‘Deadfall’ by Aline Templeton

Published by Allison & Busby,
21 November 2024:
ISBN: 978-0-7490-3154-1 (HB)

 DCI Kelso Strang’s personal life has moved on since his last case. The fifth in this engaging series set in a variety of Scotland’s small towns saw him start a romance with young lawyer Cat Fleming; at the beginning of book six, the relationship has progressed and Cat is moving into the cottage on the coast which Kelso calls home when he isn’t away on a case. He is head of Police Scotland’s Rural Crime Squad, which takes over major investigations when the local force lacks the resources and manpower to do it themselves.

They are both hoping for some down time from work, to let their relationship settle into its new shape; but crime pays no heed to other people’s lives, and Cat’s boxes aren’t even unpacked before duty calls Kelso away. He has to leave Cat to her unpacking when the co-owner of a large estate is found dead, and the post mortem reveals that it wasn’t the accident it first appeared. 

The dead man is Perry Forsyth, recently returned to his childhood home from the bright lights of Edinburgh, where his lucrative career in property has come to an abrupt end. It soon becomes plain that Perry was not a popular man, and his death works to the advantage of a number of people who have designs on the ancient forest which forms most of the family estate. His sister Oriole has continued to live there, and sees herself as the guardian of the trees and wildlife. A local consortium of dubious businessmen want to buy the land cheaply to build a luxury hotel. A small-time academic sees potential for a study centre which would enhance his failing career. And then there’s Jay, Perry’s wayward teenage son, who adds a layer of complication by going missing.  

It’s down to Kelso to dig down into the layers of deceit and self-interest in order to identify the murderer and find the missing boy. His sidekick DS Livvy Murray is forced to make the arduous two-hour journey to and from Edinburgh every day because the budget won’t stretch to accommodation for her. They very soon becomes suspicious of Keith Drummond, one of the local inspectors, but fortunately finds an ally in DI Hamish Campbell. And to cap it all, the new chief superintendent is on a witch hunt, determined to root out corruption.

Kelso finds a way through the tangled web to the truth, but not before other lives, including his own, are put in danger. Meanwhile back at HQ in Edinburgh, his boss DCS Jane Borthwick is fighting a battle for the future of the Rural Crime Squad. Cat is discovering first-hand how it feels to be the much younger partner of a senior police officer: a complex mixture of pride in his achievements, resentment and some outmoded attitudes in the force, and gut-wrenching fear for his safety.

Kelso Strang is rapidly becoming one of my favourite police procedural protagonists: he’s efficient and perceptive, and also very human, with emotions and frailties which he isn’t afraid to show. In each book Aline Templeton places him at the head of a well-rounded and true to life set of characters, some recurring, most passing through. The series is going from strength to strength; long may Kelso continue!
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Reviewer: Lynne Patrick

Aline Templeton grew up in the fishing village of Anstruther, on the east coast of Scotland not far from St Andrews.  The memories of beautiful scenery and a close community inspired her to set the Marjory Fleming series in a place very like that – rural Galloway, in the south-west of Scotland. After attending Cambridge University to read English she taught for a few years.  She now writes full-time.  Her most recent series features DCI Kelso Strang, officer in charge of Police Scotland’s Serious Rural Crime Squad. There are six books in the series.  

http://www.alinetempleton.co.uk

Lynne Patrick has been a writer ever since she could pick up a pen, and has enjoyed success with short stories, reviews and feature journalism, but never, alas, with a novel. She crossed to the dark side to become a publisher for a few years and is proud to have launched several careers which are now burgeoning. She lives in Oxfordshire in a house groaning with books, about half of them crime fiction.