2 June 2022.
ISBN 978-0-34913554-0 (HB)
When I finished this book, I just sat back and said aloud, amazing.
This is the fifth book in the Washington Poe series. D S Washington Poe is a member of the National Crime Agency’s Serious Crime Analysis Section, along with his friend and colleague, Tilly Bradshaw, who although a maths genius, can be slightly too outspoken when it comes to social skills. They are tasked with hunting serial killer and serial rapists.
When
our story opens, Poe and Tilly along with their long-suffering boss DI Stephanie
Flynn are on a surveillance operation. Their target, a vicious rapist known as
Spring-heeled Jack, who has been terrorising the women of Watford.
Although Poe
doesn’t have many friends, apart from Tilly and his dog-sitter, Victoria, he
does count the caustic pathologist Estelle Doyle among that select group.
When news reaches him that her father has been shot twice in the head he races
north to be by her side.
All Poe learns is that Estelle has been arrested for murder, that she has firearms residue on her hands and the house is surrounded by fresh snow with only her set of footprints going towards the house, where she found her farther's body. In charge of the case is Chief Inspector Tai-young Lee and she and Poe don’t actually hit it off. In short, Poe wants to see Estelle and Inspector Tai-young Lee is not about to grant his request.
As Poe is doing his upmost to gain access to speak with Estelle, we learn of a poisoner dubbed The Botanist who sends obnoxious celebrities a pressed flower in the post. Then a little later they die, when The Botanist has not been in actual contact with them. Flynn wants Poe back PDQ.
On his return to the team, Poe puts in stringent measures to protect the recipients of a pressed flower, but despite every precaution being taken to ensure that they cannot be reached by The Botanist, still days later they die. To say this is puzzling is a gross understatement. How does The Botanist administer a poison remotely?
So how can Poe and his team solve two locked room mysteries?
One of the most for me interesting part of this book was the amount of detail in the forensics. It must have demanded a huge amount of research.
And alongside all the tension and drama is the interplay by the characters that jump off the page to you. Sarcasm, wit and humour go to make this a most enjoyable read.
I loved this clever,
ingeniously plotted book. Two incredibly intriguing mysteries. I was gripped
from start to finish. A real page turner. I cannot recommend this book too highly. Don’t miss
this one.
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Reviewer:
Lizzie Sirett
M. W. Craven was born in Cumbria in 1968 but grew up in the North East. He trained for two years as an armourer before spending the next ten being paid to travel the world and drink ridiculous amounts of alcohol. In 1995, sick of writing postcards and having fun, he decided it might be time to do something a bit more sensible. And it doesn't get more sensible than doing a law degree. So, he did Social Work instead. Two years later he started working in Cumbria as a probation officer. In between joining the army and securing a publishing deal, Mike found time to have a pet crocodile, survive cancer, get married, and buy a springer spaniel named Bracken. Mike's first Washington Poe novel The Pupped Show, won the Gold Dagger for best novel in 2019. Now a Sunday Times Best seller. There are now five books in the series. He lives in Carlisle. Mike is a member of the Crime Writers' Association, the International Thriller Writers' Association, and the Mystery People Group.
http://www.mwcraven.com/
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