"Suffer the Dead" by Rhys Dylan

Things, like serious crime, are a bit slow in DCI Evan Warlow’s area of Wales, so he and his team are loaned (“seconded”) to a part of Wales a bit further north. A department that’s short-handed for illness and other reasons needs help. A well-known sheep farmer and his son have disappeared, and evidence at the scene of their disappearance suggests foul play. 

The investigating officers are on unfamiliar turf, dealing with people they don’t know. But procedure is known, and Warlow soon finds an almost bewildering array of possible motives and suspects. And at least initially, the crime appears to be tied into a spike of sheep rustling that’s been plaguing the area. That’s what the missing farmer and his son were investigating – a call from a fellow farmer who spotted lights on a mostly unused road.

 

Warlow continues to wrestle with his own demons, not the least of which is his status as HIV-positive, caused by the bite of a suspect in an old case. And his ex-wife has been hospitalized, in serious condition caused by her chronic alcoholism.

 

Rhys Dylan

All of these happenings and issues begin to play together, as Warlow starts to close in on the killer. That’s assuming, of course, that the bodies of the victims are found. 

 

Suffer the Dead by Welsh writer Rhys Dylan is a terrific read, fast-paced, full of the unexpected, and grounded in routine police procedure. But there’s nothing routine about the way DCI Warlow’s mind works, and that’s what will ultimately solve the crime.

 

Dylan has published 19 novels in the DCI Evan Warlow series, of which Suffer the Dead is the fourth. A native Welshman educated in London, Dylan wrote numerous books for children and adults under various pen names across several genres. He began writing the DCI Warlow series in 2021; The Engine House was published in 2022. Dylan lives in Wales.

 

Related: 

The Engine House by Rhys Dylan.

Caution: Death at Work by Rhy Dylan. 

Ice Cold Malice by Rhys Dylan.

 

Some Monday Readings

 

The Sistine Chapel: Michelangelo’s Daring Artistic Triumph – Jason Clark at This is the Day.

 

Murders for November – Jeremy Black at The Critic Magazine.

 

St. Martin in the Fields and Historical Maps of Southwark and City Ward – A London Inheritance.

 

Scooby Doo and the American Ethos – Liel Leibovitz at The Free Press.