Gardener struck down with scythe - Rated 
This is the second in this author's Lake District mystery series. DCI Hannah Scarlett decides to look again at the case of Warren Howe who was murdered in a garden he was landscaping. The community is close knit and suspicious, but is it hiding secrets which could lead her to the identity of the murderer? Hannah's own life is not short of tension and she finds herself increasingly looking forward to her meetings with Daniel Kind - the Oxford don who gave up everything to live with his girlfriend Miranda in a cottage on the shores of one of the lakes. Daniel is the son of Hannah's former boss, and is himself trying to solve the cipher hidden in his overgrown garden, but he becomes embroiled in trying to trace the identity of Warren's Howe's killer. Full of twists and turns, this fast moving plot leaves the reader guessing almost to the last page. The characters are three dimensional and believable, and the background of the Lakes springs to life on the page. I enjoyed the first in the series 'The Coffin Trail' but this is even better in my opinion.
Atmospheric mystery - Rated
Lecherous landscape gardener Warren Howe was murdered. Cut to pieces with a scythe and his body dumped in the trench he was digging in a client's backyard. There was no shortage of suspects among his many conquests and their unhappy husbands, but no one is charged with the crime. Now, the cold case team led by DCI Hannah Scarlett, receives an anonymous letter accusing Howe's wife Tina of the murder, and they reinvestigate. Cold case investigations stir up all kinds of memories and fears, and this one is no exception, especially when Nick Lowther, Hannah's Sergeant, who was on the original investigating team, seems to be involved with one of the prime suspects. Hannah's friendship with Daniel Kind, the son of her old boss and mentor, is also becoming more important to her, and Daniel becomes involved in the murder investigation as he researches the history of his garden at Tarn Cottage and the hidden message in its design. This is a fantastic follow up to The Coffin Trail, the first in this series of mysteries. Hannah and Daniel are increasingly drawn to each other, and their relationship is the emotional core of the book. The investigation is full of surprises and the Lake District - including a visit to Beatrix Potter's Hill Top Farm - is a lovely setting for murder and mayhem.
Murder & Mystery Grow In The Cipher Garden - Rated 
The Cipher Garden, the second Martin Edwards novel in his Lake District Mystery series, is as compelling a Crime Fiction novel as is likely to be found. A lot darker than its predecessor, The Coffin Trail, Edwards has managed to encapsulate the mysterious beauty of The Lakes and has imbued them with even more macabre majesty, through tight descriptive prose, credible scenarios and manifestly believable characterisations.
Warren Howe, a husband and father of two, is brutally slaughtered with his own scythe by a mysterious hooded figure. He had been on a garden-landscaping job, digging an excavation trench into which the killer would soon throw his bloodied, lifeless body. The police identify several suspects but, due to the lack of evidence, they fail to make an arrest.
Years later an anonymous tip-off sparks the interest of DCI Hannah Scarlett and, despite her superior’s discouragement, she follows her instincts and pursues the case. Hannah’s investigations lead her to suspect Howe’s widow, Tina, but she has an alibi that seems to put her out of the frame and only when historian Daniel Kind’s discoveries about the unusual garden attached to his new home emerge, does the crucial link Hannah’s investigation carry her forward. As Hannah and Daniel delve deeper in their quest for the truth, they discover that in this village old sins cast long shadows.
Here, the characters of Kind and Scarlett are much more rounded and natural. Their chemistry is tinged with a tension that invigorates their individual personalities so that the reader yearns for them to be drawn closer together. Alone, they are two people set in their own separate worlds. Together, they are a team made in heaven.
The plotline is fast, gripping and, at times, disturbing, which openly demands pages to be turned. There are also more of the delicate insights to the beauty and background of The Lake District itself; The Cipher Garden unearths more history of the region than an entire ream of Tourist Information pamphlets could ever manage, which never slows or detracts from the storyline in any way.
If a Crime Fiction fan is looking for something supremely well written, deeply intriguing and darkly sinister, then there is nobody who could possibly be disappointed with this latest offering from Martin Edwards.
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