Description
From Publishers Weekly Enough promise survives this choppy debut to warrant hope for future mysteries by Ellis. British Detective Sergeant Wesley Peterson's transfer from London to Tradmouth in South Devon promises a fresh start near his wife's hometown. Peterson, a black detective with a degree in archeology, is warmly received by his new colleagues, among whom are unorthodox Detective Inspector Gerry Heffernan and bright Detective Constable Rachel Tracey. Although Tradmouth is a small town, the precinct has its hands full with two puzzling cases: one involves the kidnapping of a young boy, the other the brutal murder of an anonymous woman. As Peterson and his colleagues track down the identity of the murder victim and find her killer, Ellis unfolds a parallel mystery set 400 years earlier by placing short excerpts from an old journal at the beginning of each chapter. All the while, Peterson also follows a longtime archeologist friend's excavation of a 17th-century house that contains the skeletons of two bodies. Peterson, Heffernan and their colleagues form an interesting ensemble, and an effective subplot concerning Peterson's wife's anxiety over her inability to conceive a child adds emotional punch to the tale. Ultimately, however, the coincidences converge too neatly, and the clumsy tying together of the historical and present mysteries undermines the novel. Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the paperback edition. From Library Journal An exciting blend of historical and present-day police procedural, this first novel stars Wesley Peterson, a black British detective who majored in archaeology. Newly transferred to Tradmouth, Peterson chances upon a university buddy whose excavations at a building site have yielded a victim of Elizabethan murder. Up in the hills, meanwhile, the discovery of a grisly murder sends police off in the wrong direction until the supposed victim turns up alive. And elsewhere a little boy has disappeared. Peterson's skill and intuition make this is an involving, adventurous, nicely detailed work for all collections. Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the paperback edition. Kate Ellis is the author of the Wesley Peterson Series and has twice been nominated for the Crime Writers’ Association Short Story Dagger. --This text refers to the paperback edition. From Booklist Detective Sergeant Wesley Peterson transfers from London to Tradmouth in Devon so his wife can be closer to relatives. His first day on the Tradmouth force brings a murder, a missing child, and a medieval skeleton unearthed by Peterson's archaeologist friend. As he investigates, Peterson learns that the skeleton offers a clue to both the murder and the missing child. Ellis' first novel is a strong police procedural featuring some distinctly nonstereotypical characters. Peterson, for example, is a black detective in rural England who is in an interracial marriage and enjoys archaeology as a hobby. Ellis' scenes of southern England and the sea are vivid, and the mysteries are difficult. This novel will appeal to fans of Triss Stein's Digging Up Death or Beverly Connor's Lindsay Chamberlain series. John Rowen --This text refers to the paperback edition. From Kirkus Reviews An engaging first novel introducing Detective Sergeant Wesley Peterson, who has just been transferred from London to Tradmouth, an ancient coastal town, has a degree in archaeology, and is black. His boss is D.I. Gerry Heffernan, an affable widower. Wesley and his teacher wife Pam have arrived at a stressful time in the village. Two-year-old Jonathon Berrisford has been missing for days and, almost as the Petersons arrive, the murdered body of a young woman is discovered by Dorothy Truscot on her daily walk to Little Tradmouth Head. A more cheerful event is Wesley's meeting with old friend and classmate Neil Watson, working for the County's Archaeological Unit on a nearby dig. He and his team have already unearthed two skeletons one infant, one adultfrom what was once the cellar of a 17th-century house. Meanwhile, Wesley and D.C. Rachel Tracey, searching for the identity of the murder victim, have settled on local model Karen Giordinountil she turns up very much alive after a trip abroad. There's more success when the name of Shirley Carteret surfaces and proves to be the one they're seeking. Why had she deserted her apartment in the house of elegant Mrs. Hughs? Where is the steady boyfriend who wears an earring? Who was paying into Shirley's bank account every month, and what was her connection with Mowbray Clinic and its Dr. Downing? A flood of questions with intriguing answersall made more meaningful by excerpts from a 17th-century journal heading every chapter. A lively, unfancy prose style, an absorbing story, and believable characters make for a praiseworthy debut. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the paperback edition. "A lively, unfancy prose style, an absorbing story, and believable characters make for a praiseworthy debut."xa0 — Kirkus Reviews "An exciting blend of historical and present-day police procedural . . . Peterson's skill and intuition make this is an involving, adventurous, nicely detailed work for all collections." —Library Journal "Axa0strong police procedural featuring some distinctly nonstereotypical characters . . . will appeal to fans of Triss Stein's Digging Up Death or Beverly Connor's Lindsay Chamberlain series." —Booklist "Good straightforward story-telling with lots of interesting characters, pleasant humor, and a nicely done setting." —Birmingham Post "Fascinating first novel . . . mixes a 17th-century mystery with a present day one to good effect."xa0 — Bookseller --This text refers to the paperback edition. Read more
Features & Highlights
- Kate Ellis's wonderfully addictive series of West Country-set crime novels feature Wesley Peterson, one of Devon's first black detectives
- A black policeman from the Met might expect to meet some resistance, when he's transferred to a West Country seaside town—but, for DS Wesley Peterson, it's like coming home. One of the first people he bumps into is an old friend—Neil is heading an archaeological dig at a Tudor merchant's house, and Wesley has to tear himself away to become involved in a major search for a missing child. The tension is mounting when a body is found—but to Wesley's relief it is turned up at Neil’s dig and is more than 400 years old. It seems to be a tragic murder nonetheless, for the bones are those of a strangled young woman and a newborn baby. When another, more recent body is found, the circumstances surrounding the child's disappearance become more complex, and Wesley is increasingly convinced that the age-old motives of jealousy, sexual obsession, and desperate longing for a child are behind the crimes—ancient and modern—that he must solve soon if further tragedy is to be averted.
