Kitt Hartley wakes to the news that a murder has been committed in Irendale, a village high on the wild Yorkshire moors where her boyfriend, DI Malcolm Halloran, lived with his ex-wife until she too, was murdered. The MO of the two crimes is identical, right down to the runic symbols carved into the victims' hands.
Unable to leave it to the local police to solve, Kitt and Halloran travel to Irendale, where a literary mystery awaits. A line of Anglo-Saxon poetry found on the victim leads to a hiding place, and another cryptic clue. What is the connection to the murder of Halloran's wife all those years ago?
It will take the combined ingenuity of Kitt and Halloran, as well as Evie Bowes, Grace Edwards and, despite their best efforts, Ruby the (possible) psychic to solve this case. The moors may be beautiful, but they're not peaceful!
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[Detective Inspector Malcolm Halloran jammed his foot down hard on the accelerator of his black Fiat Linea and sped past a road sign for Esk Valley prison]***
(@QuercusBooks, 16 March 2020, 320 pages, paperback, #ARC from @AmazonUK #AmazonVine)
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This is the third book in the series, and while I found it just okay I won't be rushing out to read the other two. There are better books out there. There are a lot of ludicrous moments in the book which though amusing didn't make me want to read any more of DI Malcolm Halloran and Kitt Hartley's adventures. The murder victim seemed to have some psychic sense they were going to be killed, of course, and left cryptic clues, of course, written in Anglo Saxon, of course. Why not tell the police or leave a nice note written in plain English? Kitt is a sort of librarian /archivist and amateur detective who helps to bring murderers to justice. Not really a good sign when amateurs stick their nose in. She just happens to be able to read Anglo Saxton and is able to make massive leaps of detection from a few jumbled words. The ending is a farce with Malcolm and Kitty running all over burial mounds looking for a thousand year old letter. The book suffers from silly plots, pointless padding, cheesy dialogue and buffoon characters but it did entertain me.
