest is one of those wonderfully unique characters who is brilliantly intelligent when it comes to determining body languages, catching the nuances of  liars, and making intuitive deductions, not to mention he's a walking computer that produces minute details about multiple people, places, things, and little known facts about various topics. Except when it comes to Mack. 

Atticus, now a private investigator, was a former detective who not only worked with Mack, he had an affair with her. He was fired from the force for drug use (pot smoking), and due to his abrupt, sometimes condescending, manner, he didn't make many if any friends on the force. Mack, in spite of herself, appreciated his remarkable abilities and was more emotionally attached to him than she cared to admit. His emotional attachment to Mack and his ongoing desire for a romantic relationship with her – even though their affair ruined her marriage – blinds him to her feelings and reactions to him which often make him awkward and uncomfortable expressing himself to her except for case-related information. 

Just as Atticus accepts a case from a father whose 17 year old daughter is missing and thought to be involved with a local drug dealer, Mack calls and asks for his assistance regarding the discovered bone. He arranges the time to go with her to Imber, and as she expected, he and his dog Bandit provide major help in locating the origin of the bone. 

When an old case Atticus investigated unexpectedly intersects with Mack's and his current cases, Mack gets reluctant permission to add Atticus as a special investigator to her team. Atticus gets surprising information from an unlikely source and then finds a piece of evidence that quickly leads Mack and him to a critical rescue. 

I find myself falling in love with the original character of tattoo-sleeved, medication-reliant, often obnoxious, nearly in love with Mack, Atticus Priest. Mack is less lovable, emotionally wound tight, drowns her frustrations in wine, but very professional. She feels her soon-to-be ex is a better father to their two young children than she is a mother. She refuses to fully admit the depth of her feelings for Atticus and despises herself for indulging those feelings.  

Mark Dawson does an impressive job of developing Atticus Priest in this second novel while getting Mack's turmoil right about the coming demise of her marriage. Mark also depicts the horrors and hopeless squalor of drug addiction while Atticus searches for the missing daughter. A Place to Bury Strangers sends the reader on a morose and macabre journey in both Mack's and Atticus' cases and ends with a perverse cliffhanger and a daring hope for Mack and Atticus. 

I appreciated that Mark handled the minimal sexual liaisons with mere suggestion. Tastefully done and so much better that way. 

Profanity present. 

Father, you are the giver of good and perfect gifts. Thank you for your writers/authors. Please continue to bless Mark's writing and stories and provide what he needs to create. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.