The First Cut is the Deepest is the seventh in Edwards' Harry Devlin series, and though it does contain some spoilers for earlier books in the series, there is nothing that will confuse you about its storyline. Devlin has gotten in up to his neck in a compulsive affair with a woman who happens to...
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...
Harry Devlin is at it again, when he's asked to help his client, Jack Stirrup find out the truth of his missing wife's whereabouts. Has she been murdered? And if so, is Jack Stirrup guilty? Harry is just beginning to unravel the details when Stirrup's only daughter turns up missing as well. And t...
Book 2. from the Lake District series, where we again meet DCI Hannah Scarlett who heads up a team investigating cold cases and Daniel Kind, a historian who has given up his job in Oxford University, to live a quite, idyllic life in an area of the Lake District where his father lived and worked a...
What is meant as a fresh start in the English Lakes District begins to reek of buried secrets....Oxford historian and TV personality Daniel Kind and his new lover, Miranda, both want to escape to a new life. On impulse they buy Tarn Cottage in Brackdale, an idyllic valley in the Lake District tha...
In the depths of winter, when the fields were silent, and the fells shrouded in snow, you felt you were in a world of your own. Especially at Tarn Cottage, with its mysterious garden snaking below the shadowy bulk of the Sacrifice Stone. Daniel’s home stood close to the coffin trail, where centur...
Even for a twenty-first century media tycoon, it was an outrageous lie. He was a frog-like fellow poured into an Bruce Oldfield suit, a prominent supporter of good causes who made a fortune from sado-masochistic porn, a caring father of five whose energetic flings with blonde weather forecasters ...
‘Not as far as I’m aware,’ said Harry. ‘Miller is one of those characters who always seems to be ailing but the old bugger will probably outlive the lot of us.’ ‘His will is straightforward. I can let you have the engrossment before the end of the day if you want.’ ‘Thanks. I may want an excuse f...
He wasn’t in the mood for more confrontation, whether with clients, opposing solicitors or barristers’ clerks chasing payment of inflated fees, and at first he paid no attention, hoping the call would go away. No chance. Suzanne had seen him slink in and, irked by his failure to check on calls re...
Soon it became apparent that her relative was unlikely to live beyond the New Year, and we agreed that my wife should remain in Cornwall over Christmas. On an impulse, I wired Sherlock Holmes and invited him to join me in London for the festive season. My old friend was disinclined to desert his ...
“What do you mean?” “What I say.” The words were blurred and indistinct, as though they were all that remained after tears had been choked away. “Liz and I slept together. Yes, that shocks you, doesn’t it? Yet it’s true. I say “slept”, but we made love for a couple of hour...
Earlier books in the series are The Coffin Trail (short-listed for the Theakston’s prize for best British crime novel of 2006), The Cipher Garden, The Arsenic Labyrinth (short-listed for the Lakeland Book of the Year award), The Serpent Pool and The Hanging Wood. Martin has written eight novels a...
She wrote her first novel, The Viper of Milan, in her teens, and the need to earn money for her impoverished family caused her to become exceptionally productive. Eventually, she became so prolific that she found it necessary to adopt a string of (predominantly male) pseudonyms, including George ...
The sickly smell of incense hung in the air. The high priest was standing in front of the altar, his arm raised. As the flame flickered, Harry caught sight of a gleaming blade. ‘Blood is the sacred life-force in both man and beast,’ a disembodied voice intoned. ‘The rite o...
After Marc moved out of the house they shared, Hannah swore to herself that the break-up would be civilised. No ranting, no finger-pointing, no blame game. Even though the split was his fault. He’d cheated on her, but what made her determined to dump him wasn’t his betrayal – a symptom, not a cau...
In conversation with Maggie, Hannah played it down. The young DC’s enthusiasm was one of her virtues, but no sense in jumping to conclusions. Cumbria was a small world, albeit so diverse that anyone could be forgiven for forgetting. The local population was tiny, once you stripped out seasonal wo...
Traders’ raucous cries punctuated the hum of a hundred conversations, smells from the fishmonger’s wafted through the warm air, mixing with those of home-made preserves and pungent cheeses. Marooned in the pedestrianised area was Moot Hall, with its sturdy tower and one-handed clock. Over the yea...