It’s
the end of another hot day during a heatwave in the Lake District
when a fire breaks out on the moor. Fire fighters soon put
the blaze out, but one makes a grim discovery in an old derelict
hut – the charred bones of a child. Detective Chief
Inspector Jude Satterthwaite thinks it is merely a case of
arson and accidental death, but when the child is found to
have been killed, it becomes a murder enquiry. Oddly, though,
nobody seems to be keen to come forward to claim the child…
Anybody
who enjoys a good police procedural in a beautiful location
will want to read this series debut. Jude is a local man living
too near his former wife, and new to the force is the attractive
Detective Sergeant Ashleigh O'Halloran, who has her own history
of not being lucky in love. The pair and their team race to
discover the child’s identity and find out whodunit,
but not before more bodies appear. This is a tautly plotted,
exciting story that is not difficult to guess, but is the
sort of enjoyable tale that would translate very well to television.
It is a fairly straightforward, linear case, but this gives
readers the chance to get to know the characters, their histories,
and enjoy some good descriptions of the Lake District. I can
imagine that future books will be more complex, but it is
never a bad idea to get back to basics. Reading this book
reminded me of how much I like this type of thing. I’ll
be looking out for the sequel.
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