‘The Path of the Dead’ by Caroline Benton

Published by Constable & Robinson,
30 March 2006.
ISBN: 978-1-84529-269-3 (HB)

Augusta (Gus) Tavender is a Fire Brigade photographer for the county of Devon. On a routine call to a fire she finds a small locked room inside which is a charred body. As the room was locked from the outside it is a suspicious death.

The following day called out to a rescue incident on Dartmoor she meets Judith who seems familiar and who she eventually places as being at college with her, although not a friend, Judith always kept to herself. Judith hasn’t changed, she is barely civil. So, Gus is somewhat surprised when a few days later she receives a letter from Judith asking her to visit her in the remote house in which she lives on the moor.  Gus has no intention of going until she mentions the invitation to her father who says that Judith must have been a relative of Harriet Hills who was found dead in a quarry the previous April. Her father recalls that the verdict on her death was that she must have fell whilst walking on the moor - she was in her eighties.

But Judith is convinced that her aunt was murdered. At first Gus is skeptical but Judith produces her aunt’s recent diaries which show clearly that she was afraid - the diaries do not actually say of what and why, only that she has discovered something which makes her fear for her life. But what knowledge could she have that would be so dangerous to her. The only suggestion that Judith can make is the new Sacred Oak Institution that has recently set up a study centre for Spiritual and Ecological Awareness and against which Harriet Hills had been campaigning. There is of course Harriet’s will - she had willed some sizable bequests to a number of people. Could one of them be in need of money.

This is a debut novel and I read it in one sitting. I have never heard of a Fire Brigade photographer, but as it’s explained I can clearly see the logic of it. There are some great characters, and an intricate plot that kept me guessing - a good twist at the end.  I hope that this is the start of a series.
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Reviewer: Lizzie Hayes

Caroline Benton was raised in Somerset but ten years ago moved to France, where she converted a haunted watermill, she now runs as a holiday home with her partner.