Then we move forward five years to the discovery of the dead body of a woman probably in her early thirties lying on a costal path. The book starts with the friend of a woman getting married at the courthouse without family or friends attending. While the case takes Wesley to Yorkshire and the Cotswolds, archaeologist Neil Watson is making a dramatic discovery of his own in the fields near the house. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average.

The woman had been house-sitting at Serpent's Point and Wesley is surprised to discover that she was conducting an investigation into unsolved missing person cases. The plot is simple really and gradually builds up where over the last 100 pages of the book there’s a slow unravel of information. A male character talks about his male partner who died and the cops says "well he couldn't have had a sexual interest in the woman, then".

Quite often it can be clunky when there are multiple time lines, but keeping the timeline in the past quite simply narrated really worked well.

But I was surprised at how well the book went, how easy it was to pick up the plot considering this series has been going on with this book being number 26. But as they investigate Susan Brown's life, they discover she was investigating the disappearance and murder of two other women. Kate Ellis's writing draws me in and the problem with that is that her books only take a few days to read and I am then on pins until the next in the series of 'DI Wesley Peterson' and his colleagues, family and friends. The book unfolds naturally and everything feels cohesive rather than forced which is rare to find now! Ellis connects archaeological studies of the past with present-day crimes, and the setting in Devonshire along with the other characters in the police station are also well-done.

Such a gripping tale that, as well as Wesley and Gerry being in Devon, where their the first murder takes place, takes us to The Cotswolds and Yorkshire on the track of a what they now know is a serial killer.

Neil not only gets to dig around in the attic for old documents, but his work in the field also garners the attention of nighthawks, and that leads to a stay with Wesley and Wesley's wife, Pam, who gave me the biggest laugh in the book. The number of potential suspects and the work Gerry, Wesley and the rest of the team have to put into whittle them down keeps you guessing to the end. In Serpent's Point, readers follow along with Wesley and Neil in the present day, but they're also treated to the journal entries of wannabe famous archaeologist Dr.

The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products. The woman had been house-sitting at Serpent's Point and Wesley is surprised to discover that she was conducting an investigation into unsolved missing persons cases.

Meanwhile Neil, Wesley's friend from his days as an anthropology student, is excited to find what looks like the remains of a Roman village and we learn, through letters, that this is not a new discovery. Lovely to be with old friends, again, even if it was only for a few days and thank you to Kate Ellis being able to transport me there. While it's great to catch up with what has been happening with all the characters and get down and dirty in Neil's trenches, I always love trying to put all the pieces together to solve the mystery. Crime and mystery stories have always fascinated her, as have medieval history and archaeology which she likes to incorporate in her books.I wouldn't say this story gripped and intrigued me as much as some of the others but still a solid, very readable instalment. It turns out that Susan is on a quest to learn more about her friend's husband who has disappeared completely. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice.