The Funeral Owl

This is the latest in the excellent series from Jim Kelly & there's something comfortable & familiar about picking it up. For fans, it's a chance to catch up with the characters whose lives you've become invested in.
Dryden is now the editor of The Crow & he's opened up an office in a neighbouring town on the fens. Laura is working with the BBC & their only worry is why baby Eden isn't walking yet. Humph continues to be Dryden's chauffeur (with Boudicca riding shotgun) while working on his Albanian in his spare time. But his focus is on Grace, his eldest daughter, who has become a troubled 15 year old.
Dryden believes the key to the paper's success is chasing down the local stories that matter to his readers. There's been a string of show more metal thefts in the area & while checking out the latest hit at a church in Brimstone Hill, he finds the body of a young man, tied to a cross. He's identified as a member of one of the chinese gangs that is at war with another.
But as usual, it's not the only story Dryden is working on. Someone is brewing up bootleg vodka that is just this side of poison, a teenage math whiz has gone missing & the vicar in Brimstone Hill wants to kick out the retired sexton. The last thing he needs is for DC Powell to bring him a cold case involving home invasions in 1999 that ended in the murder of a local man.
Part of the fun in reading these books is trying to figure out which stories are related as Dryden runs around the fens chasing after leads. To some extent they all are in a place where neighbours know each others business & memories are long. But this wild, sometimes bleak landscape has always attracted those looking for a place to hide themselves & their secrets. The author does an excellent job describing the area & its' people, providing an atmospheric, moody backdrop as the pace picks up. Because he lives there, these stories are personal for Dryden & sometimes he has to choose between what's good for the paper & his own feelings. Kelly's lyrical prose lends itself to creating these small intimate moments within the larger picture of the overall plot.
Early in the book, Dryden received a photo from a reader. It was of a funeral owl, rarely seen & so called for its' reputation as an omen of death. Might be something to that myth because soon the body count is rising & Dryden finds himself in danger as he unravels the secrets & histories of those involved.
Kelly has another winner here. The plot is tight & intricate, the dialogue is smart & true to each character and the book is paced so as to draw you in before taking off as Dryden starts to fit all the pieces together. The characters are well written, individual & flawed just like the rest of us & you care about them and their personal lives. There is a recurring theme of memories, what you allow yourself to remember & what you actively try to forget and the effect that has on those around you.
If you haven't read Kellt before, start at the beginning. There is a huge back story concerning Dryden's life before & after marrying Laura & bits of that history come up in each book. Recommend for fans of Elly Griffiths, Peter May's Lewis series, Anne Cleeves Shetland series & Steve Robinson. show less

Kelly can really write. His unblinking eye find the good, the new and the ironies of the Fen landscape that he so clearly loves. He unfolds the plot in concise strokes; you need to pay close attention to the detail packed into each sentence. A smooth ride over less than 250 pages with the many characters of modern Great Britain.

I'm not sure whether this is the first Philip Dryden title I've re, but it certainly won't be the last.

As the editor of the local Fenland weekly newspaper The Crow, Dryden has a lot of stories to juggle: metal thieves who have stolen lead from a church roof, cabling from a wind farm resulting in a spectacular fire, and the spikes from a railway track causing a derailment and a huge traffic jam; the Christ Church is short of funds and it's female new-age priest decides she must sell the sexton's cottage promised to its aging incumbent for life; a Korean war veteran with incredibly sensitive hearing is plagued by high pitched noises from a mechanical bird scaring device; two men die from alcohol poisoning from vodka produced by a local show more illicit still; two teenagers disappear from home in separate incidents; and Chinese triads based in King's Lynn begin a war.

So there is plenty to keep the reader's brain engaged. And then the connections between the plot lines gradually emerge. And of course there are human interest elements in each of the stories. show less

The Funeral Owl by Jim Kelly, which is #7 in the Philip Dryden series, is a mystery novel with multiple threads which weave into a single story.

Grace, the fifteen-year-old missing daughter of Humph, a friend and driver of Philip Dryden, editor of The Crow, is found in a remote part of England’s Fen country after a dust storm. Philip visits Christ Church in Brimstone Hill where a metal theft had occurred. But he finds the body of a Chinese man hanging on a crucifix. Then there is the death of two young unemployed men found in a flooded ditch. They had been drinking moonshine laced with poison and they were headed for death but no one could explain the manner they were drowned. Also there is also a cold case of art robberies in the show more area. With the sighting of the Boreal or so-called 'Funeral' owl, believed to be harbingers of death, and the chain of events unfolding, things seem to be headed for the worst. The people of the area are caught in a hostile environment not of their own making. Though bad news is good news for journalists, Philip Dryden must leave behind his pen and wear his hat to solve the mysteries.

The Funeral Owl is a mystery that will transport you to the setting and make you feel a part of the story. It is written solidly, and you can visualize the countryside and see the houses, and the farms, and the beautiful countryside eerily silent. You will be absorbed by the happenings unseen than those seen with the eyes. Thoroughly enjoyable, the story will hold you to the very end. show less

Excellent book in a good series. small town newspaperman in the fens, interesting characters and locale. A good read