The Cipher Garden A Lake District Mystery by
Martin Edwards
pbk out August 06
(Allison Busby)
at £6.99
This is the second in Martin Edward's Lake District mysteries, a departure
from his well-known Harry Devlin books based in Liverpool.
The same running characters are there, Daniel Kind who is still seeking to
understand his late father, a senior detective who ran off with a younger
woman. His link is DCI Hannah Scarlet, who worked with Kind senior.
Both of them have steady partners, but each secretly fancies the other.
Hannah is in charge of 'cold case' investigation in Cumbria and this one
concerns an old murder, of a gardener Warren Howes, who was brutally
hacked about with his own scythe some year earlier. There is no lack of
potential suspects in a rural area where almost everyone seems to have
been having affairs with everyone else. Warren, a lecherous reprobate,
has left a wife, son and daughter, all of whom are in the frame as possible
perpetrators.
It would be pointless in trying to summarise the complicated plot, but this
is a classic whodunnit written in the impeccable style we now expect
from Martin Edwards. My only reservation, being a firm Harry Devlin
fan, is that too many characters are dumped on the reader too quickly.
I've noticed this trend with other authors recently, abandoning the old
convention that the optimum is half a dozen folk. As my mother used to
say, the book 'was hard to get into', as one kept turning the pages back,
muttering 'Who the hell is Bill Bloggs?'
Still, I'm no good at Sudoki either, and I'm sure than many thousands of
Martin's fans will be more than happy with this latest offering.
(
Bernard Knight
ex Home Office Pathologist and author of the highly acclaimed Crowner John series)
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The Cipher Garden A Lake District Mystery by
Martin Edwards
