First in what seems to be only a two-book mystery series featuring Inspector Luke Abbott, The Wychford Murders just didn't do it for me.

It seems that a cleaning woman has been found with her throat slashed on a towpath along the Purle River in Wychford. DCI Luke Abbott is called in to investigate this horrible murder. However, while he's busy with this case, there are two more murders that he must turn his attention to, and he a) must decide whether the small town is dealing with a serial killer -- and b )must catch the killer before anyone else dies. But things are not always as they seem, as Abbott quickly learns, making his job incredibly tough.

There is an okay mystery at the heart of this book, but I think that the author threw in way too much on the romance side for this to work well. Abbott is reunited with an old girlfriend, Jennifer and sparks ignite, but I felt that this whole love interest thing cheapened the story a bit and slowed down the crime solving. Also -- some of the characters were so overdrawn as to appear stereotypical and I found this a bit off-putting.

I don't mind a love interest in a crime novel as long as it's kept in the background, but if you like British murder mysteries (and actually, this one is written by an American author) that are a bit heavy on the romance, then you'll probably enjoy this one. I probably won't be coming back to this author myself, because I prefer something a bit edgier, but then again, a lot of people thought this was a very good book. ( )