“The Swansea Marina Murders” by Stephen Puleston

Detective Inspector Caren Waits of the West Wales Police Service and her team are called to the marina in Swansea. The body of a young woman has been found floating in the marina docking area; the post-mortem will show she’d been brutally strangled. Her identity is quickly determined: a university student who also worked at a marina pub. The site of her murder takes a bit longer to discover, and the crime scene investigators find it. 

The victim shared a flat with three other students, and everything seemed normal on the surface. That is, until the investigators find five thousand pounds in cash stowed in her room, a connection to a former boyfriend who tended to the violent, and an affair with one of her professors who doesn’t seem to be as forthcoming as he should about his own background. Complicating the case is that the victim’s phone is missing and presumably tossed into the marina waters.

 

Then a second murder happens; a friend of the first victim is found with her head bashed by a winch from a yacht. In this case, the victim’s small rooms are found ransacked; someone was looking for something and apparently didn’t find it. Waits and her team discover that there’s a possible connection to a spate of burglaries aboard marina boats and residences; someone had very good information when yacht owners would be sailing and away from home, or out of town and away from their boats.

 

Stephen Puleston

The Swansea Marina Murders is the third in the DI Caren Waits series by Welsh writer Stephen Puleston. It is a classic police procedural story, accented by Waits having to deal with the settling of the estate of her dead husband, the discovery that he had another relationship and child, and trying to raise her own young son with an almost impossible work schedule (parent to the rescue!). 

 

Puleston publishes three series of Welsh police detective stories. Detective Inspector Ian Drake is with the North Wales Police Service, Detective Inspector John Marco is with the South Wales Police Service, and now Detective Inspector Caren Waits is with the West Wales Police Service. The author originally trained and practiced as a; solicitor/lawyer. He also attended the University of London. He lives in Wales, very close to where his fictional heroes live and work.

 

Puleston has been setting the keyboard keys afire. This third DI Caren Waits novel is the third published in 2025, and a fourth one was recently issued. A fifth one is set to be published next year. Like its two predecessors, The Swansea Marina Murders is very methodically told; the focus is on police procedure. All three have been entertaining reads, and I’m looking forward to reading the fourth, The Pembroke Castle Murders.

 

Related:

 

The Paxton’s Tower Murders by Stephen Puleston.

 

The Tenby Harbour Murders by Stephen Puleston.

 

My review of Written in Blood.

 

My review of A Time to Kill.

 

My review of Another Good Killing.

 

My review of Brass in Pocket.

 

My review of Worse than Dead.

 

My review of Against the Tide.

 

My review of Devil’s Kitchen.

 

My review of Dead Smart.

 

My review of Speechless.

 

My review of A Cold Dark Heart.

 

My review of A Cold Dark Heart.

 

My review of Dead and Gone by Stephen Puleston.

 

My review of Time to Die by Stephen Puleston.

 

My review of Stone Cold Dead by Stephen Puleston.

 

My review of Looking Good Dead by Stephen Puleston.

 

Some Monday Readings

 

When a House Is Not a Home – Matthew Walther at Commonplace.

 

Why we love Jane Austen more than ever after 250 years – Henry Oliver at The Common Reader.

 

“Amahl and the Night Visitors”: The Classic Christmas Opera – Michael De Sapio at The Imaginative Conservative.

Protected

After 2 Samuel 9:1-13 

Protected by his friend,

saved to avert his murder

at the hands of the king,

he shares a covenant,

house to house, a love

again demonstrated 

by the acknowledgement

of what had to happen.

The relationship was sealed

in promise and love, and

he showed that love and

he showed that faithfulness,

by protecting the son

of his friend, and more so,

by blessing the son

of his friend.

 

Photograph by Jed Owen via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Sunday Readings

 

Into the Unknown – Melissa Edgington at Your Mom Has a Blog.

 

Is Joy in Jess a Christian Obligation? – John Piper at Desiring God.

Saturday Good Reads - Dec. 13, 2025

The Nicene Creed is 1,700 years old this week. Dennis Sansom at Mere Orthodoxy explains how it came to be created, and why it’s still important. 

A local note: St. Louis Patina is a site dedicated to preserving local architecture – and sometimes preserving the memory of it. This week, the posts included Grace Episcopal Church in our suburb of Kirkwood, which a few local wags refer to as “St. Roofus.” It’s a large A-frame structure, built in 1961 when the congregation moved a few blocks east. The original building sits directly across the street from the Kirkwood Farmers Market.

 

In 2017, we visited Two Temple Place in London, built in the late 19^th century by William Waldorf Astor, an American who much preferred to live in London. It was open during September’s London Open House Festival, and it was an incredible place to visit. Recently, the Gentle Author at Spitalfields Life took a tour, and it’s decorated for Christmas. (If you visit London in September, you should take advantage of Open House, during which many of the city’s normally closed architectural treasures are open for tours.)

 

More Good Reads

 

America 250

 

The Continental Army’s Medical Crisis: Benjamin Rush’s Whistleblowing in 1778 – Haley Fuller at Military.com.

 

Facing Washington’s Crossing: The Hessians and the Battle of Trenton by Steven Bier – review by Sam Short at the Journal of the American Revolution.

 

The Battle of Great Bridge — Mark Maloy at Emerging Revolutionary War Era.

 

Lafayette and the Journey to Yorktown – Shaun Cero at Journal of the American Revolution.

 

Was the Battle of Point Pleasant the First Battle of the American Revolution? – Evan Portman at Emerging Revolutionary War Era.

 

The 50 Years That Made America – Max Edling at History Today.

 

Videau’s Bridge: An American Disaster After Yorktown – Joshua Wheeler at Journal of the American Revolution.

 

Faith

 

Learning by Experience – Seth Lewis.

 

My Top 10 Theology Stories of 2025 – Collin Hansen at The Gospel Coalition.

 

Loving Aging Parents Well – John Piper at Desiring God.

 

American Stuff

 

Freedom to be Bound: Religious Liberty from Moses to Madison – Ian Speir at Mere Orthodoxy.

 

British Stuff

 

Britain is facing a crisis of state legitimacy – Chris Bayliss at The Critic Magazine.

 

Writing and Literature

 

Miraculous Love: "Gifts of the Magi” – Jason Clark at This Is the Day.

 

Herakles’ 6^th Labor: Clear Away the Mind’s Chaos – James Sale at The Epoch Times.

 

Life and Culture

 

Revenge of the Climate Realists – Peter Savodnik at The Free Press.

 

Pro-Life Pregnancy Center Case: Even the ACLU Calls NJ Actions ‘Censorship by Intimidation’ – Lorie Johnson at Christian Broadcasting Network.

 

Russell Kirk’s Challenge to Liberalism, 1950-1960 – Bradley Birzer. 

 

Maria Corina Machado: The Nobel Speech I Couldn’t Give in Person – via The Free Press.

 

Art

 

The New Faces of Anselm Kiefer’s Art – Melissa Venator at the St. Louis Art Museum.

 

Poetry

 

“In Drear-Nighted December,” poem by John Keats and “In Memoriam XXVIII,” poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson– Malcolm Guite.

 

Seamus Heaney: a jobber among shadows – Henry Oliver at The Common Reader.

 

“The Need of Being Versed in Country Things,” poem by Robert Frost – Joseph Bottum at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

Ascensus Christi: A Piano Rhapsody – Paul Cardall 

 Painting: Self-Portrait, oil on canvas by Émile Friant (1863-1932).

A kindness shown

After 2 Samuel 9:1-13 

A kindness shown,

a steadfast love displayed,

to the son of his friend

slain in battle,

the grandson of the man

who tried to kill him,

a kindness shown

because it was time 

to forgive.

 

And more than kindness,

an honor, a tribute

to the friend he loved,

one soul in two bodies,

severed. Some might

have eliminated all and

any potential rivals;

instead, he showed

kindness, she showed

mercy, he showed

blessing.

 

Photograph by Masjid Pogung Dalangan via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Friday Readings

 

“A Message for the New Baby,” poem by Luci Shaw – D.S. Martin at Kingdom Poets.

 

Four Advent Villanelles by Anna Friedrich – The Rabbit Room.

 

“O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” – Anthony Esolen at Word and Song.

 

The Empty Chair at Christmas – Daniel Darling at One Little Word.

 

“On Change of Weather,” poem by Francis Quarles – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern.

Poets and Poems: Ann Keniston and "Somatic"

A psychosomatic illness is one in which an individual imagines a sickness; it may be as real to the person as a real illness. A somatic illness is a real one, with real symptoms, but it, too, can be associated with a disorder, when the response to the symptoms is out of proportion to the reality. 

I’ve been fortunate with not having been directly affected by a relative or friend having been affected by either a psychosomatic or somatic disorder. But I’ve heard of or known people who have. And it’s all too true that just because “it’s only an illness in the mind” doesn’t mean it can be ignored or discounted; the impact on the individual and those around him or her can be devastating. 

 

In her new collection, Somatic: Poems, Ann Keniston explores these illnesses. And she does so from what seems clear as first-hand experience with a close family member. 

To continue reading, please see my post today at Tweetspeak Poetry.

Some Thursday Readings

 

“To a Wreath of Snow,” poem by Emily Bronte – Joseph Bottum at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

Poet Laura: Pelican Brief, Pod, Pouch, Scoop, or Squadron – Donna Hilbert at Tweetspeak Poetry.

 

A Ghibli Advent: Peace – Megan Willome.

 

“The Owl,” poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern.

"A Month in Siena" by Hisham Matar

Hisham Matar won the Pulitzer Prize for biography for The Return, the story of his search for his father, who’d been kidnapped and presumably killed by the Libyan government. His first novel, In the Country of Men, won several recognitions and awards. Virtually every book he writes wins awards, including the National Book Critics Circle Award for his novel, My Friends, in 2025. 

There’s one exception, and it’s a gem of a story. 

In 2014 or 2015, Matar traveled to Siena, Italy, as something of a retreat or rest. He was still recovering from the intensity of writing The Return, not to mention the number of widespread accolades it received. Siena was meant to be a respite, and it was. He describes that respite in A Month in Siena, a non-fiction work about his own life, the churches in the town, and the artwork contained in those churches and the local museum. 

To continue reading, please see my post today at Dancing Priest.

Some Wednesday Readings

 

The Rise of AI Book Slop – Tim Challies.

 

The shame of Britain – Sebastian Milbank at The Critic Magazine.

 

Three Speeches That Savid the Union: Clay, Calhoun and Webster and the Crisis of 1850 by Peter Charles Hoffer – book review by Codie Eash at Emerging Civil War.

The Poetry of Luci Shaw

Poet Luci Shaw died last week, age 96. She would have turned 97 on Dec. 29. The news prompted an outpouring of memories, comments, shared experiences, and posts about how important she’d been in the lives of so many poets and writers. 

I never met Luci, and yet it seems like she was an old friend. I never thought of her as a mentor, and yet she influenced my own writing. 

 

I knew Luci Shaw by reading her poetry. And I read her poetry because I visited a place that knew her and that she knew.

To continue reading, please see my post today at Tweetspeak Poetry.

Some Tuesday Readings

 

“You cannot extinguish,” poem by Emily Dickinson – Padraig O Tuama at Poetry Unbound.

 

When the Wind Flows – poem by David Whyte.

 

“A Hymn of Heavenly Love” by Edmund Spencer – Malcolm Guite.

 

“Barnfloor and Winepress,” poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

“Poem to Fit a Matchbox” by Luci Shaw – Every Day Poems.