It starts with a fishing boat finding a body floating off the northeast coast of England. No identification, no fingerprints, nothing to say who it might be. Eventually, enough information is shared between police in Britain and Interpol to suggest a possible identity – a man from Spain wanted for questioning in a case.
Meanwhile, and oblivious to the case, Arnold Landon of the Morpeth Department of Antiquities & Museums is debating with himself about a job offer in the United States, one involving his friend Jane who seems to be taking up permanent residence there. And he’s still dealing with his boss, the beautiful if totally political Karent Stannard, who’s hired an executive assistant who’s as beautiful as she is. She asks Arnold to help orient the new hire, and the two investigate a complaint from a local estate owner that a neighboring estate, run by what looks like a cult, may be building on a noted archaeological site.
Arnold soon finds himself in a tangle of boss, politics, a cult-like leader, and the local historical society. And then the estate owner is found dead at the bottom of the tower of his home – and a very suspicious substance in his bloodstream. And Arnold begins to see a link between the man’s death and something he heard when he visited the possible new job in the States, not to mention the body found floating.
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| Roy Lewis |
Murder on the Dawn Princess is the fifteenth novel in the Arnold Landon series by British author Roy Lewis (1933-2019). It continues the running theme of its predecessors – how a mild-mannered antiquities official seems to attract crime of all kinds, up t and including murder. And more to the point – how he helps solve them (much to the chagrin the local police and his boss).
Lewis was the author of some 60 other mysteries, novels, and short story collections. His Inspector Crow series includes A Lover Too Many, Murder in the Mine, The Woods Murder, Error of Judgment, and Murder for Money, among others. The Eric Ward series, of which The Sedleigh Hall Murder is the first (and originally published as A Certain Blindness in 1981), includes 17 novels. Lewis lived in northern England.
The Arnold Landon series, like the series for Eric Ward and Inspector Crow, is set largely in the period of the 1970s and 1980s. They’re classic, old-fashioned yet greatly entertaining mysteries without the DNA analysis, computers, mobiles phones, and other fixtures of contemporary crime novels. And they’re terrific reads.
Related:
Murder in the Cottage by Roy Lewis.
Murder Under the Bridge by Roy Lewis.
Murder in the Tower by Roy Lewis.
Murder in the Church by Roy Lewis.
Murder in the Barn by Roy Lewis.
Murder in the Manor by Roy Lewis.
Murder in the Farmhouse by Roy Lewis.
Murder in the Stableyard by Roy Lewis.
Murder in the House by Roy Lewis.
Murder by the Quay by Roy Lewis.
Error in Judgment by Roy Lewis.
Murder at the Folly by Roy Lewis.
Murder in the Field by Roy Lewis.
Murder at Haggburn Hall by Roy Lewis.
Murder on the Golf Course by Roy Lewis.
Some Monday Readings
Meaning & Membership – Elizabeth Stice at Current Magazine.
A Scrambled Story & a Puzzle to Solve: Vladimir Nabokov’s Pale Fire – Jeff Goins at Miller’s Book Review.
I’m a Liberal at a ‘Conservative’ University: How Did I End Up Here? – Boris Fishman at The Free Press.
Telling a Hopeful Story: Some notes on Hannah Coulter and the active voice – Gract Olmstead at Granola.
The Luxurious Death Rattle of the Great American Magazine – Joe Nocera at The Free Press.
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