Detective Inspector Matthew Venn becomes the lead investigator when the
body of a man is found on the beach. The
victim of the fatal stabbing is identified as Simon Walden, a volunteer at
Woodyard, a multi-use community centre managed by Jonathan Church, Matthew’s
husband. Matthew is assisted by DS Jen
Rafferty and DC Ross May who end up interviewing several people, all of whom
have some connection to Woodyard. The
investigation is complicated by people keeping secrets and the occurrence of
other crimes.
Since this is the first in a planned series, character development is
paramount. Matthew grew up in North
Devon but is estranged from his family because he rejected the beliefs of the
Christian fundamentalist community to which they belong. His youthful devotion to the church has been
replaced by his love for his partner whose surname is, appropriately,
Church. He trusts Jonathan “with a
certainty that was almost religious.”
Though Matthew is competent and determined, he lacks
self-confidence: “The fear of looking
foolish had haunted him all his adult life” and “He felt the weight of
responsibility for all that was going on and worried again that he might be the
wrong man for the job.”
The two other members of the investigative team, Jen and Ross, are also
developed to some extent.
It is Matthew’s opinions of them that are interesting. For example, though he approves of her work, he
“disapproved of Jen, his sergeant. She’d
had her kids too young, had bailed out of an abusive marriage and left behind
her Northern roots . . . Now her kids were teens and she was enjoying the life
that she’d missed out on in her twenties.
Hard partying and hard drinking; if she’d been a man, you’d have called
her predatory.” When it comes to his
constable, who is also the DCI’s “golden boy,” Matthew also has a negative
reaction: “Ross’s energy exhausted him .
. . Ross was a pacer and a shouter . . . A team player except, it seemed, when
he was at work.”
Besides the murder case, the focus of the novel seems to be parent- child
relationships. Matthew has virtually no
contact with his parents, and Jonathan is “nervous [and] jittery” around his
parents who are “wary” around their son.
We see Jen’s relationship with her teenaged children, and Ross discusses
his relationship with a surrogate dad.
There are several parent-child relationships that become relevant during
the investigation: Maurice Braddick and
his daughter Lucy; Christopher Preece and his daughter Caroline; Susan Shapland
and her daughter Chrissie; and Ron and Janet Holsworthy and their daughter
Rosa.
The plot is that of a typical police procedural. It begins slowly but then tension is ramped
up when others are placed in danger. I
did have an issue with how Matthew suddenly goes to visit a witness, one who
helps unravel the case. One minute he is
pondering “the timeline since the opening of the Woodyard to look for a trigger”
and then he rushes off to speak to someone.
There is no explanation of his thought process. Are we just supposed to be impressed with his
deductive skills? The identity of Simon’s
murderer is also somewhat unconvincing, considering the killer’s beliefs and
assertion that “’Simon was a good man.’” Are Jen’s falling for “a man’s blackmail or
flattery” and Ross’s inability to refuse doing favours for a superior supposed
to make the killer’s motivation more palatable?
There is little to distinguish this book from a standard murder
mystery. The element that might entice
me to read the next instalment is the characters and the relationships among
those characters. Jonathan and Matthew
are a couple but a description of their shadow as “one person, misshapen and
weird” seems more than just an indication of their being polar opposites,
especially when Matthew seems so insecure in his marriage that he worries that
showing up late for a dinner “might be one step too far.” Can Matthew become less judgemental of
Jen? Can Ross become less of a sycophant
and more of a team player?
I’ve enjoyed Ann Cleeves’ Vera Stanhope and Shetland mysteries, so I
will be interested to see how this series develops and compares.
Note: I received a digital
galley of this book from the publisher via NetGalley.
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