In theory I should love this series of books by Martin Edwards: they are set in the glorious Lake District, the principle recurring male character is a historian, Daniel Kind, and the series is much about the relationship between him and DCI Hannah Scarlett, one of his late father's female Police colleagues, as it is about crime. I have no particular interest in murder or probing the darker side of humanity, instead I generally turn to crime novels for their setting and because of an interest in the continuing life story of the investigators. Yet despite seemingly ticking so many boxes, and despite the fact I like these books, liking is as far as I get.Another element of crime fiction that I enjoy is not knowing "whodunnit", and hence being presented with a problem to try and solve. Perhaps one of the problems I had with this book is that until fairly late on there does not appear to be a mystery because we seem to have been clearly told who the guilty party was. However, there is actually a quite pleasing twist in that regard, so not even the apparent lack of mystery can account for my lack of burning enthusiasm.I suspect that what lets the book down a little is that some of the characters are more like Midsomer Murders style caricatures of English-types than the sort of fully-formed individuals one gets in the crime novels of, say, Susan Hill or Ian Rankin. Plus, both in this book and at least one of its series predecessors, there is an occasional air of seediness arising not from the criminal misdemeanours it recounts but from the rabbit-like proclivities of so many of the cast. Too much of that kind of thing can leave a book looking like little more than an airport novel.
I am so enjoying this series. Just what the doctor ordered for after digging out after the latest snow storm (NJ). This time, Hannah is trying to solve a 10 year old missing persons case but ultimately ends up with more bodies than missing persons! I did not enjoy this installment as much as the others - it seemed to take forever to solve the mystery and then it was all over in a snap and felt a little rushed. Some series loose ends are tied up a bit and as usual there is interesting history a la John Ruskin and the requisite small-town gentry-wannabe.
Do You like book The Arsenic Labyrinth (2007)?
It's a very English detective story - not only because of the setting but because the approach is decidedly un-sensational and restrained. Eschewing many of the tricks of surprise and mystification that writers of this genre usually hope for, Martin Edwards puts the reader ahead of the detectives for the whole first half of the book in knowing 'who did it'. Nor can it be said that any of the characters are in the mould of extreme aberrations that some writers throw at us for the sake of sensation. The heroes and villains are quite straightforward personalities - there's a little eccentricity but no more than we might encounter in real life. Despite this The Arsenic Labyrinth is a compelling if unchallenging read, well constructed, likable characters with a human face and a ramp-up of the action in the second half of the story that keeps the narrative from flagging. Good holiday or bedtime reading, it's the second in a series and I'd recommend starting with the first called 'The Coffin Trail'.
—Jack Chapman
