Publication Day Review: The Cyclist: A DS George Cross Mystery by Tim Sullivan

  

It has been a few months since the events of The Dentist as the police procedural, The Cyclist: A DS George Cross Mystery by Tim Sullivan begins, and DS George Cross is at, in all likelihood, a crime scene. An annoyed contractor wants to get his men back to work on the teardown of a row of garages, but the dead body wrapped in plastic and sitting in the bucket of a digger has meant that all work is stopped. Detective Sergeant George Cross of the Somerset and Avon police force flatly and calmly explains the reality of the situation in his unique style and returns to the business at hand—solving a murder.

 

The unique style of Detective Sergeant George Cross is due to the fact that he is on the autism spectrum with Asperger’s syndrome. He has a very hard time picking up on social cues and interacting with people. He does not recognize emotions and has to go through a sort of mental catalog to figure out the emotion a person is displaying on their face. So, he is working hard to be civil and polite with the contractor who wants nothing more than to get the project back underway, and doesn’t quite get why DS George Cross is saying what he is saying to him. DS Ottey is soon able to rescue Cross before things go sideways with the man.

 

DS George Cross is detail focused and driven and is an exceptional investigator though he drives everyone around him a bit mad at times. Of course, if everyone had his attention to detail, that would really help everyone. Since the pathologist clearly does not, she might have noticed clues on the body that would give them an idea as to the identity of the victim. The victim had no identification, no engraved watch, no cell phone, nothing at all that would identify him. But, in his close examination of the body in front of the perturbed pathologist in the morgue, DS Cross identified several clues that indicate the victim was a serious cyclist.

 

That fact soon proves out to be true and the team is able to identify the victim. Now that the victim is identified, they can actually start investigating him, his background, relationships, etc., and begin to make slow progress in a complicated case.

 

This second book in the series builds off the first book, The Dentist, and does so very well. Further character development of George Cross, as well as several other characters, is underway here and does not distract from the main storyline. Also present are the economic budgetary issues impacting the police in the name of efficiency and are, actually, doing the exact opposite. Also present is a complex mystery with far reaching implications.

 

A police procedural series that should be read in order, The Cyclist: A DS George Cross Mystery by Tim Sullivan is a highly entertaining read.

 

The book, and the series, to date, is highly recommended.

 

 

Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/4omEQLH

 

 

I received a digital ARC from the publisher, Grove Atlantic, through NetGalley, with no expectation of a positive review.

 

 

Kevin R. Tipple ©2025

Lesa's Book Critiques: The Politician by Tim Sullivan

 Lesa's Book Critiques: The Politician by Tim Sullivan

Happiness Is A Book: Friday’s Forgotten Book: The Murders Near Mapleton by Brian Flynn

 Happiness Is A Book: Friday’s Forgotten Book: The Murders Near Mapleton by Brian Flynn

Aubrey Nye Hamilton Reviews: A Case of Mice and Murder: The Trials of Gabriel Ward by Sally Smith

 .

Of Mice and Murder (Raven Books, June 2025) has been getting raves from readers of historical mysteries since it was released. Now it is popping up on favorites of the year lists and I was determined to see what the buzz was about.

It is, as everyone says, a wonderful story. Set in May 1901, the quirky Sir Gabriel Ward KC, an outstanding addition to the pantheon of amateur sleuths, literally stumbles across the body of Lord Norman Dunning, Lord Chief Justice of England, as Ward was attempting to enter his legal office in the Inner Temple. Dunning was in popular opinion amazingly average and the last person to be murdered. But here he was, expired and not of natural causes.

By law the Temple is not part of the City of London and London police are not allowed to enter without invitation. The author goes into some detail about the history of the Temple and provides a helpful map. To keep the police at bay for a few days, Ward was given the task of investigating the death accompanied by a police constable to take notes. Ward was on the verge of an important piece of litigation that needed his full attention and he did not welcome this new and strange assignment. Indeed, he did not welcome anything that disrupted his long-established routine. His outstanding intellect was recognized by his colleagues however and it was felt if anyone could find an answer to this peculiar event, it would be Sir Gabriel.

The second plot thread is just as perplexing. Years ago, legal publisher Herbert Moore found a manuscript for a children’s book with no letter or explanation on his doorstep. He examined it briefly and discarded it in the nearest bin, from which his young daughter retrieved it and read it, enthralled. Moore decided to publish it as a Christmas one-off and found himself with a runaway bestseller. He had made some inquiries as to the author that came up empty and despite some reservations continued to publish the book. Now a young woman has come forward claiming authorship of the book and Moore hasn’t a legal leg to stand on. In desperation he has turned to Ward for help.

Sally Smith spent all her working life as a barrister and later King's Counsel in the Inner Temple. Her deep knowledge of the history of the Temple and understanding of its operations give the story a commanding sense of authenticity. The references to new-fangled forensic tools such as fingerprints and the mentions of the limitations placed on women’s lives sets the context equally well. Those same limitations offer clues to the resolution. The dual mystery itself is nicely constructed, and Sir Gabriel is a vivid personality with whom I can easily identify.

Fortunately for us all, there is no need to wait for the second book in the series; it is available for purchase now. Library Journal starred review. Highly recommended.

 

·         Publisher: ‎Raven Books

·         Publication date: ‎June 17, 2025

·         Language: ‎English

·         Print length: ‎336 pages

·         ISBN-10: ‎1639736921

·         ISBN-13: ‎978-1639736928

Amazon Associate Purchase Link:  https://amzn.to/3MIybxm

 

  

Aubrey Nye Hamilton ©2025 

Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal It projects by day and reads mysteries at night.

Aubrey Nye Hamilton Reviews: The Masked Band: A D. I. Jim Garibaldi Novel by Bernard O'Keeffe

  

The Masked Band (Muswell, 2025) is the fourth book with Detective Inspector Jim Garibaldi, who lives and works in Barnes, a pleasant London suburb on the Thames. It’s an engaging read with a novel premise. Garibaldi is well read and is given to quoting bits of literature during serious team discussions, throwing his colleagues off and irritating his boss, with whom he has exchanged confidences of a personal nature in the past. Garibaldi’s parents were killed in a car accident and he has never learned to drive. He may be the only contemporary detective on a bicycle I have encountered. (I think Father Brown rode a bicycle.)

The Okay Boomers is a group of celebrities from various parts of the media world who wear masks of David Bowie, Paul McCartney, Debbie Harry, Bob Dylan, and Mick Jagger and play occasional gigs in the local pub. They gather at one member’s house after a successful performance and the next morning a young man is found dead in the garden wearing one of the masks. No identification on the victim and band members all deny knowing him. The remaining masks are missing.

The more the police press the members of the band to find a link between the dead man and the group, the more the individuals begin to crack. On the surface they are all congenial; behind closed doors they don’t much like each other and don’t hesitate to throw each other under the proverbial bus. One member is especially venomous, he has stabbed each of the others in the back; they all heard about it and haven’t forgotten. To see him on the law enforcement hot seat doesn’t bother them at all.

The killer didn’t exactly come out of the blue but it was certainly an unexpected if reasonable resolution.

O’Keeffe works some sly digs about the concept of celebrity into the story and how overrated some individual media stars are. No need to read the earlier books in this police procedural for this particular storyline to make sense. Overall, a satisfying read!

This book is only available in paperback, unfortunately. I had to order it from Waterstone’s in England earlier in the year when it first came to my attention. While I see it is listed on Amazon now, the seller that is offering it is in England so expect slower than usual shipping. A potentially good use for that Amazon gift card you might find in your stocking.

·         Publisher: ‎Muswell Press

·         Publication date: ‎February 20, 2025

·         Language: ‎English

·         Print length: ‎368 pages

·         ISBN-10: ‎1738452883

·         ISBN-13: ‎978-1738452880

 

 

Amazon Associate Purchase Link:  https://amzn.to/4a0x1qv

  

 

Aubrey Nye Hamilton ©2025 

Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal It projects by day and reads mysteries at night.

Aubrey Nye Hamilton Reviews: Constable Country by Catherine Aird

  

Constable Country (Allison & Busby, 2023) is apparently the final book in the long-running British detective series by Catherine Aird (1930-1924) featuring Inspector Christopher Dennis Sloan of the fictional Berebury CID department in West Calleshire, England. Known as “C.D.” which invariably is pronounced “Seedy”, Sloan is generally accompanied by a clueless constable named Crosby, to whom Sloan has been unable to teach much of anything. Sloan reports to Superintendent Leeyes, irritable, demanding, and of no assistance during an investigation. Leeyes frequents the local Adult Education classes and is prone to quoting odd bits of information from the latest class that may or may not be relevant to the subject at hand. His adversarial approach to hearing about new topics has been known to get him booted out of class, leaving Leeyes to fulminate about the uninformed instructor.

Michael Wakefield, part owner of the high-end printing firm Forres and Wakefield, learns the day before the annual accounting audit of the books that the company he has worked so hard to establish is bankrupt. He had no idea that his partner Malcolm Forres has been systematically embezzling for years. With a new accountant onboard who was sure to report the defalcations, Forres emptied the bank accounts and fled to Europe in the middle of the night, leaving Wakefield facing a mountain of debt and looming bankruptcy.

While Sloan does not understand white collar crime and prefers a straightforward burglary, he knows embezzlement is illegal and begins to delve into bank statements and to interview the accountants. A day after Forres absconded, despite the stress, Wakefield focused on printing and binding the Earl of Ornum’s latest book in time to deliver copies for the launch party two days later. The books were produced and a sample was delivered by the firm’s apprentice Lenny Datchet to Ornum House, where the earl’s outrageously flirtatious twin daughters demanded rides on Lenny’s motorbike. In return, they invited Lenny to the launch party.

The morning after the party Lenny was found dead in one of the guest rooms in Ornum House, expanding the scope of the Forres and Wakefield investigation. The attempted murder of another of the peripheral players further confuses everyone.

Sloan is practical and focused as always here and navigates between the unhelpful Leeyes and the clumsy Crosby to a successful conclusion. The solution is innovative and the motive unexpected. The pieces mostly fall together nicely once Sloan sorts them out, although I found a couple of plot questions unanswered.

A pleasant traditional mystery of which I find far too few of these days. I would like to think that another three or four books in the series are lurking in Aird’s papers somewhere but I suspect we would have heard about them by now. So I will have to content myself with re-visiting the earlier adventures of Sloan and his colleagues in Calleshire County occasionally.

Followers of the series will not want to miss this one. Readers new to Catherine Aird should start with an earlier title.

 

·         Publisher: ‎Allison & Busby

·         Publication date: ‎June 22, 2023

·         Language: ‎English

·         Print length: ‎320 pages

·         ISBN-10: ‎0749030755

·         ISBN-13: ‎978-0749030759

 

 

Amazon Associate Purchase Link:  https://amzn.to/43jvxnh

 

 

Aubrey Nye Hamilton ©2025

Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal It projects by day and reads mysteries at night.

Review: The Dentist: A DS George Cross Mystery by Tim Sullivan

  

As next Tuesday already has a publication day review scheduled, I am posting my review today. If you preorder now or pick it up later, make sure you get the new publication as the previous published one with a totally different cover that includes the word “thriller” is widely available.

 

Detective Sergeant George Cross is a man who is very much set in his ways. For very good reason. He is on the autism spectrum with Asperger’s syndrome. He has a very hard time picking up on social cues and interacting with people. He does not recognize emotions and has to go through a sort of mental catalog to figure out the emotion a person is displaying on their face. He comes off as cold and dispassionate as he zero sense of humor and takes nearly everything literally. He gets hyper focused on the minutia of a case. In so doing, he looks for patterns and anomalies. If you need somebody to find the needle in the haystack, he would be your man. He is an exceptional investigator though he drives everyone around him a bit mad at times.

 

As The Dentist: A DS George Cross Mystery by Tim Sullivan begins, he is at the outdoor location of a deceased elderly male. The man was clearly homeless in recent months and, quite possibly, years. The Uniformed Officers that responded to the scene have already deduced that this is just another random “homeless on homeless” crime and have lost all interest. DS George Cross is very sure they are wrong as the man still has his bag containing some food and alcohol. The alcohol is worth more than its weight in gold on the streets and one would think a homeless killer would have taken that.

 

No, something else is afoot. For DS George Cross the deceased also represents a fellow outsider like himself. He knows he does not fit in and has to work to maintain any sort of human contact with the team and others. He also is acutely aware of how he is and how he has been this way back to childhood. He also is very aware that he can’t change any aspect of who he is as that is the very fiber of his being. Truth be told, he doesn’t care. He just does what he does. Because of that, he is an exceptionally good investigator in the Major Crime Unit of the Avon and Somerset police.

 

Because he is what he is, he is obsessed with rules and procedure. Everything is triple checked, if not more, and fully documented. He builds meticulous cases that prosecutors relish as they know that no corners were cut and everything is perfect going into trial. He may have little to no sense of humor and takes everything literally, but he also has a conviction rate of 97 percent.

 

DS Cross is absolutely certain that it is a murder. He is also sure that it is not a case of street violence among the homeless. A man that, as Cross spots in the mortuary, was married and a widower. Not only that, but Cross also spots that the murder victim still has his contacts in his eyes. After the pathologist that missed them uses tweezers and gets them out, Cross notes that they are a little bit larger than normal size. A specialized set of lenses that are used to treat a very specific and rare eye condition. That information could be used to track down his identity. Another example, in his mind, that if other folks would just do their jobs properly, he would not waste so much time having to go back over their work.   

 

That attention to detail and knowledge beyond the job soon leads the police to his identity. They also soon have an obvious suspect, another homeless person, who clearly had a physical fight of some kind with the victim in the last few hours before the murder. The suspect was too drunk and has no memory of what happened. But, charging him, based on the evidence, would be easy and it would resolve the case successfully as the suspect probably did it in the mind of his boss and others.

 

When ordered to charge the suspect, Cross refuses, and the task falls to his partner, DS Josie Ottey. Cross also chooses to continue to investigate as he believes the suspect in their cells absolutely did not do it. He believes somebody else violently murdered the man as he was strangled so hard his trachea was broken.

 

With the victim identified, it doesn’t take Cross long to consider the fact that the death in the here and now might have something to do with the murder of the man’s wife fifteen years ago. A murder that was a media sensation. Dubbed the “Tea Set Murder,” it saw a man who confessed, later recanted, and was ultimately convicted, sent to prison.

 

It also was a case, apparently as Cross begins to review it, one that had issues. Was it just cutting corners and sloppy police work, or was there an actual police coverup? Was the actual killer then never identified and thus remained free? Is it that killer again in the here and now or what? Over the objections of his boss and others, Cross continues to work to link the two cases, and drags Ottey and Mackenzie along with him.  

 

Originally published by Pacific Press in Great Britain in 2020, this police procedural now published in the United States by Grove Atlantic is very good. For those of us who have family members on the spectrum and/or worked for a number of years with students on the spectrum in the local public school system, the first few chapters of constant explanation of how DS Cross is and why can be a bit tiresome. However, if one gets through those several early chapters and stays with it, the patience is rewarded with a very good read as the case develops.

 

The Dentist: A DS George Cross Mystery is a very good read. Built around a main character that is pretty much brilliant and eccentric, the author has assembled an interesting cast of secondary characters. Whether that be the boss, DCI Carson, who is not an idiot though he is a political animal and looking to move up, DS Josie Ottey, who tries to get him to be better with others and is often exasperated by that and other things, the new Police Staff Investigator, Alice Mackenzie, a trainee who soon learns to do only what she is explicitly told to do, and others. Each character, regardless of their importance in the read, is quite distinctive as the read becomes more and more complex and pulls the reader deep into an intriguing fictional world.

 

Strongly recommended and very much worth your time.

 

Once again, I am indebted to Lesa Holstine who reviewed this book very positively back in July. She noted that the book was listed on NetGalley. So, I went and picked it up. I also requested and was quickly granted permission to read, The Cyclist, which is the second book in the series and will be released by Grove Atlantic in January. Hopefully, they plan on doing the entire series.

 

Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/3VnwxCq

 

 

I received a digital ARC from the publisher, Grove Atlantic, through NetGalley, with no expectation of a positive review.  

 

 

Kevin R. Tipple ©2025

In Reference To Murder: Friday's "Forgotten" Books - Lonelyheart

 In Reference To Murder: Friday's "Forgotten" Books - Lonelyheart

Aubrey Nye Hamilton Reviews: The Art of a Lie by Laura Shepherd-Robinson

 

Historical novelist Laura Shepherd-Robinson wanders into thriller territory with her newest book The Art of a Lie, to be released on 5 August 2025 by Atria Books. Newly widowed Hannah Cole is beset from all sides: her Piccadilly confectionery business Punchbowl and Pineapple is foundering because women in business are socially unacceptable, her suppliers are overcharging her, the shop assistants are acting up. Along comes William Deveraux, a stranger to Hannah but who says he was friends with her late husband Jonas Cole and wants to be of assistance to his widow.

Hannah is grateful for any help he offers. When William suggests that an Italian delicacy called iced cream would draw crowds to her shop and revitalize its reputation, she immediately refines the old recipe he found and advertises the new treat, which is a rousing success.

Hannah’s cousin, the executor of Cole’s estate, finds a large sum of money in Cole’s bank accounts that cannot be explained. Sir Henry Fielding, author turned magistrate, is trying hard to promote the desirability of a publicly funded police force, which so far no one wants. Fielding attaches the estate while he investigates Cole’s business dealings more thoroughly, freezing probate and settlement. If the money could be proven to be illicitly acquired, then Fielding can seize it to fund his police force. Cole was found in the river, an apparent victim of a street robbery, but Fielding learns enough about his shady business dealings to suspect deliberate murder and decides to look more closely, asking questions of the late Cole’s associates and relatives, including Hannah, that they would rather not answer.

In the meantime Deveraux is growing particular in his attentions to Hannah, despite her mourning status, causing considerable gossip. She is busy experimenting with new flavors of iced cream while ordering more cream and ice every day; she cannot keep the frozen dessert in stock and the elite of the ton are dashing to her store.

Set in 1749 during the reign of George II, readers familiar with the St. Cyr Regency mysteries written by C. S. Harris which begin in 1811 will still recognize many of the people, places, and conventions. Like Harris, Shepherd-Robinson’s deep scholarly research is dauntingly impressive but never interferes with the unfolding of the story. The annotated bibliography at the end offers more sources for the academically minded to pursue.

Hannah is a force of nature in a time when women were not allowed to be anything except servants, figuratively and literally. Her strength of character and raw intelligence keep her one step ahead of everyone else and allows her to deceive her ill-wishers and surprise the reader again and again.

A fascinating read. It will be on my best of 2025 list.

Starred review from Library Journal.

·         Publisher: ‎Atria Books

·         Publication date: ‎August 5, 2025

·         Language: ‎English

·         Print length: ‎304 pages

·         ISBN-10: ‎1668083094

·         ISBN-13: ‎978-1668083093

 

 

Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/46DIRFk

 

Aubrey Nye Hamilton ©2025

Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal It projects by day and reads mysteries at night.

Aubrey Nye Hamilton Reviews: A Murder for Miss Hortense: A Mystery by Mel Penner

A Murder for Miss Hortense by Mel Penner (Pantheon, June 2025) is the first mystery in what apparently will be a series that features Jamaican immigrant Miss Hortense. Penner is an award-winning playwright who was born in London, where she was raised by an extended family which included her Jamaican grandparents who moved to England in the 1950s as part of the Windrush generation. The Windrush generation refers to individuals who migrated to the UK from Caribbean countries between 1948 and 1971, invited by the Commonwealth to help rebuild Britain after World War II. It’s clear that much of the story’s authenticity comes from her grandparents’ immigrant experience.

The story starts a few days after the death of Constance Brown, a social antagonist of Miss Hortense. A dead man is found in her house weeks later, a stranger in the close-knit Jamaican community of Bigglesworth. Flashbacks slowly reveal the history of the community, how they collectively defended themselves against the long-term residents who resented the immigrants. One very sore point was banking, as traditional banks denied them access to services. Miss Hortense took the lead in establishing the Pardner, a group of eight members who contributed £5 each week to a communal fund, and one member took the collected money each week. Thus, every 8 weeks each member received £40 or £240 in a year. In 1965 it had the buying power of nearly $5500 in 2025.

Another function of The Pardner was to investigate crimes against their community, as the British police refused to take them seriously. Miss Hortense proved herself an able detective but during the course of one investigation, a member of the Jamaican community died. Miss Hortense was held responsible and was removed from the Pardner. Constance took her place, as she had been anxious to do.

Despite her semi-ostracization Miss Hortense continued to live in the house she saved her Pardner money to buy and to work as a nurse in a suburb of Birmingham until she retired. Upon the death of Constance and the discovery of the body in Constance’s house, Miss Hortense is pulled back into an earlier Pardner investigation because the community knows they need her more than ever.

The dialog in this book is entirely Jamaican dialect. I had a hard time understanding it in places, others I gathered the meaning from the context. The story line moves back and forth from the early 1960s to the late 1990s, disrupting the flow. The concept is original and interesting but it was a slow read.

Similar to Kia Abdullah’s thrillers which describe the treatment of Middle Eastern immigrants in England.

·         Publisher: ‎Pantheon

·         Publication date: ‎June 10, 2025

·         Language: ‎English

·         Print length: ‎352 pages

·         ISBN-10: ‎0593701623

·         ISBN-13: ‎978-0593701621

 

Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/3TMXzlL

 

Aubrey Nye Hamilton ©2025

 

Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal It projects by day and reads mysteries at night.

The Rap Sheet: Tip-offs and Trifles

 The Rap Sheet:  Tip-offs and Trifles

Paula Messina Reviews: The Finisher by Peter Lovesey

  

Please welcome back Paula Messina to the blog today…

 

 

 

The Finisher

by Paula Messina

 

In The Finisher, the nineteenth installment in the Peter Diamond Investigation series, Peter Lovesey weaves sexual depravity, human trafficking, and a half marathon into an entertaining mystery that keeps the reader guessing until the end.

Lovesey fills his story with a cornucopia of characters. First, there’s Diamond himself, a likable if irritable character with a penchant for making and finding trouble. Among the suspects: Maeve Kelly, who is not an athlete, or so her mother insists. When Maeve accidentally destroys a valuable Toby jug marked for donation to the British Heart Foundation, she feels obligated to train for the Other Half, Bath’s annual half marathon. To her surprise, she has no trouble finding generous sponsors for BHF. Maeve cannot back out. She has to finish the race, so she starts training. Her fellow teacher, the athletic Trevor, provides Maeve with advice, advice she is glad to do without. While running, Maeve hears cries for help and comes to the aid of Olga, a Russian who was beaten and robbed. This chance encounter blossoms into a close friendship.

Meanwhile, Albanians Spiro and Murat are on the run after they escape the Finisher, the enforcer of human trafficking victims. Spiro and Murat will pay with their lives if the Finisher finds them. The Finisher has already killed and won’t hesitate to do it again. The day of the race, Spiro believes there is safety in the Other Half crowds. He quickly realizes that was wishful thinking.

Spiro isn’t the only one who encounters danger at the half marathon. Twelve years before, Diamond helped put sexual predator Tony Pinto behind bars for viciously attacking a woman. When he spots Pinto in the pack of runners, Diamond realizes the long stretch up the river didn’t cured Pinto’s predilections. Pinto is up to his old tricks harassing runner Belinda Pye. When Belinda goes missing, Diamond is convinced Pinto killed her and organizes a search for her body. Diamond’s instincts are on the money. A body is discovered in one of Bath’s many abandoned quarries.

Lovesey is great at surprising his reader. Just when the reader thinks he knows where the story is going, Lovesey pulls the old switcheroo and yanks the reader in an unexpected direction. He also employs subtle humor throughout. Lovesey is no slouch in the breathless prose department. For example, here’s the novel’s opening:

“The city of Bath isn’t all about Roman plumbing and Georgian architecture.

“It offers unrivaled facilities for getting rid of unwanted corpses. Beneath the cream, sun-kissed squares, crescents and terraces is a rat-infested underworld undreamed of by most visitors, a dark, dank warren of cellars, vaults, culverts, sewers and drains.”

It’s easy to imagine the inestimable Charles Dickens giving Lovesey a thumbs up.

Bath is as much as character as Diamond and the rest of the cast. Maeve’s training takes the reader on the ups and downs of Bath’s terrain. Diamond’s search for Belinda descends into Bath’s abandoned stone quarries.

The cover of The Finisher, which was published in 2020, notes “fifty years of Peter Lovesey mysteries.” The author blurb says he wrote “forty highly praised mystery novels.” The number of books now is closer to fifty. The masterful, wry Lovesey, who received numerous awards and recognition, including being named Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America, died this past April, but Peter Diamond lives. As do nearly fifty more novels for readers to savor. 

Amazon Associate Purchase Link:  https://amzn.to/4mFezaK 

 

Paula Messina ©2025

Paula Messina is a native New Englander who writes contemporary, historical, and humorous fiction as well as essays. Her work has appeared in such publications as Black Cat Weekly, Devil’s Snare, Wolfsbane, Ovunque Siamo, and THEMA. She does not own a cat.

The Rap Sheet: The Last Laurels in Bristol

 The Rap Sheet: The Last Laurels in Bristol

FFB Review-- Aubrey Nye Hamilton Reviews: The Coffin Trail by Martin Edwards

 

From the archive…. 

The Coffin Trail by Martin Edwards (Poisoned Pen Press, October 2004) is the first book in the author’s Lake District mystery series, which now has seven titles. He has also written eight mysteries featuring lawyer Harry Devlin. Edwards is perhaps better known as a crime fiction critic and anthologist, which is unfortunate, because his mysteries are fine reads.

Daniel Kind, an Oxford historian, visits a childhood vacation spot in England’s scenic Lake District with his new lover Miranda, where they impulsively buy a run-down home and decide to leave their urban lives to start over. Part of his interest in the village is in clearing the name of a local youth he’d been friends with during the long-ago holiday and who since then had been unofficially blamed for the gruesome murder of a tourist. About the same time DCI Hannah Scarlett of the local police force is assigned to clear up a number of cold cases, including this one. DCI Scarlett carries out her official investigation in parallel with Kind’s informal questioning of the long-time residents, both of which upset a lot of people for different reasons. They each gather essential clues that eventually they jointly assemble into a resolution that has a further twist at the very end.

Kind serves as tour guide to Miranda, in between wrangling with the local contractors they have hired to renovate the house, which allows the story to showcase the geographical features of the Lake District.  Setting is sometimes referred to as an additional character in a story; in this one the rich descriptions of the region’s hills and landmarks nearly elbow everyone else off the page.

This book was nominated for the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival’s prize for best British crime novel of 2006.

 

• Series: Lake District Mysteries
• Hardcover: 312 pages
• Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press; First Edition (October 1, 2004)
• ISBN-10: 1590581296
• ISBN-13: 978-1590581292

 

 

Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/3GYdbzS 

 

Aubrey Hamilton © 2017, 2025

Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal IT projects by day and reads mysteries at night.

Bookblog of the Bristol Library: The Messy Lives of Book People by Phaedra Patrick

Bookblog of the Bristol Library: The Messy Lives of Book People by Phaedra Patrick:   Reviewed by Jeanne Olivia Green is a married mother of two who works three jobs as a cleaner. Her husband Jake works at his family’s s...

Lesa's Book Critiques: Winners and Off to Europe Giveaway

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The Rap Sheet: Abell’s Sophomore Stumbles by Peter Handel

 The Rap Sheet: Abell’s Sophomore Stumbles by Peter Handel

Bitter Tea and Mystery: Dark Fire: C.J. Sansom

Bitter Tea and Mystery: Dark Fire: C.J. Sansom: Description from the back of my book: In 1540 Henry VIII has been on the throne for thirty-one years. Lawyer Matthew Shardlake has been call...

Lesa's Book Critiques: HOPE TO DIE BY CARA HUNTER

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Bookblog of the Bristol Library: The Fatal Folio by Elizabeth Penney

Bookblog of the Bristol Library: The Fatal Folio by Elizabeth Penney:   Reviewed by Jeanne American Molly Kimball loves living in Cambridge, England.   She helps manage the family bookstore, the centuries o...