"A Fatal End" by Faith Martin

Down an alleyway just off the High Street, The Bootleggers Club is a place in Oxford that’s a bit on the seamy side. Drug transactions, a bit of prostitution, underage drinking – and yes, all the teens and 20-somethings want to be there. It’s also a place where new bands can get some exposure, like the Rainbirds and its lead singer Ray Reason. 

But one night in that September of 1963, Ray is found dead on the club’s back circular stairs. It looks like he slipped or missed his footing – an accidental death. Dr. Clement Ryder, Oxford’s coroner, isn’t satisfied. But the inquest jury isn’t into nuances, and a verdict of accidental death is returned. Ryder quietly begins his own investigation, and he convinces the police to – once again – allow Woman’s Police Constable (WPC) Trudy Loveday to help him. And soon Loveday and Ryder, with the help of Ryder’s son, are knee-deep in the questionable side of the music business, everyone with a secret to hide, and what clearly becomes a case of murder.

 

Faith Martin

And time is short. Ryder’s Parkinson’s Disease is advancing, and he can no longer hide its side-effects and symptoms from Loveday. He’s going to have to tell her, with the inevitable end of their joint investigations. For a woman police officer in 1963, the opportunity to be involved in important police work has been a godsend – and now it looks to be coming to an end.

 

A Fatal End is the eighth mystery novel in the Ryder and Loveday series by British author Faith Martin, and it’s just as good as the first. Martin has managed to keep all eight books in the series at the same high level of quality. This reader hopes that she will invent a way to keep the detecting duo together, in spite of Ryder’s progressing disease. 

 

In addition to the Ryder and Loveday novels, Martin (a pen name for Jacquie Walton) has also published the series she’s best known for – the DI Hilary Greene novels, as well as the Jenny Sterling mysteries. Under the name Joyce Cato, she has published several non-series detective stories. Both Cato and Martin are also pen names for Walton. (Walton has another pen name as well – Maxine Barry, under which she wrote 14 romance novels.) A native of Oxford, she lives in a village in Oxfordshire.

 

Related:

 

A Fatal Obsession by Faith Martin.

 

A Fatal Mistake by Faith Martin.

 

A Fatal Flaw by Faith Martin.

 

A Fatal Secret by Faith Martin.

 

A Fatal Truth by Faith Martin.

 

A Fatal Affair by Faith Martin.

 

A Fatal Night by Faith Martin.

"A Fatal Night" by Faith Martin

It’s the Big Freeze of December 1962 to March of 1963 in Britain, and Oxford’s snow-packed roads are icy. Many people are trapped at home, few roads and fewer sidewalks are cleared. A few have ventured out for the traditional New Year’s Eve parties.  

A man is found dead in his car; it looks as if he must have skidded off the road and ploughed into a tree. He was likely coming come from a party and may have had too much to drink. Because of a shortage of police officers, Women’s Police Constable (WPC) Trudy Loveday is dispatched tot her scene. And because the regular morgue physician can’t get there, she stops at the Oxford coroner’s house, and Dr. Clement Ryder accompanies here to the accident scene.

 

Dr. Ryfer is noticing the effects of his Parkinson’s Disease more and more, but so far, he’s managed to keep colleagues and friends from finding out. WPC Loveday qualifies as both; she and Dr. Ryder have worked together successfully on several murder cases.

 

Faith Martin

D. Ryder examines the body; he’s not convinced they’re looking at an accident. There are signs the man may have been drugged, and the autopsy will confirm it. As they trace the man’s movements, they discover an angry party hostess and her two rather venomous children, a party gate-crasher, a business partner the dead man had stolen funds from, and a host of others with motive and even opportunity.

 

A Fatal Night by Faith Martin is the newest entry in the Ryder and Loveday mystery series, and it can hold its head up with pride with its six predecessors. It even includes a fight scene that is one of the best described such scenes I’ve read. Martin effectively develops both detective characters individually and together. And adding to the interest is the appearance of Dr. Ryder’s son Vincent, who sees something is wrong with his father and finds himself attracted to WPC Loveday.

 

In addition to the Ryder and Loveday novels, Martin (a pen name for Jacquie Walton) has also published the series she’s best known for – the DI Hilary Greene novels, as well as the Jenny Sterling mysteries. Under the name Joyce Cato, she has published several non-series detective stories. Both Cato and Martin are also pen names for Walton. (Walton has another pen name as well – Maxine Barry, under which she wrote 14 romance novels.) A native of Oxford, she lives in a village in Oxfordshire.

 

Related:

 

A Fatal Obsession by Faith Martin.

 

A Fatal Mistake by Faith Martin.

 

A Fatal Flaw by Faith Martin.

 

A Fatal Secret by Faith Martin.

 

A Fatal Truth by Faith Martin.

 

A Fatal Affair by Faith Martin.

"A Fatal Affair" by Faith Martin

It’s 1962. The village of Middle Fenton, seven miles from Oxford, is preparing for the annual May Day celebration. In the early morning of the big day, the body of the May Queen is found tied with ribbons to the Maypole. The young woman has been strangled. The victim is young, attractive, and with the kind of presence and personality that attracts men of all ages and offends women. 

The Oxford police investigate but leads and clues are few. Then the young woman’s boyfriend, a student at Oxford, is found hanging in the barn of a family he’s known since childhood. It looks like a case of suicide, either for remorse of the lost girlfriend or guilt for having killed her. The coroner’s jury at the inquest takes 10 minutes to return a verdict of suicide.

 

But the boy’s father, who happens to be the superintendent of the Oxford police, isn’t buying it. He turns to the coroner, Dr. Clement Ryder, and Women’s Police Constable (WPC) Trudy Loveday. The aging coroner and the young constable are an unlikely pair, but they’ve worked together to solve several murders, including crimes that looked like murder but weren’t. Loveday’s commanding officer isn’t pleased, but what can you do when your boss says just do it?

 

And progress is slow. It looks for all the world like what it appears to be – the young man killed his girlfriend and then took his own life. But if that were the case, why was he conducting his own investigation if the girl’s death?

 

Faith Martin

A Fatal Affair by Faith Martin is the sixth in the Ryder and Loveday mystery series, and it’s every bit as good as its predecessors. It’s clever to create a team of an older man trying to hide the symptoms of Parkinson’s Disease and a young woman who’s brighter than her boss and her colleagues but finds herself (it’s the early 1960s) assigned to filing, making coffee, and patrolling for purse snatchers. 

 

In addition to the Ryder and Loveday novels, Martin (a pen name for Jacquie Walton) has also published the series she’s best known for – the DI Hilary Greene novels, as well as the Jenny Sterling mysteries. Under the name Joyce Cato, she has published several non-series detective stories. Both Cato and Martin are also pen names for Walton. (Walton has another pen name as well – Maxine Barry, under which she wrote 14 romance novels.) A native of Oxford, she lives in a village in Oxfordshire.

 

Ryder and Loveday sometimes solve the crime (and crimes) at hand through smart deduction. Sometimes it’s legwork. And sometimes it’s stumbling into the truth. A Fatal Affair combines all three into one satisfying story.

 

Related:

 

A Fatal Obsession by Faith Martin.

 

A Fatal Mistake by Faith Martin.

 

A Fatal Flaw by Faith Martin.

 

A Fatal Secret by Faith Martin.

 

A Fatal Truth by Faith Martin.

"A Fatal Secret" by Faith Martin

At the DeLacey estate near a village outside Oxford, it’s Easter, and the village children are thrilled with the annual event. But what begins as a fun Easter egg hunt ends in tragedy. An 11-year-old boy, son of one the estate workers, is found at the bottom of an old well, his neck broken. 

The death is ruled accidental by the coroner’s court, presided over by Dr. Clement Ryder. But because the boys’ parents are almost desperate to know how the boy died, Squire De Lacey asks Dr. Ryder, via the Oxford police, to investigate and see what he can learn to set the parents’ minds at rest. Ryder asks for, and gets, an official police assistant to help, none other than Women’s Police Constable Trudy Loveday.

 

Ryder and Loveday almost immediately discover the seeming hopelessness of finding out what happened. The one thing they do know is that everyone, including the boy’s best friend Emily DeLacey, says that the boy would never have gone near the well. Slowly, the pair begin to see something other than an accident taking shape. Everyone seems to have a secret; the question is, did the boy discover one of those secrets and pay for it with his life?

 

Faith Martin

A Fatal Secret is the fourth Ryder and Loveday mystery by British author Faith Martin. The author continues to develop the characters of Ryder and Loveday, with Ryder dealing with the onset of Parkinson’s diseases and trying to hide it, and the young Loveday dealing with parents unhappy over her chosen career and discrimination from her boss and peers (not to mention suspects). 

 

In addition to the Ryder and Loveday novels, Martin (a pen name for Jacquie Walton) has also published the series she’s best known for – the DI Hilary Greene novels, as well as the Jenny Sterling mysteries. Under the name Joyce Cato, she has published several non-series detective stories. Both Cato and Martin are also pen names for Walton. (Walton has another pen name as well – Maxine Barry, under which she wrote 14 romance novels.) A native of Oxford, she lives in a village in Oxfordshire.

 

The Ryder and Loveday stories tend to have thrilling, edge-of-your-seat endings, and A Fatal Secret doesn’t disappoint. Martin throws a few red herrings into the mix, but she’s once again produced a riveting mystery. 

 

Related:

 

A Fatal Obsession by Faith Martin.

 

A Fatal Mistake by Faith Martin.

 

A Fatal Flaw by Faith Martin.