An elderly widow has been found dead in her home. The attending doctor diagnoses natural causes, but a rather clever young policewoman tells her partner that they’re to report any death of an elderly person, according to a note on the Avon and Somerset Police Department’s intranet. They do, and soon enough, Detective Chief Inspector Nick Dixon visits the scene. And he quickly sees that the woman has been strangled.
A similar case had been reported in a neighboring police jurisdiction, that of an elderly man initially believed to have died of natural causes. It turned out that he, too, had been strangled. A regional task force is created, and Dixon is made an Acting Superintendent so that Avon and Somerset can keep control.
Both victims were teachers from the same seaside community. They taught at different schools but likely knew each other. But Dixon and his team, which includes his partner Jane Winters now six-months pregnant with their child, can’t find anything else that might be a connecting point or a reason for their deaths. That is, until there’s a third murder, and a chance remark leads to the first breakthrough in the case.
Damien Boyd
The victims played for the same bridge club team. And, 20 years before, they were all in Torquay for a tournament the night the tournament hotel burned down, killing three people. And it’s that discovery from which Dixon moves the investigation forward.
From the Ashes is the 14th DCI Nick Dixon mystery by British writer Damien Boyd, and it’s a clear winner in the series. Boyd keeps Dixon (and the reader) guessing as he builds the tension and then brings the story together in a thrilling conclusion.
Boyd uses his own experience as a legal solicitor and a member of the Crown Prosecution Service to frame his stories. And that knowledge and experience is telling. He understands how policemen do their work, how prosecutions operate, and what happens when a former tax lawyer (Dixon) brings his very unorthodox thinking to police work.
Boyd has to do a 15th entry in the series; we want to find out about Nick and Jane’s wedding, the baby, the politics at police headquarters. And we want another cracking good tale.
Related:
My review of Damien Boyd’s As the Crow Flies.
My review of Damien Boyd’s Head in the Sand.
My review of Damien Boyd’s Kickback.
My review of Damien Boyd’s Swansong.
My review of Damien Boyd's Dead Level.
My review of Damien Boyd’s Death Sentence.
My review of Damien Boyd’s Heads or Tails.
My review of Damien Boyd’s Dead Lock.
My review of Damien Boyd’s Beyond the Point.
My review of Down Among the Dead by Damien Boyd.
My review of Dying Inside by Damien Boyd.
My review of Carnival Blues by Damien Boyd.
My review of Death Message by Damien Boyd.
Some Thursday Readings
Nicholas Kristoff tries to figure out who destroyed the West Coast – Stephen Miller at The Spectator.
Yesterday’s Men: The death of the mythical method – Alan Jacobs at Harper’s Magazine.
The odd couple: Evelyn Waugh and Graham Greene – Jeffrey Meyers at The Critic Magazine.
Red Marks, a Dark Teesside short story by Glenn McGoldrick, is free on Amazon today.
What Comes After Liberalism? – John Horvat at The Imaginative Conservative.
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