A Witch Hunt in Whitby by Helen Cox

Hints of the occult and the paranormal in this story with three murders in three different locations all within Yorkshire. The victims are first warned with a V painted on their front door, and eleven days later they are murdered. When the V is painted on Ruby's door a ninety year old harmless Tarot reader, private Investigators Kitt and Grace spring into action to protect Ruby and get to the bottom of this mystery which has baffled the police. The local constabulory does not like private investigators getting involved in their investigations but because of Kitt's relationship with Mal a local Detective, they both keep each other in the loop with whatever each has turned up hoping to find who is responsible for the three deaths so far. The story moves on far beyond the surface and now goes back decades to uncover a history of hidden resentments, and revenge being sought for damages and humiliation suffered so many years ago. The link between the three murders first thought to be only the occult now shows up further links to the women killed. Being Whitby there is a lot of goth action, vampire cults and references to Dracula. It was not easy to work out who the killer was because there were so many suspects who were very plausible for playing the role of murderer. I did not get it myself till the end. Nice setting of Whitby and Yorkshire in general, good characterizations and very detailed detection. Sent by Quercus Books for an unbiased review, courtesy of Netgalley.