“Restless Dead” by David Gatward

DCI Harry Grimm, somewhat “exiled” from the police force in Bristol to one in Yorkshire. And Yorkshire, even the idea of eating cheese with cake, is growing on Grimm. His team members are noticing the boss introduced as interim is sounding more and more like a local. 

Grimm is also very good at solving cases, tough, difficult, impossible cases. And he’s taken the step of making it permanent.

 

The call comes in. A sheep farmer, inf act the father of one of Grimm’s own team members, is reporting the theft of a prized herd. Since trouble, and cases, never arrives by itself, another case arrives – an elderly couple run off the run, and the wife has been killed.

 

David Gatward

The theft of the sheep will take the police team into barns and an auction yard, while the death of elderly woman will take them deep into a family’s passions and secrets – and possibly a ghost.

 

Restless Dead is the fifth DCI Harry Grimm mystery by British author David Gatward. It’s a bit different from the previous four, with a hint of the supernatural, which will eventually have a natural explanation. Mostly.

 

In addition to the DCI Harry Grimm series, Gatward has published children’s and teen fiction, taught creative writing sessions, worked as an editor, started a small publishing firm, and returned to writing when the COVID pandemic arrived. He grew up in the Cotswold’s and Yorkshire in England (including the town for the setting of Grimm Up North), and he’s also lived in Lincolnshire and the Lake District.

 

The DCI Harry Grimm novels are well-written stories, well thought out and developed with additional aspects added to over the series. They’re good stories, entertaining stories, with regular characters you care about and want to read more about.

 

Related: 

Grimm Up North by David Gatward.

 Best Served Cold by David Gatward. 

Corpse Road by David Gatward.

Shooting Season by David Gatward.

 

Some Monday Readings

 

Revolutionary History: Gordon Wood’s Idea of America – Scott Spillman at The Point.

 

The Walls Have Ears – Mark Rothschild at Accidental Wisdom.

 

Congress Establishes the Board of War and Ordnance – Chris Mackowski at Emerging Revolutionary War Era.

 

The Festival of Britain and the South Bank – 75 Years Later – A London Inheritance.

 

Britain: How the Southport riots broke Starmer’s government – Mike Jones at The Critic Magazine.

"Shooting Season" by David Gatward

If you had told him three months before, DCI Harry Grimm would have laughed. He’s on loan (or “secondment”) to the police in Yorkshire, and he first couldn’t wait to return to his base in Bristol. But now, the landscape and the people are growing on him; he’s even tried the local preference for cake with cheese and discovered it’s not too bad. 

Grimm and his team are called into to handle a missing person report. A bestselling London author, in York to promote his newest book, has driven off into the dark. They soon discover the people attached to the author – his agent, his editor, his personal assistant, his accountant, and two “friends” – may have al had axes to grind. But where is the author?

 

David Gatward

He soon turns up, or his body does. It appears to be suicide by shotgun, except both triggers were pulled in succession. Suicide it wasn’t, and the list of suspects grows to include a woman who made a scene at a local bookstore author event, accusing the man of stealing someone else’s words. And if a murder investigation isn’t enough, Grimm’s criminal father shows up with two thugs, attempting to bring his son “into line.”

 

Shooting Season is the fourth novel in the DCI Harry Grimm series by British author David Gatward. Rather than a slow development toward the conclusion, this one finds Grimm and his team stymied at every turn, chasing leads that go nowhere – and that lasts for most of the book. What that means is that the story is less about the mystery and more about Grimm’s own development – and setting the stage for his possible permanent assignment to York.

 

In addition to the DCI Harry Grimm series, Gatward has published children’s and teen fiction, taught creative writing sessions, worked as an editor, started a small publishing firm, and returned to writing when the COVID pandemic arrived. He grew up in the Cotswold’s and Yorkshire in England (including the town for the setting of Grimm Up North), and he’s also lived in Lincolnshire and the Lake District.

 

Related: 

Grimm Up North by David Gatward.

 Best Served Cold by David Gatward. 

Corpse Road by David Gatward.

 

Some Monday Readings

 

Köln Revisited: Or why our art needs this non-ideal world – Andrew Roycroft at New Grub Street.

 

The American Revolution and the Fate of the World by Richard Bell – review by Phill Greenwalt at Emerging Revolutionary War Era.

 

From the Stacks: A Place on Earth – Jeffrey Bilbro at Orange Blossom Ordinary.

 

River Reversed: The New Madrid Earthquake of 1812 – Jason Clark at This Is the Day.

 

Art competitions a forgotten part of Olympic history – Anne Handley-Fierce at St. Louis Art Museum.

"Corpse Road" by David Gatward

DCI Harry Grimm thought it would only be a short “loaned assignment” to the police force in Yorkshire. His life and career were in Bristol. But it’s looking increasingly like a longer “loan” is what’s happening. And more disturbing is that he’s finding himself increasingly liking the place and the new assignment. Even with that nasty boss, who’s resented him from the get-go. 

A new case comes along, and it’s a strange one. A woman in her mid-30s had gone camping on what the locals call Corpse Road, a popular camping area. It earned its name from a long-ago practice of the dead being transferred for burial. She’s been murdered, with the name “Stacy” carved into her forehead. And there’s not a speck of evidence anywhere to be found as to who the murderer might be.

 

David Gatward

It might be the husband; the couple were in the process of divorce. And the husband is borderline obnoxious and very easy to dislike. But then he disappears.

 

Corpse Road is the third of the DCI Harry Grimm series by British author David Gatward. And it’s an unusual crime story in that the reader knows more of what’s happening than the police investigation team – but not the identity of the killer. It’s a tricky thing to pull off, but Gatward does, and he does it well.

 

In addition to the DCI Harry Grimm series, Gatward has published children’s and teen fiction, taught creative writing sessions, worked as an editor, started a small publishing firm, and returned to writing when the COVID pandemic arrived. He grew up in the Cotswolds and Yorkshire in England (including the town for the setting of Grimm Up North), and he’s also lived in Lincolnshire and the Lake District.

 

Related:

 

Grimm Up North by David Gatward.

 

Best Served Cold by David Gatward. 

 

Some Thursday Readings

 

Murders for March – Jeremy Black at The Critic Magazine.

 

Edgar Allen Poe’s Bid to Become a Real-Life Crime Solver – Alex Hortis at CrimeReads.

 

Most countries have made little to no progress in returning Nazi-looted art, study finds – Carlie Porterfield at The Art Newspaper.

 

Poet Laura: Tea Journey – Michelle Rinaldi Ortega at Tweetspeak Poetry.

 

Porch Sittin’ – Brian Miller at A South Roane Agrarian. 

"Best Served Cold" by David Gatward

DCI Harry Grimm is slowly realizing that his “secondment” or loan from the Bristol police to those in a small town in the Yorkshire Dales is looking less and less temporary. He’s moving into a flat from his hotel. He’s having to learn his way among the back roads of the largely farming community he’s found himself in. Even if his new boss would like to side the back of him, it’s looking more and more like he’s staying. 

What his new boss really doesn’t like is Grimm’s magnet-like attraction for murder. If Grimm’s around, murder’s not far behind. 

 

In Best Served Cold by British writer David Gatward, it isn’t a single murder than finds Grimm. It’s what looks like a series of them. A farmer nobody like is found in a field brutally murdered with his tractor. At first it looks accidental, but the scene seems too strange for the death to be an accident. Plus, the victim has an eagle feather in his mouth. Then a body is found floating in a cow manure pit, with the victim again having an eagle feather in his mouth. By the time a third victim is murdered, almost in front of Grimm and the local doctor, the race is on before the murdered strikes again. And they know he will strike again.

 

David Gatward

In addition to the DCI Harry Grimm series, Gatward has published children’s and teen fiction, taught creative writing sessions, worked as an editor, started a small publishing firm, and returned to writing when the COVID pandemic arrived. He grew up in the Cotswolds and Yorkshire in England (including the town for the setting of Grimm Up North), and he’s also lived in Lincolnshire and the Lake District.

 

Best Served Cold, the second in the series, carries the trademark grisly story and dark humor of its predecessor. Grimm is one of the more unusual police detectives, carrying with him a desire for revenge against his own father, brother in prison, scarring from an explosive device in the Iraqi War, and a determination not to suffer fools gladly, including his own boss.

 

Related:

 

Grimm Up North by David Gatward.

Some Thursday Readings

 

Murders for February – Jeremy Black at The Critic Magazine.

 

Poet Laura: Journeys – Michelle Rinaldi Ortega at Tweetspeak Poetry.

 

First passages of rolled-up Herculaneum scroll revealed – Jo Marchant at Nature.

"Grimm Up North" by David Gatward

DCI Harry Grimm tends to drive his superintendent with the Bristol police a bit crazy. He knows his stuff, her gets results, but a lot of people seemed to get beaten up in the process. It doesn’t help that he’s still looking for his father; 20 years before, the man violently abused Grimm’s younger brother and killed his mother. He was never caught. 

Grimm carries his military service in the parachute crops with him, courtesy of an unexpected explosive device that left his face permanently scarred. So scarred, in fact, that his appearance scares suspects, villains, and witnesses alike.

 

After an almost-bungled sting (Grimm came very close to it being his last operation), his superintendent packs him off to a small town in the Yorkshire Dales. Officially, he’s being loaned (or seconded) to the police force there. It’s Herriott country, he tells himself, and he knows he’ll soon be bored to tears. Except he’s hardly there any time at all when a local teenager disappears. Runaways aren’t that uncommon, of course, but this followed a major scene at church when the girl supposedly received a text from her boyfriend.

 

It may be Herriott country, and you may have to navigate the sheep herds in the lanes, but crime doesn’t take a holiday in the Dales. A murder follows the girl’s disappearance, and now it’s all hands on deck before it gets worse.

 

David Gatward

Grimm Up North is the first of 15 published novels (and one upcoming one) in the DCI Harry Grimm series by British writer David Gatward. It’s a fast-paced read with an unusual hero and leavened with just the right amount of humor. I read the book as a trial, unsure whether I’d like it nor not, and I liked it so much that I immediately ordered the second, Best Served Cold. 

 

In addition to the DCI Harry Grimm series, Gatward has published children’s and teen fiction, taught creative writing sessions, worked as an editor, started a small publishing firm, and returned to writing when the COVID pandemic arrived. He grew up in the Cotswolds and Yorkshire in England (including the town for the setting of Grimm Up North), and he’s also lived in Lincolnshire and the Lake District.

 

It's always an unexpected pleasure to discover a new mystery series, and if the first is any indication, I will be kept busy and entertained with the next 15.

Some Thursday Readings

 

Halloween Revisited – Steven Wedgeworth at Ad Fontes.

 

Civil War Art: Fort Fisher Watercolors of John W. Grattan – Neil Chatelain at Emerging Civil War. 

 

Up the road – poem and artwork by Sonja Benskin Mesher.

 

Meeting the Masses – The Secret Author at The Critic Magazine.