Category Archives: Martin Edwards

Review: The Hanging Wood by Martin Edwards

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The fifth instalment of Martin Edwards Lake District series sees historian Daniel Kind direct a case towards Hannah Scarlett’s cold case review team. In preparation for his next book Daniel is undertaking some research at a residential library…

…we’ll break here for a short interlude so that all you book lovers can daydream/swoon about the idea of a residential library for a few moments…

…One of the people working at the aforementioned library is a woman called Orla Payne who is obsessed with the unexplained disappearance of her brother Callum 20 years earlier, when he was a teenager. Their Uncle Phillip was interviewed regarding Callum’s disappearance but before any formal charges could be laid Phillip’s body was found in the Hanging Wood. Everyone in the community assumed it was a suicide and took this as evidence of Phillip’s guilt in Callum’s disappearance and probable death, although the boy’s body was never found. All these years later Orla tells Daniel she believes Callum to still be alive though her reasons for thinking this way are unclear, clouded by her alcohol induced fog. Unsuccessful in her attempts to make Hannah Scarlett reopen the case Orla then dies in grim circumstances herself, an event which does prompt a somewhat reluctant review of the case of Callum’s disappearance.

One of Edwards’ strengths as a writer is his ability to quickly draw the reader in to the worlds he creates, making you feel as if you are part of the things and observing the shenanigans from a close vantage point. He achieves this through thoughtful character depictions and just the right amount of detail about the local environment, events and people. Each time I return to Martin Edwards’ Lake District (this is my fourth visit) I feel like I’m coming back to a place I know (helped along in this instance by the inclusion of a small map which I very much appreciated and would like to see more of).

Another of the enjoyable features of this series is that there’s a nice balance between old and new characters. Of course there are the two long-running series protagonists in DCI Hannah Scarlett and historian Daniel Kind but there are always lots of new characters to meet in depth for each new story. Most of the players in this particular drama belong to one of two prominent families in the area and the reader is soon gripped by their various connections and shared histories. Because Hannah and Daniel don’t have to carry the entire narrative Edwards has been able to tease out their personalities and foibles over time. Even here, five books into the series, we learn new things about each one which is a boon for fans of the series (for those wondering about the hint of romance between the two glimpsed in previous novels you’ll have to read for yourselves to find out if there is any progress).

The story here is first rate too, both intriguing and credible. It relies on a careful unravelling of the layers of small (and not-so-small) deceits that the characters have told about themselves (or to themselves) over time. Of course all the characters have engaged in this behaviour, not just the criminally inclined, because it’s natural for humans to re-invent themselves via the stories and events from their pasts that they choose to share in their present. Sometimes it’s nothing more than cutting out the boring bits of one’s life story and sometimes it’s a little more sinister but we all do it and Edwards has depicted it very intelligently and believably here. There were several points at which I had that smug ‘oh I’ve worked this bit out’ feeling only to realise it was a minor tangent to the main story or, worse, to have an unpredicted twist foil my puzzle solving attempts.

Some crime fiction always feels like fiction but with The Hanging Wood I wouldn’t have taken much convincing this was a true story unfolding. There’s not a single thing that couldn’t easily happen in the real world, from Orla’s grim death (my parents used to scare us with stories of just such a death when we visited our farming relatives each summer) to the events which were ultimately uncovered in connection with Callum’s disappearance. The Hanging Wood maintains the high standard of its predecessors in offering a classy, thoughtful and engaging story that is clearly a cut above the average in the crowded space of British police procedurals.

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

The Hanging Wood was released in the US on April 6 2011 and is due for release in the UK in early July 2011.

The Hanging Wood has been reviewed at DJ’s Krimiblog

I have reviewed two earlier books in this series The Coffin Trail (#1) and The Arsenic Labyrinth (#3)

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My rating 4/5
Author website http://www.martinedwardsbooks.com/
Publisher Poisoned Pen Press [2011]
ISBN 9781590588529 (hardcover)
Length 266 pages
Format electronic galley
Book Series #5 in the Lake District series
Source From the publisher via Net Galley for review

The dog ate my reviews

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I have been reading more than reviewing lately, though in some cases not for want of trying.

I listened to Martin Edwards’ The Serpent Pool narrated by the always marvellous Gordon Griffin and enjoyed it very much (4 out of 5 stars). The 4th of the Lake District series it sees DCI Hannah Scarlett investigating the drowning of a young women called Bethany Friend. Originally the case was closed as a suicide but Hannah’s mentor, Ben Kind, was never quite sure and the girl’s mother, now dying herself, is absolutely sure her daughter did not kill herself. There are also current murders that may have some connection to the earlier death. And for light relief there’s the romantic triangle of Hannah, her boyfriend Marc and Daniel Kind who is the son of her now deceased mentor and a historian who has helped out on previous cases.  I am very much looking forward to book number 5 in this series which is due to be published in April (*woot* it is currently awaiting me on my eReader).  The reason the book will remain forever un-reviewed is that the flash drive which contained my nearly-finished review has spontaneously ceased to function. It is now nearly 2 weeks since I finished listening to the book and I have learned that I must review straight away if I am to make any sense of things. But do not fear, there is an excellent review of this excellent book at the excellent website Euro Crime (courtesy of Maxine of Petrona fame).

The next non-review is of a book called Leeches by David Albahari. I feel very guilty about this one because I asked for it as a review book via Net Galley and I’m also annoyed with myself because I was going to count it for the Eastern European Reading Challenge. My problem is I’m half way through the book and have absolutely no idea what’s going on. We’re in Belgrade in the 1990′s and a journalist (never named) (I don’t think) sees a man slap a woman and he tries to run after her (no idea why) but he loses her then he sees some triangles which he thinks are a symbol (of what I’ve no clue) then he smokes some dope then he talks to a painter then….I really don’t know. I think I was standing in an entirely different queue (the one for ‘eats too much of the wrong things’) when the genes for comprehending surrealism were handed out. My brain feels like it’s starting to shake inside my skull when I try to come to grips with this kind of fantastical writing. I wish it wasn’t the case but, so far anyway, wishing hasn’t made it so. Again though there’s a really great review of someone far cleverer than me so go visit Ted at BookeyWookey.

In case you missed it I did review a great Australian novel called Line of Sight by David Whish-Wilson but decided to post it only at Fair Dinkum Crime (a new blog focusing on Australian crime fiction only that a friend of mine and I have started). I’m still pondering whether or not to post reviews of Aussie crime fiction at both blogs but, in this case anyway, I decided to give the fledgling blog an exclusive (I do urge you to check out the review, it’s another terrific 4 star rated book, a fictionalised account of a real 1975 murder in Western Australia that highlights police corruption and abuse of power in some very unsettling ways).

I’ve still got three more reviews to catch up on to bring me up to date but I have hope I’ll actually manage to get those written by the end of the month. Otherwise I really will be blaming the dog.

Review: Waterloo Sunset by Martin Edwards

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“In Memory. Harry Devlin. Died Suddenly, Liverpool. Midsummer’s Eve”

Six days before Midsummer’s Eve an announcement containing these words is hand delivered to the office of very much alive lawyer Harry Devlin. Harry’s partner in the legal practice thinks it’s a bit of a joke but Harry is not so sure and tries to work out who might have sent the announcement and what their intent might be. As Harry deals with a series of subsequent unsettling reminders of his possible upcoming death, he also becomes perturbed by a case in which first one body of a young woman then another is found mutilated. Don’t let that put you off though because this is not a book about graphic mutilations and psychopathic serial killers. It’s about ordinary, everyday people and their reactions to the sometimes extraordinary things that happen around them.

Among the many fine qualities displayed in Waterloo Sunset my favourite is the underlying sense of humour. Harry is a witty, satirical character whose reaction to such things as the pronouncements by management consultants about how he should maximise his business potential and the efforts by authorities to turn Liverpool into the City of Culture are priceless. But Harry’s partner describes him as “setting a gold standard in attracting trouble” so the humour is matched by action in the novel as Harry’s personal and professional lives become increasingly complicated. For openers an old lover (who is the ex-wife of one of the city’s most prominent gangsters) resurfaces while he attempts to connect with a new love interest, a client accuses him of conspiring to cover up the killing of his mother and at one point he is suspected of involvement in a murder.

Another thing that struck me about this book was the authentic feel of the character’s behaviour throughout the novel. Whether it was the man flinging accusations about the cover up of his mother’s murder at a nursing home, Harry’s partner’s response to Harry receiving the death notice or their building security man’s reaction to Harry discovering him in a compromising position they were all very believable characters behaving in ways that suited the picture Edwards had drawn of them. You generally expect the main characters to be handled properly in a novel like this but it’s pleasing to see the minor ones being deftly drawn too.

This book has a complicated plot which in a lesser writer’s hands might have devolved into chaos but Edwards keeps track of all the threads, red herrings and side-tracks with aplomb. Towards the end as one of the main threads is resolved I had all but forgotten about the Midsummer’s Eve announcement but fortunately Edwards had not and treated us to a humdinger of a climax. I had not read any of the previous seven novels in this series but did not feel at any disadvantage in terms of understanding the story and was easily drawn into Harry’s world and the city of Liverpool.

What about the audio book?

There’s no doubt that part of the attraction for me of Martin Edwards’ books in audio format (I have another one lined up already on my iPod) is that they’re narrated by Gordon Griffin who is an outstanding actor and storyteller (he has also narrated the two Ann Cleeves novels I’ve listened to).

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

Waterloo Sunset has also been reviewed at Crimetime UK, DJ’s Krimiblog, Euro Crime and Mysterious Reviews

I have read and reviewed two of Edwards’ Lake District series: The Coffin Trail and The Arsinic Labyrinth as well as his brilliant fictionalised account of Hawley Crippen’s murder of his wife in Dancing for the Hangman.

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My rating 3.5/5
Author website http://www.martinedwardsbooks.com/
Narrator Gordon Griffin
Publisher ISIS Audio Books [2008]
ISBN N/A (downloaded from audible.com)
Length 10 hours 46 minutes
Format audio (mp3)
Book Series Number 8 in the Harry Devlin series
Source I bought it

Books of the Month – October 2010

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That Was Then

I finished another 15 books during October (a couple of reviews still to come). Although I didn’t have any 5-star reads it was a high quality month with nothing rating below a 3. My pick of the month has to be Jo Nesbø’s The Redbreast, a novel I abandoned on my first reading last year but picked up again after you all told me to and fell in love with the book’s protagonist, Harry Hole.

There are a veritable treasure trove of honourable mentions which I simply cannot separate. They include trips to Scotland, Iceland, Ghana, America, England, 1850′s Australia and Japan.

New Additions

Since buying my eReader I have curtailed my acquisition of printed books quite dramatically (good for the trees) but have been busy stocking up eBooks and audio downloads (bad for the bank balance). Included among my new acquisitions are the latest Belinda Lawrence mystery, a Harry Bosch novel (Maxine made me give Connelly another go), a flash fiction anthology of stories that involve a mythical ‘Mega Mart’, the second novel in Karin Fossum’s Inspector Sejer series (yes I know I’m behind) and a historical work that blends fact with fiction in what promises to be an interesting fashion.

Challenge Progress

It’s a good thing I had a whole year to complete the Global Reading Challenge as it looks like it will take me that long to finish it. This month I read another two books to bring my total to 19 of 21. Both Villain and Wife of the Gods made it to my honourable mentions for the month.

My only other open challenge is the Canadian Book Challenge which requires me to read 13 books by July next year. I read four books that counted for this challenge in October bringing my total to 7.

Isn’t it marvellous that Canada produces enough entertaining female crime writers that I can have a smorgasboard of them without even trying? Well I am assuming Wolfe is female though of course as it’s a pseudonym I could be wrong.

Reading Now and Next

I’m keen to finish the global challenge now that I only have 2 books to go so have started Southwesterly Wind which is set in Brazil and I’ll probably read my wildcard historical fiction straight after that. Then it might be time for my second Elly Griffiths novel I think. I’ve just started a new audio book, C J Box’s Three Weeks to Say Goodbye, which I am already enjoying and have no plans for what will come after that in audio format.

Chart of the month

So far this year I have finished 129 books which seemed like a statistically significant enough number to look at where they all come from. As you can see I buy most of my books in one form or another. Wonder what this will look like next year? Will I have a giant chunk of pie for pirated eBooks ( and if I do how will I hide it to avoid going to prison)?

What about you? What was your favourite book for October? Or your most exciting acquisition? Or is there something coming up for you in November that you can’t wait to get to?

Review: The Arsenic Labyrinth by Martin Edwards

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In Coniston in England’s Lake District local newspaper journalist Tony di Venuto starts a campaign to re-open the investigation into the disappearance of a young woman, Emma Bestwick, ten years earlier. At the same time a man who knows what happened to her returns to the area and decides to tip off the journalist. This provides enough information for DCI Hannah Scarlett, head of the Cumbria’s Cold Case Review Team, to take another look at the case.

Perhaps it’s because the audio books happen to be narrated by the same person but this book reminded me of the Shetland novels by Ann Cleeves that I’ve read. They have the same wonderful sense of place and combination of solid procedural storyline with fascinating local colour and historical details. In this novel the procedural elements of the story are deftly handled as, without much in the way of forensic evidence, Hannah and her team rely on their interviewing skills and a little bit of luck as they talk to all the people who knew Emma prior to her disappearance. It becomes clear for example that Emma came into a sizable sum of money but she told her sister it was a lottery win and others the money was an inheritance so the squad have to determine the real source of the money and whether or not it had anything to do with the disappearance.

They must also delve into local history which includes a something of a feud between two families, the Cloughs and the Inchmores, which has had a significant impact on the area over time. It was an Inchmore who was responsible for the now abandoned arsenic mines that turn out to be such a crucial location for this story while what remains of the Clough family are now in charge of the quirky Museum of Myth and Legend which also proves instrumental to the plot.

Hannah once again meets up with Daniel Kind, a historian and the son of Hannah’s mentor when she first joined the police force. Daniel’s research into local historical figure John Ruskin eventually provides an important link to part of the investigation. Their obvious attraction to each other, despite being in relationships with other people, is handled interestingly because it’s not simply a case of leaping into each other’s pants because they fancy doing so. I also enjoyed the depiction of Guy, the man who knows what happened to Emma, who is a serial seducer of women for their money. He’s a nasty piece of work to be sure but a compelling character.

All in all The Arsenic Labyrinth is an above average example of the genre. It is well-paced, particularly in the second half, has several satisfyingly unexpected twists and Edwards has generated genuine interest in finding out all the villager’s hidden secrets even if they end up having little to do with the overall mystery. I’m also impressed that the book can be easily read and enjoyed without having read the previous books in the series (I have read the first book but not the second) (yet).

What about the audio book?

Gordon Griffin is fast becoming one of my favourite narrators (he has also narrated the two Ann Cleeves books I’ve listened to). His style and voice are well suited to the art of story telling and I can highly recommend this narration.

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

The Arsenic Labyrinth is the third book in Martin Edwards Lake District Mystery series and has also been reviewed at Euro Crime (by Karen) and Euro Crime (by Maxine) as well as at Mysteries in Paradise

You can read my review of the first book in this series, The Coffin Trail, or might be interested in Edwards’ foray into true(ish) crime Dancing for the Hangman.

Martin Edwards blogs about crime fiction and writing at Do You Write Under Your Own Name?

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My rating 4/5
Narrator Gordon Griffin
Publisher ISIS Audio Books [2007]
ISBN N/A (downloaded from audible.com)
Length 10 hours 26 minutes
Format mp3
Source I bought it

Review: Dancing for the Hangman by Martin Edwards

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When Martin Edwards blogged about receiving the newly published audio book version of his fact-based novel Dancing for the Hangman I did what I usually do when I hear about interesting new audio books: check audible. Not only was it available but it was even on sale to ‘people in my geographical location’ so I immediately coughed up a credit. This kind of fictionalised account of real events is not something I read a lot of but reviews of this book were excellent and I was very impressed with my first exposure to Edwards, via The Coffin Trail, earlier this year.

On the off-chance that I’m not the only person who’s never heard of Hawley Crippen before I’ll outline the basics. He was an American physician who was married to a woman called Cora who wanted a career as a singer. They lived in England together from the late 1890′s but had an unhappy marriage. Crippen began an affair with one of his employees, a woman called Ethel Le Neve, and several years later (1910) Cora disappeared from Crippen’s life suddenly. Cora’s friends were skeptical of Crippen’s explanation for Cora’s disappearance and eventually got the police to investigate. Hawley and Ethel fled the country following their first interview with police which raised suspicions and sent the police in hot pursuit. Crippen was captured, tried, convicted of murder and subsequently executed. The case was one of the first to achieve worldwide media attention and, in recent times, Crippen’s guilt has been disputed though not universally.

Dancing for the Hangman is a fictionalised account of Crippen’s life leading up to the events of 1910. Although it is fictional, Edwards has researched the case thoroughly and makes use of original source material such as court transcripts, personal letters and contemporary newspaper articles. It felt to me as if Edwards had laid out as many indisputable facts as he could using this material, then creatively filled in the gaps with what might have happened. The resulting ‘untrue crime’ had me thoroughly hooked from the very beginning to the highly plausible solution which Edwards provides to the question of whether or not Crippen was guilty.

The story is told in flashback by Crippen as he awaits his death in Pentonville prison. The doctor is portrayed as a complex character. At times I sympathised with his naivety and the rotten luck he had in securing himself an unsuitable wife (no one seems to dispute her penchant for other men) but at other points he’s quite delusional and, as he also spent much of his working life as little more than a quack, not entirely trustworthy. Since finishing the book I was curious enough to do a modicum of my own ‘research’ (i.e. googling) and see that a lot of the people who dispute Crippen’s guilt seem to do so based on their assumption that a short, quiet man who could be very kind would never commit murder. However Edwards does a superb job of showing us how just such a man might have grown into a murderer. It always seems to me that in real life most domestic murders happen for exactly the kind of mundane reasons proposed in this book. Of course Edwards might have gotten it completely wrong but I wouldn’t let that deter you because, either way, the book is genuinely intriguing.

Perhaps I was lucky that I came to this book with completely fresh eyes (or ears if we’re being pedantic) but I imagine that even those who are more familiar with the case would be as entertained as I was by this superbly written tale. It is both impressive and slightly troubling to see just how well Martin Edwards has crawled inside the head of such a character to show the world from Hawley Crippen’s point of view. If you’re a fan of audio books I can heartily recommend Jeff Harding’s evocative narration which added a final element of enjoyment for me.

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

My rating 4.5/5

Narrator: Jeff Harding; Publisher: Isis Audio Books [2010, original edition 2008]; ISBN: N/A (downloaded from audible.com); Length 11 hrs 26mins; Setting: US/England late 1800′s – 1910

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I’ve reviewed one of Martin Edwards many crime fiction novels, The Coffin Trail, and am looking forward to reading more by this versatile writer.

Review: The Coffin Trail by Martin Edwards

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Daniel Kind and his girlfriend Miranda take a holiday in England’s Lake District, in a place where Daniel had spent a holiday as a child, and impulsively decide to buy a house and move there. At the same time DCI Hannah Scarlett is appointed head of a new cold case unit for the area and one of the cases the team looks at is the decade-old murder of a young woman who was, at the time, thought to have been killed by an autistic young man who died before he could be charged with the crime. Daniel has a dual interest in the case, having known the young man when they were both young boys and also because his father was in charge of the original investigation.

I grabbed this book from Mt TBR as I left the house for a walk yesterday (because I always reward myself for walking with a coffee and some reading time and the other book I am reading now was too darned heavy to carry). Starting a new book while away from the house is always risky (what if it’s no good and I don’t have a backup book?) but I needn’t have feared. I was immediately drawn into the story so one coffee turned into two and then a third as I struggled to find a place I could stand to stop so I could walk home. The series of converging events at the beginning of the book that drew me into the story so completely is really a superb piece of craftsmanship. When I finally stopped reading it was a bit of a jolt to find myself in Adelaide on a hot summer afternoon with a slightly cranky waitress asking me if I wanted another coffee as I really had been swept off to the Lake District, having conjured up rich images of the physical surrounds depicted in the book as well as of the village’s suspects inhabitants.

The two main characters were likable but not perfectly so which is just what you want in your crime fighters really. I thought the way Daniel wanted to know more about the father who had left the family many years before was handled well as was his internal struggles with other events in his past. These made his amateur involvement in the investigation very believable. I liked the way Hannah made the best of what could have been a bad situation when she was assigned to head up the cold case unit and I will enjoy seeing more of her in future books. The suspect pool also contained some well-drawn characters and I was well and truly blaming an entirely different villager than the person who turned out to be the evil-doer.

The English police procedural is a very crowded space which makes it all the more remarkable that Martin Edwards has produced a new and interesting slant on the sub genre. He’s done so with a combination of intriguing characters, solid plot and a thoroughly captivating small village setting. The Coffin Trail is the 11th book I’ve read so far this year by a new-to-me author and is yet another of that group that has proven so good I’m already scouring the planet for the rest of  this author’s back catalogue.

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

My rating 4/5

Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press [2005]; ISBN: 1-59058-208-X; Length: 286 pages; Setting: England, present-day

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

The Coffin Trail has been reviewed at Euro Crime.

Martin Edwards blogs about writing, crime fiction and his mostly book-y related adventures from Do You Write Under Your Own Name?

There are three more books in the Lake District series including The Serpent Pool which has just been published this month plus 8 books in a different series featuring solicitor Harry Devlin and I’m clearly going to have to read all of those if for no other reason than all the titles in the series seem to be pop song titles and I’m a sucker for a book that somehow evokes a great song.