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melissa_who_reads's review against another edition
5.0
Enjoyed. Like the series characters a lot. Edwards does take you into the mind of one of the people responsible for one of the deaths, and that is not one of my favorite structures. Still, there is much more to the story than that, and one was not sorry when that character made a predictable but untimely end. Daniel's involvement makes sense in this one, where he puts his historian skills to good use.
nonna7's review against another edition
3.0
obtained a copy of this book through paperbackswap.com. After reading the first book in the series, I was interested enough to get two more through the swap group. This is the second in the series. After reading it I've decided not to continue with the series. If I was 20 years younger, perhaps I would, but there are so many books in my TBR shelf that I really want to concentrate on the series that I find the most interesting. This series features a contemporary female detective who heads a cold case division and a historian. The first book, Coffin Trail, introduced the characters. There was a lot of emotion crackling both on the surface and beneath. In this book the characters are bloodless and uninteresting. I stuck with the book to the end, but that's it. It was interesting to learn that arsenic was actually mined in this area of the Lake District of England. The book opens with Guy who is back in the area with plans to get a big financial windfall. When he calls a local newspaper reporter that a missing woman will never be found, DI Hannah Scarlett opens a new cold case investigation. The police find her body and another one that is a considerably older murder. That's where historian Daniel Kind comes into the picture. It was all very contrived in my opinion and the history is not all that interesting. At least it wasn't to me. It was ok and did have an ending that was more than just a little bit of a twist. Still, it wasn't enough to encourage me to continue with the series.
bev_reads_mysteries's review against another edition
4.0
When Emma Bestwick disappeared ten years ago without a trace, the senior detective on the investigating team determined that it was simply a matter of someone who wanted to disappear. No foul play involved. But Hannah Scarlett, a young policewoman--now a DCI, had her doubts. Why would a woman who had just started a business that she seemed to enjoy and who had just come into a large amount of (unexplained) money decide to chuck it all and fade out?
On the anniversary of Emma's disappearance, reporter Tony Di Venuto publishes a retrospective article that asks "What Happened to Emma Bestwick?" DCI Scarlett, now on the Cold Case team, doesn't like being maneuvered into reopening the case by the press but can't really say she's upset when an anonymous caller contacts Tony to tell the reporter that he knows that Emma won't be coming home. Scarlett's boss, always on the lookout for good press for the police, insists that the case be reopened and Scarlett and her team begin making the rounds of the previous suspects--jogging memories and digging up a past that some would like to keep buried.
Then the anonymous caller strikes again--this time telling Tony that he knows where the body is; that the police need to look below the Arsenic Labyrinth. Scarlett's team gets to work searching the long-abandoned arsenic mines and are rewarded with no one body, but two--hidden in the Labyrinth about fifty years apart. Is there any connection besides the convenient hiding place? That's what the police will need to find out. And then body number three shows up.
This is the third book in Edwards' Lake District Mysteries featuring DCI Hannah Scarlett and historian Daniel Kind. In this one, Daniel takes more of a backseat--contributing very little to the more recent murders, but he is able, while doing research on a book about John Ruskin, to track down the details of of the fifty-year-old murder. The reader will need to swallow a heaping helping of coincidence to accept the method by which he comes across his information, but it does make for interesting reading.
The plot is well done and if I had paid attention to certain clues and comments dropped along the way, I might have been able to figure it out--but I didn't. So, well done, Martin, for keeping me distracted with other things. One thing I wasn't too keen on was being inside the head of the "anonymous" caller (anonymous to the report and the police, but not the reader) who had his share of the guilt (though not all of it). I'd rather be in the position of figuring it all out than to know who the villain (or one of the villains) is up front. No a fan of inverted mysteries or even partially inverted. But that's a personal preference. Edwards does a fine job with it and manages to have a final twist that left this reader surprised. ★★★ and 1/2.
First posted on my blog My Reader's Block. Please request permission before reposting. Thanks.
On the anniversary of Emma's disappearance, reporter Tony Di Venuto publishes a retrospective article that asks "What Happened to Emma Bestwick?" DCI Scarlett, now on the Cold Case team, doesn't like being maneuvered into reopening the case by the press but can't really say she's upset when an anonymous caller contacts Tony to tell the reporter that he knows that Emma won't be coming home. Scarlett's boss, always on the lookout for good press for the police, insists that the case be reopened and Scarlett and her team begin making the rounds of the previous suspects--jogging memories and digging up a past that some would like to keep buried.
Then the anonymous caller strikes again--this time telling Tony that he knows where the body is; that the police need to look below the Arsenic Labyrinth. Scarlett's team gets to work searching the long-abandoned arsenic mines and are rewarded with no one body, but two--hidden in the Labyrinth about fifty years apart. Is there any connection besides the convenient hiding place? That's what the police will need to find out. And then body number three shows up.
This is the third book in Edwards' Lake District Mysteries featuring DCI Hannah Scarlett and historian Daniel Kind. In this one, Daniel takes more of a backseat--contributing very little to the more recent murders, but he is able, while doing research on a book about John Ruskin, to track down the details of of the fifty-year-old murder. The reader will need to swallow a heaping helping of coincidence to accept the method by which he comes across his information, but it does make for interesting reading.
The plot is well done and if I had paid attention to certain clues and comments dropped along the way, I might have been able to figure it out--but I didn't. So, well done, Martin, for keeping me distracted with other things. One thing I wasn't too keen on was being inside the head of the "anonymous" caller (anonymous to the report and the police, but not the reader) who had his share of the guilt (though not all of it). I'd rather be in the position of figuring it all out than to know who the villain (or one of the villains) is up front. No a fan of inverted mysteries or even partially inverted. But that's a personal preference. Edwards does a fine job with it and manages to have a final twist that left this reader surprised. ★★★ and 1/2.
First posted on my blog My Reader's Block. Please request permission before reposting. Thanks.
robinwalter's review against another edition
informative
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Another tautly told and tightly woven mystery. Loving this series so far!
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