‘The Winter Visitor’ by James Henry

Published by Riverrun,
1 February 2024.
ISBN 978-1-52943-173-5 (HB)

Freezing winds and blankets of snow set the scene for the chilling atmosphere of James Henry’s latest police procedural. Set in and around Colchester in February 1991, the Essex landscape is prominent in this intricately plotted and well written story. Period detail like the closing of mental homes in favour of care in the community, a policy that released totally institutionalized patients into situations they were neither prepared nor equipped to deal with, and the mis-selling of mortgages that trapped people in homes they couldn’t afford to sell, are judiciously entwined with the fabric of the disturbing tale.

It is against this less than favourable background that Superintendent Watt instructs two sergeants, Daniel Kenton and Julian Brazier to investigate an unusual series of events.

The first incident is a fire that has been deliberately started in the roof of a Norman Church at Kempe Marsh. The vicar, Kevin Symonds, makes an enormous fuss and gets his bishop to harass Superintendent Watt who is mainly interested in advancing his career and just wants a quick resolution to this and other problems almost regardless of the truth of the matter. Thankfully for justice, the traditional Kenton and the slightly odd-ball Brazier have minds of their own and are better motivated and more humane than Watt. 

After the fire, Bruce Hopkins, ex-everything - teacher, con man, drug smuggler etc., was discovered virtually naked and very dead in the boot of a stolen car that had been dumped into the Abberton Reservoir.  Hopkins had fled to Spain ten years previously to avoid prosecution after a load of drugs was found in his boat. Why had he returned? He says his ex-wife, Chloe, had written to him because she was dying. Chloe isn’t dying and denies communicating with Hopkins who no longer has the letter. What - or whom - had enticed Hopkins back to Essex?

Finally, Kenton was directed towards an ex-teacher turned florist, Kenneth Markham, who had committed suicide. Before Markham died, he too had received a letter. But this letter has also vanished, so nobody knows who sent it or why its contents had driven him to suicide.

Kenton and Brazier, joined by female, Sergeant Wilde, believe the three incidents are related, but they struggle to connect them. They have to dig deep into events that happened a decade previously before their truly sobering investigations reach a horrific and troubling climax.

On a happier note, Watt hints that Kenton might be promoted, and Sergeants Wilde and Brazier are beginning to enjoy spending off-duty time in each other’s company. Despite the chill, is romance in the air?
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Reviewer Angela Crowther.

James Henry is the pen name for James Gurbutt, who has written three prequels to R D Wingfield’s popular Frost series. He works in publishing and lives in Essex.

 

 

Angela Crowtheris a retired scientist.  She has published many scientific papers but, as yet no crime fiction.  In her spare time Angela belongs to a Handbell Ringing group, goes country dancing and enjoys listening to music, particularly the operas of Verdi and Wagner