Naked to the Hangman

Lydmouth Crime Series, Book 8

By: Andrew Taylor

Narrated by: Philip Franks

Length: 11 hrs and 25 mins

Publisher's summary

From the number-one best-selling author of The Ashes of London and The Fire Court, this is the final instalment in the acclaimed Lydmouth series.

As a young police officer in Palestine during the closing months of the Mandate - the cradle of Middle Eastern terrorism - Richard Thornhill saw and did things which still haunt his dreams and make him fear for his sanity. Is he himself a killer? Now, when a retired police officer is found dead in the ruins of Lydmouth Castle, the past has come back to claim Detective Inspector Thornhill and he is under suspicion of another murder. His wife, Edith, and former lover Jill Francis join forces in an uneasy alliance to try to help him.

But there are many complications: scandalous allegations have been made about Miss Awre's School of Dancing, the Ruispidge Charity's annual dance for young people is under threat, teenagers haunt the newly opened Italian coffee bar and yearn for fumbled intimacies in the sheltering darkness of the Rex Cinema. And the spring floods are rising higher than they have in living memory, drowning a multitude of secrets.

©2012 Andrew Taylor (P)2020 Audible, Ltd

Critic reviews

"Andrew Taylor is a master story-teller'." (Daily Telegraph)

"An excellent writer. He plots with care and intelligence and the solution to the mystery is satisfyingly chilling." (The Times)

"There is no denying Taylor's talent, his prose exudes a quality uncommon among his contemporaries." (Time Out)

Wow

Could not put this one down
Andrew Taylor’s writing and Philip Franks’s narration make for fabulous listening
Thank you

Not Andrew Taylor’s finest effort

Richard Thornhill plays a relatively minor role in this final Lydmouth novel. (But he is given a new backstory, which is necessary for the plot. But if you’ve read the preceding books in the series, his newfound history a bit disconcerting.) The novel lacks the well drawn secondary characters that populated earlier novels in the series. (Such as the vicar and his wife in An Air that Kills. I imagine it takes time to create engaging and believable secondary characters.) Less space dedicated to creating and fleshing out the secondary characters, while more space dedicated to dialogue. The dialogue is less engaging. For the example, Drake, Thorhill’s boss, relays to his wife the details of the case, while in bed. Their dreadfully dull conversation reminiscent of the dialogue in a 1940s movie, as is much of the other characters’ dialogue.
I assume the writer had lost his enthusiasm for the series. This being the last novel in the series, I imagine that he just wanted to be done with it. I assume that’s why there exists so much description, dull dialogue and a uninspired conclusion. I can’t blame him. But I would love to read another Lydmouth novel. At least the previous Lydmouth novel was satisfying. And Andrew Taylor’s stand-alone novels are deeply gratifying.