The Coffin Trail

I finished Martin Edwards' 'The Coffin Trail' last night and very good it was too. If you haven't come across his writing I can certainly recommend it - if this example is anything to go by.

Daniel and Miranda buy a cottage in the Lake District on impulse to start a new life together away from it all. Daniel gives up a successful academic career at Oxford. Miranda continues with her freelance journalism. Miranda doesn't know at the point when they buy the cottage that it used to be the home of a murderer. Daniel has childhood links with the Lake District and his estranged father worked as a Detective in the area, though he died in a car crash before the story opens. Cumbria police amid a fanfare of publicity set up a cold case unit headed by DCI Hannah Scarlett who worked with Daniel's father when he was alive. The first case they decide to reopen is the one involving Barrie Gilpin who lived in the cottage Daniel and Miranda have bought.

The case has been re-opened because the main suspect - Barrie - died in suspicious circumstances before he could even be arrested. The resulting publicity brings a lot of people out of the woodwork and really stirs things up. I thought I'd identified the murderer fairly early on, only to have my theories stood on their heads several times before the startling conclusion. The characters are believable and the clues carefully planted. When I looked back I could see things I hadn't considered important at the time. I thought the relationships between the members of the cold case team were realistic and the growing friendship between Daniel and Hannah looks interesting - but will it have an effect on their respective partners? It remains to be seen in later books. I thoroughly enjoyed it and shall be looking for some more by this author.