Carol O'Connell's The Chalk Girl
For a fairly grim 'n' grisly mystery, this book was surprisingly heartbreaking. The plot has a huge amount of twists and turns that I don't want to hint at, but it involves bodies strung up in trees, a gifted little girl who knows an awful lot about rats (note: don't read this book if you're squeamish about rats, seriously, don't), and a probably sociopathic police detective caught up in a bunch of internal politics (this is part of a series, and of course I haven't read the earlier ones). The detective is a bit of a cipher, but her partner and other friends/colleagues (including a rabbi!) keep the story moving, and the little girl is entirely lovable. The end was kind of anti-climactic, but it totally worked for me (and is bound to bring a slightly wicked grin to some readers' faces). A-.
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