Behind Closed Doors

February 9, 2015
In Haynes’s harrowing second novel set in the English town of Briarstone (after 2014’s Under a Silent Moon), Scarlett Rainsford, who disappeared on a family trip to Greece in 2003 when she was 15, is discovered a decade later during a raid on a brothel, living under an assumed name. The case is particularly vexing for recently promoted Det. Chief Insp. Louisa “Lou” Smith and her Major Crime team, as she worked the original case when Scarlett vanished. As Lou and her fellow officers attempt to determine if the beating of a local ne’er-do-well and the murder of a pub owner are related, Scarlett begins to talk about her ordeal as a prostitute for a European crime ring. When Scarlett vanishes again, Lou must try to find her before the dark forces of her former life can reclaim her. Vivid, unsparing prose, including brutal passages from Scarlett’s point of view, helps make this a haunting, highly disturbing mystery. Agent: Adrian Weston, Adrian Weston Literary Agency.