“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.

“Murder at Abbey Head” by Roy Lewis

A landslide has opened up a seaside cave. That would geologically interesting by itself, but the cave shows signs of having been used by humans, perhaps for thousands of years. The Morpeth Department of Antiquities and Museums undertakes the task of investigating the cave and overseeing the construction of a seawall to prevent encroachment and flooding by the expected winter storms. 

Arnold Landon is the man assigned to the work, while his boss, Karen Stannard, handles all of the public-facing activities, a task for which she’s well suited. But one day, she decides to climb an interior wall; the top of the cave opens way above on the bluff and was likely the portal for human sacrifice. Stannard encounters human bones, and while it’s thought it might be from an age-old sacrifice, it so happens that the bones are much more recent, as in only 20 years old.

 

The manor and land on which the cave sits are due to be sold. And a young graduate student has been asking questions of any and all concerning what might have happened to a man who helped save his father’s life in World War II, but the man also happened to be a German concentration camp guard. Someone doesn’t want those questions answered, to the point where the student’s body is found in the cave, pitched or pushed through the opening at the top.

 

Roy Lewis

Murder at Abbey Head is the 17^th Arnold Landon mystery by British author Roy Lewis (1933-2019). It’s the first in the series in which Landon plays almost no role in the solution to the crime, with local DI John Culpepper taking most of the honors. It’s almost as if Lewis was reaching the end of possibilities in Yorkshire for Landon to investigate. Or maybe he became bored with Yorkshire. Adding to that is that the last five in the series are all set in other countries.

 

Lewis was the author of some 60 other mysteries, novels, and short story collections. His Inspector Crow series includes A Lover Too Many, Murder in the Mine, The Woods Murder, Error of Judgment, and Murder for Money, among others. The Eric Ward series, of which The Sedleigh Hall Murder is the first (and originally published as A Certain Blindness in 1981), includes 17 novels. Lewis lived in northern England. 

 

Murder at Abbey Head is well written, plotted well, and contains several twists and turns. I’m going to miss Yorkshire, though, with its rolling hills, ancient history, and manors dating back to medieval times.

 

Related:

Murder in the Cottage by Roy Lewis.

Murder Under the Bridge by Roy Lewis.

Murder in the Tower by Roy Lewis. 

Murder in the Church by Roy Lewis.

Murder in the Barn by Roy Lewis.

Murder in the Manor by Roy Lewis.

Murder in the Farmhouse by Roy Lewis.

Murder in the Stableyard by Roy Lewis.

Murder in the House by Roy Lewis.

Murder by the Quay by Roy Lewis.

Error in Judgment by Roy Lewis. 

Murder at the Folly by Roy Lewis.

Murder in the Field by Roy Lewis.

Murder at Haggburn Hall by Roy Lewis.

Murder on the Golf Course by Roy Lewis.

Murder on the Dawn Princess by Roy Lewis.

Murder in Wolfcleuf Woods by Roy Lewis.

 

Some Monday Readings

 

Kafka’s Tricksy Translations – Joel Miller at Miller’s Book Review.

 

Escaping the Brave New World – Paul Kingsnorth, speaking at Grove City College.

 

Ancient Wisdom: A Middle Finger to the Digital Age – Joseph Epstein at The Free Press.

 

The Graffiti in the Cathedral. A Very Victorian Stunt – Henry Oliver at The Common Reader.

 

Too Much Screen Time or Coming to Terms with My Idolatry – Katie Andraski at Katie’s Ground.

"Murder in the Cottage" by Roy Lewis

A murder in Prague seems a long way from Morpeth, England, and the work of Arnold Landon in the county Department of Antiquities & Museums, but that's how his latest mystery starts. He’s still managing to deal effectively with his controversy-averse director and Karen Stannard, his immediate supervisor who tries to circumvent Arnold and take credit for his work at every opportunity. 

He’s sent to “be a presence” in a new project involving Saxon tomb excavations at the site of a major housing and hotel development. And with characteristic ease, controversy about the project begins to swirl; what looked perfectly fine on the surface may be anything but underneath. And a new professor at the local university is stirring things up, confronting people at project meetings (after she shows up uninvited) and then making barely veiled accusations on a television program. 

 

The professor also seems to be his boss’s new interest in life; the two women are seen everywhere together. Stannard lets her personal feelings prompt a report on the project, which is promptly mentioned on television by the new professor.

 

Roy Lewis

The new professor will soon find herself the dead professor, and the list of possible suspects is legion. It includes Landon’s boss.

 

Murder in the Cottage is the 12^th Arnold Landon mystery novel by British author Roy Lewis. It’s a bit different from its predecessors; there’s not as much emphasis on medieval masonry, wood construction, and archaeology as there is in the earlier stories. But it’s still a cracking good story, with a murder victim that seems just as nasty a person as the killer turns out to be.

 

Lewis (1933-2019) was the author of some 60 other mysteries, novels, and short story collections. His Inspector Crow series includes A Lover Too Many, Murder in the Mine, The Woods Murder, Error of Judgment, and Murder for Money, among others. The Eric Ward series, of which The Sedleigh Hall Murder is the first (and originally published as A Certain Blindness in 1981), includes 17 novels. Lewis lived in northern England. 

 

Related:

 

Murder Under the Bridge by Roy Lewis.

 

Murder in the Tower by Roy Lewis. 

 

Murder in the Church by Roy Lewis.

 

Murder in the Barn by Roy Lewis.

 

Murder in the Manor by Roy Lewis.

 

Murder in the Farmhouse by Roy Lewis.

 

Murder in the Stableyard by Roy Lewis.

 

Murder in the House by Roy Lewis.

 

Murder by the Quay by Roy Lewis.

 

Error in Judgment by Roy Lewis. 

 

Murder at the Folly by Roy Lewis.

 

Murder in the Field by Roy Lewis.

Some Thursday Readings

 

Murders for July – Jeremy Black at The Critic Magazine.

 

The Black Spectacles: John Dickson Carr’s Most Unusual Crime Novel – Martin Edwards at CrimeReads. 

 

Fact vs. Fiction: Real Crime Stories Make Good Novels – Laura Essay at CrimeReads. 

 

Poet Laura: Chocolate Elemental – Michelle Rinaldi Ortega at Tweetspeak Poetry.

 

Challenging Experts: A Lone Journalist Confronts John Steinbeck – Joel Miller at Miller’s Book Review.

"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. 

"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.

 

"The Body in the Dales" by J.R. Ellis

Detective Sergeant Andrew Carter has just walked in the door of the Harrogate Division of the West Riding Police in Yorkshire. Newly transferred from London, Carter is looking forward to his first day on the job. But it turns out to be a completely unexpected first day.

He’s greeted by his new boss, Detective Chief Inspector Oldroyd, who promptly tells him there’s not time to fill out forms; they’re on their way to a murder scene. A body has been found in a cave system in the Yorkshire Dales National Park. The extensive limestone caverns are enormously popular with cavers, and it was a caving team that stumbled over the body.

The victim is one Dave Atkins, himself an experienced caver. The problem is that he’s wearing no cave equipment and his body is two hours from the nearest entrances. Not only do the police have to find a murderer; they have to figure out how a body got to where it simply couldn’t get to.

J.R. Ellis

The police also have to deal with an overabundance of suspects. Atkins liked to seduce married women, and from all accounts, he was highly successful. He also was involved in several questionable investment deals, and the investors always seem to lose their money. As Oldroyd, Carter, and their team investigate, they discover plenty of motives. But whose motive was strong enough to kill? And then another caver calls Oldroyd, saying he has information about who the murderer might be. Unfortunately, he, too, is killed before he can disclose what he knows.

The Body in the Dales by J.R. Ellis is the story of the investigation. It’s also a dip into Yorkshire history (an antiquarian book will be a key role in unraveling the puzzle) and an introduction to the cave system associated with the Yorkshire Dales.

Ellis is a retired teacher with a lifelong interest in all things Yorkshire. The Body in the Dales is the first of five in the Yorkshire Murder Mystery series; the others are The Quartet Murder, The Murder at Redmire Hall, The Royal Baths Murder, and The Nidderdale Murders. He also writes poetry, ghost stories, and biography, and has completed a screenplay about the poet Edward Thomas and is working on a memoir about growing up in Yorkshire.

The Body in the Dales is an engrossing story of tangled relationships and murderous motives, played out against the backdrop of cave exploration.

“Constable on the Hill” by Nicholas Rhea

Nicolas Rhea, the pen name for Peter Walker (1936-2017), was a Yorkshire policeman for his entire career. He was also a writer, and beginning in 1979, he published more than 35 books in his beloved “Constable” series. The books, essentially a series of ongoing memoirs, became the basis for the ITV program “Heartbeat,” and were beloved in Britain. Now they’re being republished, and the first is Constable on the Hill.

It’s a delightful story. Think James Herriot (All Creatures Great and Small) if he had joined the police force instead of going to veterinary school. And it begins at the beginning of Rhea’s career – a move to a small Yorkshire town with his wife and three children, to become the village’s new bobby.

He’s looked upon somewhat suspiciously as a newcomer, until he drops his polished accent and instead speaks with the Yorkshire accent he was born and raised with. From then on, he’s “one of ours.” And he finds himself in all manner of interesting situations, providing a glimpse into what an English village policeman actually encountered on the job (and it wasn’t anything like Midsomer Murders, Inspector Morse, or anything else we’ve seen on television). In fact, in this first book, the closest Rhea gets to a murder is the death of a wallaby hit by a car after it escapes from a local zoo.

Nicholas Rhea

Rhea finds himself dealing with complaints by local gossips, all kinds of dog problems, a fox hunt that legally cuts across his front yard, how to pay for the funeral of a local squatter, the problems faced by a Catholic policeman when asked to read at an Anglican church service, and the sergeant who likes to give him all the plum assignments, including leading the circus parade. He also figures out a way to help a delivery truck unload a multi-ton piece of Scottish stone for a local sculptor.

Sometimes the issues are more serious – local youths breaking into a dovecote and killing the birds and theft of the prizes at a dance. But Rhea always seems to find a way to solve the problems and keep the threads of community woven strongly together. (And some of his solutions are ingenious, including how to deal with the complaining gossip.)

Constable on the Hill is a charming book, filled with local color and memorable characters. It’s no wonder that the series was so popular in Britain.

“The Missing Nurse” by Roger Silverwood

Detective Inspector Michael Angel of the South Yorkshire Police is at sixes and sevens. His wife May has called to say her mother is ill and she must leave for a few days to care for her, and Angel does not like disruptions in his schedule or his orderly life. And it gets worse. His usual No. 2 at the station is on a training course; the temporary replacement is clearly not up to snuff, although no one would likely be up to snuff. And then, here is this woman from Wales, Miriam Thomas, telling him that her sister, a nurse, is missing.

Angel’s inclined to throw up his arms in disgust when a curious report is made. A couple out walking at night in nearby fields surprise a man carrying a bag; he tosses the bag and runs toward one of two nearby houses. The bag contains the body of the woman, which happens to be the missing nurse, who’s been definitely murdered. When they try to contact the sister, they discover she’s now missing. 

Roger Silverwood

The Missing Nurse by Roger Silverwood tells the story of how Inspector Angel gradually unravels the case, a case with roots in the past and an incident at a hospital for the criminally insane 20 years before. The mystery novel was originally published under the title In the Midst of Life in 2004, one of 25 books in the DI Angel series and has now been reissued. 

Silverwood was educated in Gloucestershire before he completed National Service in the U.K., and later worked in the toy trade and as an advertising copywriter. He worked with his wife as an antiques dealer before retiring in 1997. In addition to the DI Angel series, he’s also written three novels in the Cawthorn series and a general novel, Salamander.

The Missing Nurse is an enthralling mystery. Time and again in the investigation, Angel is thrown a curve, and steps (or plods) directly into the twist. We watch him slowly set the trap for the murderer and then spring it. It’s a fascinating story.

“The Bradshaw Mystery” by John Waddington-Feather

An elderly woman is found dead in her Yorkshire manor home, The Grange. Her head has been bashed in. Yet nothing has been stolen, so robbery wasn’t the motive. Detective Inspector Blake Hartley is called to investigate, assisted by his sergeant Ibrahim Khan.

The Grange, however, holds old memories for Hartley. His mother worked there as a cook, and he spent many hours in the kitchen and the grounds. He’s also keenly aware of the heir to the estate, who always treated Hartley with upper-class disdain for the working and servant classes.

In addition to his police job, Hartley just happens to be an ordained Anglican priest – a Reverend Detective Inspective, as it were. He’s not a paid priest but can function as one (including for counseling and confession).

The Bradshaw Mystery, published in 2012, is the first of eight Blake Hartley detective novels by John Waddington-Feather. The author has also written a multi-volume historical saga set between 1910 and 1956; a collection of short stories; children’s stories; a book about the Yorkshire dialect; and a poetry collection. He’s even written a morality play.

John Waddington-Feather

This story involves quite a tour of the Yorkshire countryside, moving from manor to town, to other towns, and to other rural areas. Hartley and Khan find themselves having to navigate the antiques trade, drug smuggling, police department politics, and long-buried passions. And there’s no want of suspects – the heir, the housekeeper, the gardener, and several shadowy figures barely walking a line between crime and the law. Hartley also finds himself having to navigate his own class prejudices and resentments. For his part, Khan has to deal with race prejudice and a Pakistani family that harbors a fair number of criminals.

It’s a fun read for a mystery fan, and contains enough twists and turns to keep the reader guessing (and entertained).

Photograph by Karen Arnold via Public Domain Pictures. Used with permission.