One bitter winter’s night, Detectives Donovan and Young are called to Fountains Abbey. A crumbling ruin out on the wild and windswept Yorkshire Fells. Where the air hangs heavy with local legend, ancient secrets and now the overpowering tang of freshly spilled blood.
College teacher Patrick Armitage lies sprawled across the stones, in a gory crimson pool. His handsome face is a mask of shock and disbelief. Because Patrick’s not just been murdered. He’s been slaughtered. Stabbed over and over in the coldest blood. Patrick was a devoted family man and everyone’s favourite drama teacher. Does that make him a tragic victim — or a consummate actor, who kept his true self hidden behind a spotless façade?
The deeper Donovan and Young dig, the more they realize that no one in this baffling case is quite what they seem. Least of all Patrick’s grief-stricken widow. She begs the detectives for answers, but meets every question with hostile silence. Then a vulnerable young witness vanishes from college. And Young knows, with spine-tingling certainty, that Patrick’s killer is not done yet …
Cath Staincliffe is a best-selling, award-winning novelist, radio playwright and creator of ITV’s hit show Blue Murder. Cath has been shortlisted for the CWA Daggers five times, winning 2012’s Short Story Dagger. She won the WGBB Best Radio Drama Award in 2019. Cath’s standalone titles describe the human impact of crime on ordinary families, giving voice to victims, the bereaved, survivors and witnesses.
Cath is a reading junkie who loves hill-walking or pottering in the garden. Her new detective series features chalk and cheese duo Leo Donovan and Shan Young in the stunning setting of the Yorkshire Dales.
My thoughts: This was a much more complicated case than it first appeared. A supposedly beloved teacher murdered in a remote location, no obvious motive or suspect. But as Leo and Shan investigate it becomes clear that Patrick was not the man most people thought he was.
Then a young woman, a student of Patrick’s, is found. Did she kill herself or did someone else throw her body in the river?
Tragedy abounds as the duo solve the case, and Patrick’s young daughters will be the ones carrying the weight of it all.
Clever and compelling, this is a somewhat shocking and sad case, I really liked Leo and Shan who carry out their roles with grace and sensitivity, all while dealing with complicated personal issues.
*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 