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The Hanging Wood (2011)

by Martin Edwards(Favorite Author)

3.55 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

1590588525 (ISBN13: 9781590588529)

languge

English

genre

Fiction

publisher

Poisoned Pen Press

series

Lake District Mystery

review 1: This interesting British countryside novel started off strong, bogged down, and finished in a flurry of new evidence and scurrying characters. Our protagonist is a chief inspector with the police cold case squad, and she's informally partnered-up with an historian/author (who I'm sure is the author's fantasy self). They seem to be the perfect couple for romantic entanglement, but alas only tantalizingly-close situations pop up. The author wants readers to want to read #6 and subsequent volumes of this series, if for no other reason than to see if they finally become romantically involved. I like the fluency with police procedure & crime scene analysis. The author's Twitter presence is fascinatin, he travels and researches, and his pictures of English historical ... moresettings are absolutely smashing.
review 2: This was a book whose premise seemed promising but that did not really impress me remarkably. A young woman whose older brother disappeared when they were growing up tries to interest the police in re-opening the investigation, but she's drunk and incoherent and wanders off to jump or fall or be pushed into her father's grain silo, which certainly gets the attention of the police. The book has its sensitive, atmospheric, and funny moments, but seemed uneven and forced, with mundane details and encounters that bored me rather than charming me. Perhaps this was due to the author losing his mother while writing the book, as other readers praise his overall oeuvre. We can't all write our best all of the time. In any case, this book seemed to veer about somewhat as far as mystery sub-genres go, never quite settling comfortably in one or succeeding in being more than one. I've read police procedurals that I quite enjoyed, but the police procedural side of this book tended to get on my nerves; the cold-case detective was all right as a character, but the other police, her ex-boyfriend, and above all her best friend, irritated me. In sum, I had the feeling that the author wasn't in top form here. less

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