The arsenic labyrinth
(Book)

DCI Hannah Scarlett returns to crack open another cold case. Ten years after the disappearance of a local woman, Emma Bestwick, a stranger comes to the Lake District and offers up tantalizing clues that could lead to a solution to the mystery. Meanwhile, historian Daniel Kind is researching the life of John Ruskin, the nineteenth-century poet, art critic, and philosopher. As usual, Scarlett's mystery and Kind's research intersect, this time at the Arsenic Labyrinth, a group of mining tunnels built by friends of Ruskin that could hold the answer to Emma's disappearance. And let's not forget the mysterious stranger: villain or concerned citizen? The Scarlett-Kind novels rely heavily on their beautiful Lake District setting, but Edwards never lets the atmosphere outshine the stories. Fans of this increasingly popular series will be in line for this one, and it should be recommended to readers of such similar British authors as Peter Robinson and Sally Spencer. --David Pitt Copyright 2006 Booklist

Edwards's crisply written third contemporary mystery set in England's Lake District (after 2005's The Cipher Garden) turns on the unsolved disappearance of Emma Bestwick, a woman who went missing a decade earlier. Guy Koenig, a con man recently released from prison, makes an anonymous phone call about Emma's fate to a local journalist who has just revisited her story. DCI Hannah Scarlett, who headed the original inquiry, now focuses her cold case squad on the matter. The predictable police procedure-reinterviewing relatives and friends of the missing woman-gets underway, making little progress until the police receive a tip as to the location of Emma's body. Edwards injects cryptic excerpts of another murder mystery into the narrative and rounds out the story with hints of a frustrated attraction between Hannah and historian Daniel Kind, whose father, Ben, was her mentor. Though the suspense and resolution of the secondary mystery distract from Emma's story, this is solid fare for fans of modern British police procedurals. (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

After a newspaper article commemorating the tenth anniversary of Emma Bestwick's disappearance results in a series of anonymous phone tips, Detective Chief Inspector Hannah Scarlett, head of the Cumbria Constabulary's Cold Case Review Team, begins to question Emma's family and friends. Soon, historian Daniel Kind, researching John Ruskin's years in the Lake District, unearths information vital to the case. Edwards, author of seven Harry Devlin novels and two other Lake District mysteries (e.g., The Cipher Garden), leads readers down a long and torturous path, handing out pieces of the puzzles and ratcheting up the suspense until the very end. Along the way, he offers tidbits about Ruskin, the history of England's Lake District, and insight into the spooky Arsenic Labyrinth, a dangerous series of tunnels in which tin ore was mined for its arsenic content. Patrons who enjoy challenging mysteries with complex characters, intricate relationships, and dangerous secrets (think Deborah Crombie, P.D. James, and Elizabeth George) will snap this one up. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

An anonymous tip reopens a decade-old disappearance for DCI Hannah Scarlett's Cold Case Review Team. Reflexologist Emma Bestwick disappeared from Francis and Vanessa Goddard's home in Monk Coniston ten years ago, soon after explaining her newfound wealth by telling everyone she'd won the lottery. The original investigation team, which included Hannah, discovered precious little except that she hadn't won a penny. Now pesky reporter Tony Di Venuto, fresh from his tenth-anniversary story on the case, gets a phone call slyly assuring him that Emma won't be coming home. In fact, Guy Koenig, the con artist who placed the call, could say much more about Emma's last hours if he so chose. But the sharply appealing riddle of her death is buried beneath layer upon layer of other mysteries, some of them going back 50 years, not one of them involving arsenic. The tangled skein would be perfect for historian Daniel Kind (The Cipher Garden, 2005, etc.) if he weren't busy fretting over his lover Miranda's restless yearning to be closer to her columnist's job in London. So it's up to Hannah and her team to determine who's been sleeping with whom, who's covering up for whom, and who killed whom. It turns out to be one tall order. Ambitious, nuanced and brimful of Lake Country atmosphere--Edwards always gives top value--but cluttered with coincidences and some truly incredible revelations. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

DCI Hannah Scarlett returns to crack open another cold case. Ten years after the disappearance of a local woman, Emma Bestwick, a stranger comes to the Lake District and offers up tantalizing clues that could lead to a solution to the mystery. Meanwhile, historian Daniel Kind is researching the life of John Ruskin, the nineteenth-century poet, art critic, and philosopher. As usual, Scarlett's mystery and Kind's research intersect, this time at the Arsenic Labyrinth, a group of mining tunnels built by friends of Ruskin that could hold the answer to Emma's disappearance. And let's not forget the mysterious stranger: villain or concerned citizen? The Scarlett-Kind novels rely heavily on their beautiful Lake District setting, but Edwards never lets the atmosphere outshine the stories. Fans of this increasingly popular series will be in line for this one, and it should be recommended to readers of such similar British authors as Peter Robinson and Sally Spencer. ((Reviewed December 15, 2006)) Copyright 2006 Booklist Reviews.

After a newspaper article commemorating the tenth anniversary of Emma Bestwick's disappearance results in a series of anonymous phone tips, Detective Chief Inspector Hannah Scarlett, head of the Cumbria Constabulary's Cold Case Review Team, begins to question Emma's family and friends. Soon, historian Daniel Kind, researching John Ruskin's years in the Lake District, unearths information vital to the case. Edwards, author of seven Harry Devlin novels and two other Lake District mysteries (e.g., The Cipher Garden ), leads readers down a long and torturous path, handing out pieces of the puzzles and ratcheting up the suspense until the very end. Along the way, he offers tidbits about Ruskin, the history of England's Lake District, and insight into the spooky Arsenic Labyrinth, a dangerous series of tunnels in which tin ore was mined for its arsenic content. Patrons who enjoy challenging mysteries with complex characters, intricate relationships, and dangerous secrets (think Deborah Crombie, P.D. James, and Elizabeth George) will snap this one up.

Edwards's crisply written third contemporary mystery set in England's Lake District (after 2005's The Cipher Garden ) turns on the unsolved disappearance of Emma Bestwick, a woman who went missing a decade earlier. Guy Koenig, a con man recently released from prison, makes an anonymous phone call about Emma's fate to a local journalist who has just revisited her story. DCI Hannah Scarlett, who headed the original inquiry, now focuses her cold case squad on the matter. The predictable police procedure—reinterviewing relatives and friends of the missing woman—gets underway, making little progress until the police receive a tip as to the location of Emma's body. Edwards injects cryptic excerpts of another murder mystery into the narrative and rounds out the story with hints of a frustrated attraction between Hannah and historian Daniel Kind, whose father, Ben, was her mentor. Though the suspense and resolution of the secondary mystery distract from Emma's story, this is solid fare for fans of modern British police procedurals. (Jan.)