This Body of Death by Elizabeth George

There are two cases going here.  Not sure how they relate yet.
One is the story of three young boys who take a toddler from a McDonalds when his Dad is busy ordering.  So far, the story is investigating the reports, I believe the reports from police or the news, I can't tell.  It's like a flashback story.  It starts with how each young boy started his day and some of the background on the boys lives.  It also explores the day of the toddlers Dad and he came to be in the McDonalds.  There are witness accounts of seeing the three young boys that day, before and after the toddler was taken from McDonalds.  This part of the book had such an eerie and familiar tune that I did some research and discovered that the story told by Elizabeth George is almost exactly the same story about James Bulger a boy kidnapped and killed by two ten year old boys in London.  She changed a few things around to be different but I suspect that a great deal is directly from that event.
The next story is about a woman who is murdered and found in a Graveyard Monument.  The story explores the detectives on the case, their lives and how they go about investigating the case.  The story also goes into the lives of the young woman's friend and brother and how they meet to discuss the young woman's disappearance.
There are so many people and stories in the first half of the book that is hard to keep up but it is interesting overall.  It seems that each character has a warped story or personality so it's been somewhat excruciating waiting for George to get around to telling the actual story and not just identifying the characters.  Yawn.............  Almost gave up.  I have to say there are back stories told here that are simply unnecessary and would have saved about 500 pages that didn't need to be written.

The story is simple.  There is a murder.  A lot of people for a variety of reasons believe the murderer is the old boyfriend.  The old boyfriend may have evidence of his innocence but he can not share it with anyone because it would mean exposing an even bigger secret about who he really is.

It is a VERY interesting read overall because there are two completely different stories being told, one based on an actual, horrifying event in history and another story about a girl being murdered and in the end the two stories come together.  That part of the book is brilliant.  I listened to this story on DVD's and I have to say that I skipped chapter after chapter to get past all the unnecessary background and I feel like I didn't miss a thing.

Would I recommend it I ask myself?  No, I have to say my interest is peaked regarding the story of James Bulger and I intend to read a book or two on that true story.  I won't be searching out other Elizabeth George books unless someone convinces me a book is worthy of my time.