Pauline Rowson

If you've not met this British police procedural series based around Portsmouth Harbour and the Isle of Wight, allow me to recommend them. DEATH LIES BENEATH is #8 in the series and probably not a good place to start, simply because sequential character and setting development connects all the novels in a sort of linear fashion.

The sequence (from Fantastic Fiction) is

1. Tide of Death (2006)

2. Deadly Waters (2007)

3. The Suffocating Sea (2008)

4. Dead Man's Wharf (2009)

5. Blood on the Sand show more (2010)

6. Footsteps on the Shore (2011)

7. A Killing Coast (2012)

8. Death Lies Beneath (2012)

9. Undercurrent (2013)

and so by #8 we've come quite a long way in Andy Horton's story.

Horton's personal story includes a failed marriage, the fight for access to his young daughter, and a search for the truth about why his own mother disappeared when he was very young. In each novel the author balances these factors against a mystery, and usually at least one murder.

Pauline Rowson is an excellent constructor of false trails and DEATH LIES BENEATH is no exception. Ex-con Darryl Woodley's death results in a funeral which Horton and a photographer attend just to see who else turns up, in an effort to solve the crime of Woodley's murder. A woman whom Horton can't identify appears at the funeral but before 24 hours have passed, her body is found at Portsmouth Harbour. The diving team looking for her handbag finds another body that has been on one of the wrecks for a number of years. Three bodies seems a huge coincidence and Horton doesn't believe in them, but are the three murders connected?

At the same time a bit more evidence seems connected to Horton's missing mother, Jennifer, but it doesn't seem he is much closer to knowing what happened to her.

I really enjoy these books. They are carefully plotted and Andy Horton is a likeable if flawed character. show less

suspense, thriller, investigations, computer-programmer, computer-science, local-law-enforcement, Norwich, cultural-differences, singer, false-identities, false-information, due-diligence, crime-fiction, criminal-acts, procedural, unpleasant-suspect, unpleasant-victims, unputdownable, riveting, friends, friendship, family-drama, family-history, grieving, staged-discovery, England*****

The story is new this year but it is the current end to a long line of books centered on DI Andy Horton / show more Solent Murder Mystery Books. I have read a small assortment of the earlier books and thought they were great. But I am not one to get hung up on the backstories of the continuing characters. They add to the investigative aspects and provide a common thread in a series, but I come for the investigations an unraveling of the whole mess. And what a mess this turns out to be! The first body is that of a renowned celebrant. A what? Evidently it is common in this area for families to have a coordinator (akin to a wedding planner) or celebrant in charge of everything related to the funeral (for a hefty fee). That death turns out to be much more complicated than it seems, as do the next few. They appear unrelated at first but due diligence proves otherwise. What a Gordian Knot! Ingenious fact-finding, plot twists that totally blindsided me, and backed up by mystifying red herrings. Fantastic!
I requested and received a free temporary EARC from Joffe Books via NetGalley. Thank you! show less

I have been a fan of Pauline Rowson's Andy Horton series for some time now and this one did not disappoint. The book will really work best if you have read earlier titles in the series, but even so, there are plenty of hints about details from earlier novels.

The story follows the pattern of earlier ones: a police investigation into a local case, in this case a missing person involving Portsmouth CID and progress in Andy Horton's personal investigation into what happened to his mother nearly show more three decades earlier.

Once again it is meticulously plotted and the central characters are well drawn. Horton is a maverick, and the tensions between himself and his superiors puts his actions on a knife edge. By the end of the book, you can't help feeling that knowledge of what happened to Andy's mother is just around the corner. show less

historical-places-events, historical-novel, historical-research, historical-setting, history-and-culture, 1950s, Cornwall, murders, investigations, police-detectives, procedural, PTSD, conundrum, crime-thriller, extortion, geology, grief, grieving, justice, lies, merchant-mariner, mining, mysteries, rage, secrets, spousal-abuse, suspense, tragedy, unpleasant-victims, unputdownable, consequences*****

The local was in a great hurry to have the first murder declared "natural causes". There was show more no such nonsense with the second. Veteran of The Great War Inspector Ryga is seconded to Cornwall from Scotland Yard and finds more than anyone expected. Excellent police work in this extremely twisty novel of deviousness.
Nobody has chastised me yet for giving a biased review because I really love this author's work!
I requested and received a free temporary EARC from Joffe Books via NetGalley. Thank you! show less