Trace of Evil by Alice Blanchard
Hello my lovely dear readers! I am so happy to have you back.
I hope all of you are happy and safe and healthy wherever you are. ’Tis the month of love and hope. I wish that we all hold on to them as we continue our struggles against COVID.
I know, I know. It feels like COVID is all I talk about whenever I greet you guys. But, anyway, let’s talk about something else, something positive. Something about… LOVE.
A very happy Valentine’s Day in advance to all! Valentine’s Day is on the corner and I thought why not celebrate it with my love for mysterious and thrilling detective novels. And I am so glad that I came across Trace of Evil by Alice Blanchard as I was browsing Goodreads. Best decision ever to read this book!
Trace of Evil is the first book in Alice Blanchard’s Natalie Lockhart series. There are two more books currently in the series – The Wicked Hour and The Witching Tree – both of which I will be reading very soon. I fervently hope that there will more instalments to Natalie Lockhart’s story. Overall, I really, really liked this first book.
So… what’s the plot about? Let’s talk about that first.
Well, it’s a detective novel so, there is bound to be murder, duh. But it is so much more than just that. The plot revolves around the residents of the small town in New York state called ‘Burning Lake’ and their many secrets. But Burning Lake is no stranger to intrigue and drama. It’s part of her charm now. Once a town fraught with the accusations of witchcraft, it is now a tourist destination for anyone who would want to dabble in the occult and see the place where three innocent women were executed after being accused of being witches. Now, it is almost a rite of passage for teenagers to form covens, perform magic, protect the underdogs and hex the unsavoury bullies. But even within Burning Lake’s harmlessly ‘magical’ grounds, evil resides bidding it’s time to strike.
Nine ‘transients’ or homeless or just people who do small gigs travelling from one town to another have disappeared from Burning Lake in the past few years. Everyone from the local police to the FBI has tried to find them and failed. It has become a sort of tradition to pass the responsibility to the next new rookie detective with the hope that a fresh set of eyes might shed new light on the case. And now, it is Natalie’s burden to bear.
Natalie is dealing with a traumatic event in her past and the death of her eldest sister Willow. That in itself is a lot but her professional plate is just as full. Things turn ugly when tragedy strikes too close to home. A fellow detective’s school teacher wife, Grace, has been murdered in the security of her own house. Natalie is determined to solve this case but is she prepared to deal with the Pandora’s box her investigation will open? Let me just say that for some people, this is one can of worms best left alone.
Fascinating, isn’t it? I know! Even I was immediately sucked into this quaint-but-not town. The author is so eloquent when describing the scenery of Burning Lake that I could visualize it. Be it when we are walking on the trails in the woods or driving through the empty roads near the lake. In Burning Lake’s spooky atmosphere, I anticipated some misfortune to befall Natalie or someone else. The book is a page-turner with every new scene compelling us to wonder what will happen next.
But, did I like the characters?
I have already written so much about Natalie. What do you think? 😆 It also helps that the whole book is told from Natalie’s point of view even if it is written in the third person. I absolutely loved her and all the other characters we are introduced to.
Natalie is so much like her father, Joey, who was a detective as well. Unfortunately, we only see him through Natalie’s fond memories of him. Then there is Luke, who is Natalie’s supervisor and a very old friend. He is also a love interest for her so I am hoping that they will be together soon. I am not sure if that will happen in the next two books but I have my fingers crossed.
Natalie’s interactions with her sister, Grace, and niece, Ellie, are also very interesting. She was very close to Grace at one time but not anymore. Ellie is an almost typical teenager, acting out, thinking that no one understands her, etc. We have all been through that and sometimes, even as adults, we still do. At times, this belief can bring us a whole lot of trouble and this is exactly what happens when Ellie’s best friends turn on her.
All in all, I think a psychologist or a psychiatrist and the students in these fields of study will thoroughly enjoy picking and dissecting the minds of these characters.
Now to the scenes that I enjoyed
One of the first scenes that really caught me was the scene when Natalie has secured the crime scene and a team of detectives and photographers are trying to find and collect evidence and fingerprints. Natalie is examining the blood spatter pattern. Now, it is a bit like on those TV shows with everyone being on the crime scene at the same time so we should not expect complete accuracy. (You can check out Dr Henry C. Lee’s Henry Lee’s Crime Scene Handbook if you are interested in seeing how crime scenes are ideally handled.) However, the author does portray how smaller investigating teams have to do much of the crime scene investigation themselves including collecting and securing evidence and maintaining a chain of custody. It is literally how most of the cases are worked in many countries. In some places, there are no dedicated forensic investigative teams and if there are any forensic technicians, they are never invited to the crime scene. In such cases, the police personnel collecting this evidence have to be extremely well trained. As courts around the world are relying more and more on scientific evidence, it is of paramount importance that any evidence is not only admissible in the court of law but also incontestable.
The next scene that seemed almost accurate to me was the autopsy scene although there was no mention of a videographer. The details and the terms used to describe the injuries the victim has sustained are refreshingly accurate. And as morbid as it may seem, it is actually of great importance that every aspect of the post mortem, from the time at which the autopsy started to the smallest clipping of nail retained for further testing be documented and filmed for presenting in the court of law. This unedited documentary assures the court that there was no mischief done during the autopsy and everything was as per the book.
The last scene that I truly enjoyed was when we find out who really killed Grace. I am someone who, while reading a murder mystery, is trying to solve the case, too. As if I am in some sort of a race with the detective in question. But it blew my mind when I found who it was. I was like “WHAAAT? I didn’t see that coming.”
But don’t worry! I am not going to tell you who it was. I give spoilers but I am not so cruel as to tell you the whole climax. You all can read Trace of Evil to find this out yourself. I am sure you will enjoy it just like I did.
Out of curiosity, are you folks also in the habit of trying to determine who the killer is before the detective can find out? Have any of you already read this book? What did you like about it? Anyone who will be reading this book? What is your take on it? Is there are any book you would like to recommend? Do let me know.
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