A Fatal Secret

Ryder and Loveday, Book 4

By: Faith Martin

Narrated by: Stephanie Racine

‘The pairing of Ryder and Loveday is a stroke of genius.’ Clare Chase, author of the Eve Mallow and Tara Thorpe mysteries

Oxford, 1961. A family outing to Briar’s Hall ends in tragedy when eleven-year-old Eddie is found dead at the bottom of a disused well.

At first, it appears to be a tragic accident – but Coroner Clement Ryder and WPC Trudy Loveday aren’t convinced. Why would a boy afraid of heights go near a well? And if he was climbing and accidentally fell, why are there no signs of cuts or dirt on his hands?

As they investigate, the secrets of Briar’s Hall – and the mysterious de Lacey family who live there – begin to surface. Soon, Ryder and Loveday begin to fear that Eddie may have stumbled upon a secret that someone was willing to kill for…

A gripping, twisty cosy crime novel, perfect for fans of Agatha Christie, Richard Osman and M.C. Beaton.

‘Absolutely loved it… The characters were some of the best I’ve read in a long time.’ Angela Marsons, no. 1 bestselling author of the Kim Stone series©2019 Faith Martin (P)2019 HarperCollins Publishers Limited

The series continues to entertain

This is the fourth book in this series. We have an interesting pairing of a young probationary woman police constable and an aging Coroner. They’re good together.

The series takes place in the 60s and women aren’t welcomed warmly in the police. So Trudy is given permission to work with Doctor Ryder and, in this case, they are asked to investigate the death of a young boy who presumably fell into a well.

The narration was well done and the story developed well.

It might start slow but it sure heats up.

This series by Faith Martin is excellent. It starts slow while we meet the characters then it get rather exciting. The narration by Stephanie Racine is. pretty good. I think I actually enjoyed it more when I read these books rather than listen to them.

Another excellent work

I thoroughly enjoyed this installment and cannot wait until the next stage of Trudy’s evolution as a police officer.

Good edition the this series

The review describes the plot adequately. As the series is based on the relationship between our two main characters, Trudy and the Coroner, you should start at the beginning. This is an author who respects her readers and does not waste our time explaining facts that have been covered in previous books. The mystery, itself, who killed the boy found in the well, was nicely done.

Still good, but…..

As before, narration was very good.
Plot wise, I found this to be less interesting than the previous books. There weren’t much of other characters to add humour, and not much character development to the main leads too.
A main gripe with the whole book was how the end confrontation scene was so DRAGGED. An action scene which could be described in a minute or two took 5 or more minutes as every thought in Trudy’s mind was described, with no action at all. It went on and on until she finally snapped out to do something.
I also noticed that since from book 3, the author always had Trudy or other characters sighing non stop. One conversation would see Trudy sighing 5 times. It was as if the author could not find other way to describe Trudy’s frustration.