"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.

“Ice Cold Malice” by Rhys Dylan

It begins with a scene common from childhood. Two young brothers, watching to make sure no one is around, slip on to government beach property, looking for souvenirs of military exercises, the sea, and anything else that might look interesting. What they find is a body in a bag. 

DCI Evan Warlow and his team investigate. They body is that of a doctor, or former doctor, as he’s been struck off the approved medical practice list for activities unbecoming a doctor. And the list of suspects is almost longer than the list of people who knew the man.

 

Warlow has his own personal problems to deal with, like his ex-wife, who’s been arrested for driving under the influence. She says it was that one glass of wine mixed with her meds. But she refused a breathalyzer test, declined a solicitor because she could prove this wasn’t DUI, and wasn’t even driving the care at the time of the arrest. All of which Warlow knows to be bad mistakes.

 

Rhys Dylan

Ice Cold Malice is the third of the DCI Evan Warlow series by Welsh author Rhys Dylan, and it’s just as good and entertaining as the first two. Dylan works in enough twists and turns to keep the reader guessing (and on edge) through the entire story. And this time one of his own officers is threatened.

 

Dylan has published 18 novels in the DCI Evan Warlow series. 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. 

 

Some Monday Readings

 

The Idea of the University & the Future of Civilization – Joseph Pearce at The Imaginative Conservative.

 

The revival of England – David Shipley at The Critic Magazine.

 

Never use your own car – J. Robert Lennon at London Review of Books on Elmore Leaonard.

 

Until I Cross Water – Brian Miller at Notes from an East Tennessee Farmer.

 

Britain: Let our pubs live – Thomas Munson at The Critic Magazine.

 

Crimes that aren’t crimes in New York – Jennifer Harrison at The Spectator.

"Caution: Death at Work" by Rhys Dylan

A young London securities trader is getting married, and his best friend since childhood (and best man) takes him on a weekend bicycling trip through the forest they both knew so well as kids. But while camping out, they’re attacked while sleeping. The securities trader is killed and the best friend seriously injured in a brutal knife attack.  

The clues are few. The friend couldn’t see what was happening in the dark or identify who the killer might be or even look like. The only clue of substance is the friend’s hearing a motorcycle or motorized dirt bike. 

 

Detective Chief Inspector Evan Warlow and his team begin an investigation of a crime that looks random, and yet it doesn’t. Slowly they check everything possible – video footage of nearby roads, backgrounds of the victims that might suggest something, exhaustive interviewing of family, friends, and acquaintances. Some indications point to an incident in the past, but it looks at best inconclusive.

 

Rhys Dylan

Warlow has been coaxed from retirement, but his health issue is still there, and he’ll learn more in about two months. In the meantime, the case gets his full attention, and he soon learns that, like in too many murder investigations, people don’t always tell everything they know.

 

Caution: Death at Work is the second in the DCI Evan Warlow series by Rhys Dylan, and it’s every bit as good as its predecessor, The Engine House. In Even Warlow, Dylan has created an experienced police detective who’s struggling with a (still unknown) health issue and who often has to allow clues and conversations simmer in his mind before the light bulb pops on. 

 

Dylan has published 15 novels in the DCI Evan Warlow series. 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.

 

Some Monday Readings

 

How One Town Turned a Child’s ‘Cru for Help’ into a Hate Crime – Frannie Block at The Free Press.

 

Noble Street: The Ruins of London’s Industry – A London Inheritance.

 

The Burning Season – Paul Kingsnorth at The Abbey of Misrule.

 

Finding the Lost Generation on a Stroll Through Paris – Jackson Lanzer at Literary Traveler.

"The Engine House" by Rhys Dylan

Detective Chief Inspector Evan Warlow retired from the Welsh police force, and no one is quite sure why. His former boss knows, but none of the people Warlow worked with have a clue. He had years left to work, and he was excellent in his job. No one knows about the medical diagnosis he received.

He’s been spending his time on restoring his somewhat isolated stone house and walking his dog. He and his wife are long divorced, but he does stay in close contact with his sons. But even they don’t know about his condition (and don’t hold your breath if you think the reader is going to find out, either).

A landslide on a mountain path reveals the bodies of a man and a woman, and suddenly Warlow is very much in demand. This might be the seven-year-old case he never solved – what happened to an older couple who went hiking and disappeared? Autopsies confirm their identities; they also confirm that the two were murdered, most likely with numerous hammer blows. But how did get crammed into the side of a mountain reachable only with ropes?

Rhys Dylan

Warlow’s former boss convinces him to join the investigating team, and the case soon becomes a roller coaster of developments. And not the least chilling concerns the young couple who moved into the dead couple’s home; someone is watching then, just as someone watched the now-dead couple.

The Engine House is the first in 15 of the DCI Evan Warlow crime novels by Rhys Dylan, and it’s chock full of tension and suspense. It’s an absorbing story, and Dylan artfully uses the young couple to build the air of growing menace.

Dylan has published 14 novels in the DCI Evan Warlow series. 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.

Some Monday Readings

“To a Skylark,” Poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley – Sally Thomas t Poems Ancient and Modern.

Burdekin’s London Nights – Spitalfields Life.

Gentleness in Academia – Elizabeth Hoare at Plough Magazine.

The Immense Call of the Particular: A Conversation with Robert Haas – Chard Deniord at Literary Matters.

The Internet Needs to be Smashed and Rebuilt – Matt Taibbi at Racket News.