Wiltshire is a county of ancient beauty — rolling chalk downs, wooded valleys and
chocolate-box villages. Famous for its ‘big’ skies and breathtaking scenery, it seems
tranquil. But looks can be deceiving.
Katarina Raslova, a young British archaeologist, is found dead in a secluded cabin on a powerful local landowner’s estate. Her body has been carefully posed.
She looks like an exquisite sculpture. Except for the bruises circling her neck.
The only potential witness is a terrified girl who waited at the scene for the police to arrive. . . then vanished without a trace.
Detective Craig Wild, formerly of the Metropolitan police, is called in to investigate. He quickly discovers there’s no shortage of suspects. An obsessive ex-boyfriend with no alibi. The landowner’s evasive son, who knows more than he’s telling. And someone on the estate is growing something far more deadly than wheat.
Even his own partner, Acting DC Marnie Olsen, has a troubling personal connection to the victim.
Wild is determined to crack the case — and quickly. But this is rural Wiltshire, not inner-city London. Here, everyone knows your business, and miles of countryside offer countless places to hide the truth.
And then another young woman’s body is discovered . . .
Derek Thompson grew up in London and credits the local library with fostering a
lifelong passion for books. As a teen he wrote dreadful poetry and the world’s densest fantasy novel. After a formative year in the US he returned with a lot of debt and a treasure trove of stories. In hindsight it seems like a fair trade.*
Fast-forward to 2008 when he wrote a feature for The Guardian and attended a novel-writing summer school, where the ideas for his debut spy thriller first emerged. He cites film noir as a major influence on his novels with recurring themes of death, truth and secrets. As the saying goes: write about what you know.
After five novels featuring Thomas Bladen, a working class spy in the UK’s Surveillance Support Unit, he began a separate crime mystery series that follows DS Craig Wild – a former Met detective now transferred to leafy Wiltshire.
Derek’s books have been described as snarky (it’s a real word), pared down, and
morally ambiguous. What more could any novelist ask for? Apart from pens — you
can never have too many pens.
*Especially if he can sell the film script.
My thoughts: It starts with the body of an archaeologist, it ends with a suspect no one had on their list. As the police hunt for a killer, they have plenty of suspects but not the right one as more bodies prove. Who is responsible and why?
The possibility of a Saxon hoard is exciting, but someone has a different plan to hunting for ancient treasures. DS Wild and his colleagues are soon chasing clues all over Wiltshire and beyond. And then there’s their private issues too – Wild gets close to a woman of the cloth, is Marnie jealous or just distracted?
There’s some career rivalry that needs to be resolved, as well as whether Wild is going to be sticking around, but when it becomes clear the answers they’re looking for are a bit more complicated, it’s Wild that might just be able to get to the truth…
Full of twists, cleverly plotted and with engaging characters, this series is fun and interesting, sleepy Wiltshire is a lot more interesting than you might expect…
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
ramblingmads 
Thank you so much for being a part of this adventure x 🤎🧡
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