“The Pembroke Castle Murders” by Stephen Puleston

A minister is found dead inside his church in the Welsh town of Pembroke, killed with some kind of hammer. As DI Caren Waits and her team at the West Wales Police Service investigate, they discover that nothing is ever what it seems, even the world of a minister. 

The minister had inherited a large estate from an elderly aunt. He had a half-brother and half-sister, who now stood to inherit. A fellow minister had been passed over for an appointment as cathedral dean. A local man had accused the minister of molesting his son. The suspects seem like they’re falling out of the trees.

 

In the meantime, Waits herself is waiting on the outcome of legal negotiations with her dead husband’s “second” wife, a woman who bore him a child. Waits herself has a young son. The woman has made a claim on the dead husband’s estate. The detective had had no idea of this second family.

 

Stephen Puleston

The investigation has almost too many suspects. Promising leads evaporate. Alibis seem airtight. And then the lawyer handling the estate is himself murdered, followed soon by a third death.

 

The Pembroke Castle Murders is the fourth of the DI Caren Waits series by Welsh writer Stephen Puleston. It’s a solid police procedural story, with Waits and her team plugging away, pounding the pavement, and tracking down ever lead. And in the end, they stage a rather thrilling trap.

 

Puleston publishes three series of Welsh police detective stories. Detective Inspector Ian Drake is with the North Wales Police Service, Detective Inspector John Marco is with the South Wales Police Service, and now Detective Inspector Caren Waits is with the West Wales Police Service. The author originally trained and practiced as a; solicitor/lawyer. He also attended the University of London. He lives in Wales, very close to where his fictional heroes live and work.

 

Related:

 

The Paxton’s Tower Murders by Stephen Puleston.

 

The Tenby Harbour Murders by Stephen Puleston.

 

The Swansea Marina Murders by Stephen Puleston.

 

My review of Written in Blood.

 

My review of A Time to Kill.

 

My review of Another Good Killing.

 

My review of Brass in Pocket.

 

My review of Worse than Dead.

 

My review of Against the Tide.

 

My review of Devil’s Kitchen.

 

My review of Dead Smart.

 

My review of Speechless.

 

My review of A Cold Dark Heart.

 

My review of A Cold Dark Heart.

 

My review of Dead and Gone by Stephen Puleston.

 

My review of Time to Die by Stephen Puleston.

 

My review of Stone Cold Dead by Stephen Puleston.

 

My review of Looking Good Dead by Stephen Puleston.

“The Swansea Marina Murders” by Stephen Puleston

Detective Inspector Caren Waits of the West Wales Police Service and her team are called to the marina in Swansea. The body of a young woman has been found floating in the marina docking area; the post-mortem will show she’d been brutally strangled. Her identity is quickly determined: a university student who also worked at a marina pub. The site of her murder takes a bit longer to discover, and the crime scene investigators find it. 

The victim shared a flat with three other students, and everything seemed normal on the surface. That is, until the investigators find five thousand pounds in cash stowed in her room, a connection to a former boyfriend who tended to the violent, and an affair with one of her professors who doesn’t seem to be as forthcoming as he should about his own background. Complicating the case is that the victim’s phone is missing and presumably tossed into the marina waters.

 

Then a second murder happens; a friend of the first victim is found with her head bashed by a winch from a yacht. In this case, the victim’s small rooms are found ransacked; someone was looking for something and apparently didn’t find it. Waits and her team discover that there’s a possible connection to a spate of burglaries aboard marina boats and residences; someone had very good information when yacht owners would be sailing and away from home, or out of town and away from their boats.

 

Stephen Puleston

The Swansea Marina Murders is the third in the DI Caren Waits series by Welsh writer Stephen Puleston. It is a classic police procedural story, accented by Waits having to deal with the settling of the estate of her dead husband, the discovery that he had another relationship and child, and trying to raise her own young son with an almost impossible work schedule (parent to the rescue!). 

 

Puleston publishes three series of Welsh police detective stories. Detective Inspector Ian Drake is with the North Wales Police Service, Detective Inspector John Marco is with the South Wales Police Service, and now Detective Inspector Caren Waits is with the West Wales Police Service. The author originally trained and practiced as a; solicitor/lawyer. He also attended the University of London. He lives in Wales, very close to where his fictional heroes live and work.

 

Puleston has been setting the keyboard keys afire. This third DI Caren Waits novel is the third published in 2025, and a fourth one was recently issued. A fifth one is set to be published next year. Like its two predecessors, The Swansea Marina Murders is very methodically told; the focus is on police procedure. All three have been entertaining reads, and I’m looking forward to reading the fourth, The Pembroke Castle Murders.

 

Related:

 

The Paxton’s Tower Murders by Stephen Puleston.

 

The Tenby Harbour Murders by Stephen Puleston.

 

My review of Written in Blood.

 

My review of A Time to Kill.

 

My review of Another Good Killing.

 

My review of Brass in Pocket.

 

My review of Worse than Dead.

 

My review of Against the Tide.

 

My review of Devil’s Kitchen.

 

My review of Dead Smart.

 

My review of Speechless.

 

My review of A Cold Dark Heart.

 

My review of A Cold Dark Heart.

 

My review of Dead and Gone by Stephen Puleston.

 

My review of Time to Die by Stephen Puleston.

 

My review of Stone Cold Dead by Stephen Puleston.

 

My review of Looking Good Dead by Stephen Puleston.

 

Some Monday Readings

 

When a House Is Not a Home – Matthew Walther at Commonplace.

 

Why we love Jane Austen more than ever after 250 years – Henry Oliver at The Common Reader.

 

“Amahl and the Night Visitors”: The Classic Christmas Opera – Michael De Sapio at The Imaginative Conservative.

"The Tenby Harbor Murders" by Stephen Puleston

A period drama is being filmed in the Tenby Harbour area in Wales. Soap opera star Noah Voce is starring in the film, as is his actress wife and a younger woman with whom Voce had had an affair years before. Voce is found dead in his trailer, his head bashed in. 

Detective Inspector Caren Waits, fresh from success in solving the Paxton Tower murders, finds herself and her team grappling with movie star egos, production pressures to keep filming, and a growing list of suspects. The dead man apparently had plenty of admirers but few friends.

 

Waits also runs up against a new experience – being stalked as she works and picks up her young son at school. And she gets disconcerting news from her attorney. Her husband, who died in an automobile crash, apparently had a relationship with a woman who is now demanding a share of his estate. Ad she may have a legitimate claim.

 

Stephen Puleston

The Tenby Harbour Murders is the second in the DI Caren Waits series by Welsh author Stephen Puleston. It’s a solid, entertaining story and helps to anchor was is turning out to be a successful detective series. The third in the series is The Swansea Maria Murders. (Interestingly enough, all three have been published this year, and a fourth is in the works.)

 

Puleston publishes three series of Welsh police detective stories. Detective Inspector Ian Drake is with the North Wales Police Service, Detective Inspector John Marco is with the South Wales Police Service, and now Detective Inspector Caren Waits is with the West Wales Police Service. The author originally trained and practiced as a; solicitor/lawyer. He also attended the University of London. He lives in Wales, very close to where his fictional heroes live and work.

 

DI Caren Waits solves crimes in both the old-fashioned and new-fashioned ways – solid, often slogging, police procedure plus the assistance (and sometimes confusion) of DNA and computer technologies. The Tenby Harbour Murders is a well-done mystery, and it will keep you guessing until the end.

 

Related:

 

The Paxton Tower Murders by Stephen Puleston.

 

My review of Written in Blood.

 

My review of A Time to Kill.

 

My review of Another Good Killing.

 

My review of Brass in Pocket.

 

My review of Worse than Dead.

 

My review of Against the Tide.

 

My review of Devil’s Kitchen.

 

My review of Dead Smart.

 

My review of Speechless.

 

My review of A Cold Dark Heart.

 

My review of A Cold Dark Heart.

 

My review of Dead and Gone by Stephen Puleston.

 

My review of Time to Die by Stephen Puleston.

 

My review of Stone Cold Dead by Stephen Puleston.

 

My review of Looking Good Dead by Stephen Puleston.

 

Some Monday Readings

 

The Berry Family’s Founding Myth – Jeffrey Bilbro at Plough.

 

A New Environmentalism? – Stephen Hayward at Law and Liberty.

 

How to Keep Your Soul in a Corporate Job – Alex McCann at The Free Press.

 

“Yesterday”: Sometimes a Song – Anthony Esolen at Word & Song.

 

The celebrity guide to selective outrage – Sarah Idan at The Spectator.

"The Paxton's Tower Murders" by Stephen Puleston

It’s DI Caren Waits first day on the job at the West Wales Police Service. She wants to make a good impression, but the first thing that greets her is a murder investigation.  

A drug dealer is founded dead at the foot of Paxton’s Tower, an abandoned structure known for its spectacular seacoast views and notoriety for being a drug distribution site. It’s a death with few clues, no witnesses, and leads that have to be eked out. One thing it does have is controversy – a local anti-drug activist is soon organizing public meetings to claim the police aren’t doing their job and could be doing far more.

 

Waits worked for DI John Drake in the North Wales Police Force, and she sticks to procedure and protocol. She’s determined to solve the murder. But then a second murder in the same place puts the investigation – and the protests – on steroids.

 

Stephen Puleston

Despite her newness to the job, Waits demonstrates intelligence, experience, and grit. She’s a single parent, with her husband having been killed in an automobile accident a year before, although there’s some murkiness about both the husband and the death that promises new twists in the future. 

 

The Paxton’s Tower Murders is the first is the new DI Caren Waits crime series by Welsh writer Stephen Puleston. It’s an auspicious, well-plotted story for beginning a series. (And a second novel in the series is due to be published in a few days.) It’s part of Puleston’s writing style to develop the story so that the reader always knows what’s going in the narrative and the characters’ minds.

 

Puleston publishes three series of Welsh police detective stories. Detective Inspector Ian Drake is with the North Wales Police Service, Detective Inspector John Marco is with the South Wales Police Service, and now Detective Inspector Caren Waits is with the West Wales Police Service. The author originally trained and practiced as a; solicitor/lawyer. He also attended the University of London. He lives in Wales, very close to where his fictional heroes live and work.

 

Related:

 

My review of Written in Blood.

 

My review of A Time to Kill.

 

My review of Another Good Killing.

 

My review of Brass in Pocket.

 

My review of Worse than Dead.

 

My review of Against the Tide.

 

My review of Devil’s Kitchen.

 

My review of Dead Smart.

 

My review of Speechless.

 

My review of A Cold Dark Heart.

 

My review of A Cold Dark Heart.

 

My review of Dead and Gone by Stephen Puleston.

 

My review of Time to Die by Stephen Puleston.

 

My review of Stone Cold Dead by Stephen Puleston.

 

My review of Looking Good Dead by Stephen Puleston.

 

Some Monday Readings

 

The World is in Love with America – Chris Arnade at The Free Press.

 

Kurt Vonnegut’s Ambivalent War on AI – Hoel Miller at Miller’s Book Review.

Magazine.

 

Does Nick Clegg believe in original sin? – The Critic Magazine.

"Looking Good Dead" by Stephen Puleston

Detective Inspector Ian Drake of the North Wales Police Service is back from his honeymoon in Tenerife. And his first day in the office, he gets a murder case tossed in his lap. 

A well-heeled local businesswoman is found hanged in her clothing shop, one of the many businesses she operates. She’s dressed in 1930s clothes; she and her husband were known for hosting charitable fundraisers with 1930s themes. As Drake and team soon discover, they were also known for histing “spinoff parties,” also known as mate-swapping or swinger parties. 

 

Drake discovers a long list of suspects. The husband has a motive, as does at least two now-divorced participants in the spinoff parties. And the killer seems to be relishing the attention to the case and helps it along by sending photographs of the dead woman to news media. A second murder occurs, and this time the killer takes photographs of the police at the crime scene, sending them to the personal attention of DI Drake.

 

Stephen Puleston

Looking Good Dead is the 12^th novel in the DI Ian Drake mystery series by Welsh author Stephen Puleston. It’s a well-plotted story about a police detective with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). Drake has progressed since the first novel, when his OCD was threatening his marriage to a doctor (and would eventually lead to his divorce). He’s being helped greatly by the woman who’s become his new wife.

 

What I hadn’t previously noticed was that Puleston has written the Drake stories in such a way that the OCD is literally part of the narrative. Descriptions of characters are very detailed and precise, as are the descriptions of how Drake and his team travel to different locations, with precise highway designations, speeds, roadway obstacles, bridges, and tunnels. It’s as if Drake himself is overseeing the writing to make sure it meets his expectations.

 

Puleston publishes two series of Welsh police detective stories. Detective Inspector Ian Drake is with the North Wales Police Service, and Detective Inspector John Marco is with the South Wales Police Service. The author originally trained and practiced as a; solicitor/lawyer. He also attended the University of London. He lives in Wales, very close to where his fictional hero lives and works.

 

Related:

 

My review of Written in Blood.

 

My review of A Time to Kill.

 

My review of Another Good Killing.

 

My review of Brass in Pocket.

 

My review of Worse than Dead.

 

My review of Against the Tide.

 

My review of Devil’s Kitchen.

 

My review of Dead Smart.

 

My review of Speechless.

 

My review of A Cold Dark Heart.

 

My review of A Cold Dark Heart.

 

My review of Dead and Gone by Stephen Puleston.

 

My review of Time to Die by Stephen Puleston.

 

My review of Stone Cold Dead by Stephen Puleston.

 

Some Thursday Readings

 

The Heyday of Pulp Fiction – Keith Roysdon at CrimeReads.

 

Rejected by a Robot: You Aren’t the Writer These Droids Are Looking For – David Murray at Writing Boots.

 

Tradition and the Truth That Anchors Us – Michael De Sapio at The Imaginative Conservative.

 

Looking Back at the End of Blue & Gray – Sean Michael Chick at Emerging Civil War.

"Stone Cold Dead" by Stephen Puleston

For some time, freelance journalist Jack Holt has been investigating the Peel Foundation, supposedly devoted to well-being and personal wellness but more resembling a religious cult. Once you enroll in their program, it isn’t long before you’ve signed over your entire net worth. He has arranged to meet with someone at a park with inside information late one evening. The next morning, a park attendant finds Holt’s body. He was hit from behind several times with a rock, and his body was pinioned to the ground with croquet wickets. 

Detective Inspector Ian Drake and his team are called in to investigate. The people at the Peel Foundation deny any involvement and have alibis. The man’s partner has an alibi. The police team is frustrated at every point, finding blind alleys and considerable stonewalling from just about everyone. But then a second murder happens, much like the first with the same signature croquet wickets. And what looked like cast-iron alibis begin to unravel for all the suspects.

 

Stephen Puleston

Stone Cold Dead is the eleventh in the DI Ian Drake series by Welsh author Stephen Puleston. It’s a good story with a solid premise (and something of a relief that it’s not a religious cult that’s involved). There’s a bit too much detail in the scenes (“He got up from his desk, he walked out of the building, he walked to the car park, he got in his car, he turned on the ignition” kind of descriptions), which is something I hadn’t noticed in the previous 10 Ian Drake novels. It’s almost as if the way some scenes are written reflect the main character’s obsessive-compulsive disorder). This isn’t a major issue, but I noticed it several times.

 

Puleston publishes two series of Welsh police detective stories. Detective Inspector Ian Drake is with the North Wales Police Service, and Detective Inspector John Marco is with the South Wales Police Service. The author originally trained and practiced as a; solicitor/lawyer. He also attended the University of London. He lives in Wales, very close to where his fictional hero lives and works.

 

I like the Ian Drake novels. Puleston has brought his detective inspector a long way from where his OCD had him in the first book. And Stone Cold Dead is a solid story of how intense police procedure is critical to solving crimes.  

 

Related:

 

My review of Written in Blood.

 

My review of A Time to Kill.

 

My review of Another Good Killing.

 

My review of Brass in Pocket.

 

My review of Worse than Dead.

 

My review of Against the Tide.

 

My review of Devil’s Kitchen.

 

My review of Dead Smart.

 

My review of Speechless.

 

My review of A Cold Dark Heart.

 

My review of A Cold Dark Heart.

 

My review of Dead and Gone by Stephen Puleston.

 

My review of Time to Die by Stephen Puleston.

 

Some Thursday Readings

 

Murders for November – Jeremy Black at The Critic Magazine.

 

The Anti-Semites Scream. And I Stiffen My Spine – Batya Ungar-Sargon at The Free Press.

 

Poet Laura: Trees, Seasons, and Plantings – Michelle Rinaldi Ortega at Tweetspeak Poetry.

 

Civil War Art: Drummer Boys – Sarah Kay Bierle at Emerging Civil War.