The Serpent Pool

December 7, 2009
The musty, sedate world of old books provides the backdrop for a series of gruesome murders in Edwards's absorbing fourth Lake District mystery (after 2007's The Arsenic Labyrinth
). Rare book dealers prove an unexpectedly randy lot as they are swept under by sexual undercurrents of obsession, infidelity, and jealousy. Inevitably, desire proves the undoing of one victim after another, as the sociopath responsible, obsessed by Thomas De Quincey's tract On Murder
, fulfills his “destiny... to make nightmares come true.” Leave it to Det. Chief Insp. Hannah Scarlett to find the link between a cold case, the murder of 25-year-old aspiring writer Bethany Friend (or was it suicide?), found drowned in a shallow pool six years earlier, and two active investigations, though not before letting her own conflicted desires get the better of her when her current lover, a secondhand bookseller, falls under suspicion. Hannah's odd failure to pursue a line of questioning with another suspect also spells trouble.

November 1, 2009
The spirit of Thomas De Quincey hovers over a Lake District murder case.

Six years after Bethany Friend drowned in barely 18 inches of water, DCI Hannah Scarlett, assigned to Cumbria Constabulary Cold Cases, is reopening the enquiry. Assisted by cheeky new hire DS Greg Wharf, Hannah has barely started when George Saffell and his valuable book collection burn to a crisp. Then Stuart Wagg is dropped down a well. What did the victims have in common? To Hannah's discomfort, the answer is her lover, bookseller Marc Amos, who'd hired Bethany and sold first editions to George and Stuart. Equally disconcerting, the true love of Hannah's life, historian Daniel Kind, resented Stuart for his abusive treatment of Daniel's sister Louise. Meanwhile, Marc's attentions are wandering from Hannah to his new assistant, beautiful, mysterious Cassie Weston. It turns out that Bethany and Cassie had been lovers at university, and that George's widow Wanda once romanced Stuart. Now Wanda is privately printing a book on Thomas De Quincey, the subject of a local festival chaired by Arlo Denstone at which Daniel will deliver the keynote address. Unfortunately, the festival is being mismanaged; Arlo has disappeared; and Marc is well on his way to joining the deceased at the hands of fervent De Quincey fans.

Apart from an over-the-top denouement, Edwards (Waterloo Sunset, 2008, etc.) provides a credible pairing of cozy and cerebral storytelling.

(COPYRIGHT (2009) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

Starred review from December 15, 2009
In Edwards's fourth "Lake District" procedural (after "The Coffin Trail, The Cipher Garden", and "The Arsenic Labyrinth"), DI Hannah Scarlett works a cold case involving the mysterious drowning of a young woman. Was it suicide or murder? Meanwhile, the rest of the Cumbria CID is investigating the gruesome death of a book collector incinerated along with his books. VERDICT The juxtaposition of human relationships past and present, the interweaving of the writings and life of Thomas de Quincey with the contemporary plot, and the backdrop of England's Lake District, famous for its literary connections, make this an excellent choice for discerning readers who want an unusual and challenging puzzle mystery that will keep them guessing until the final pages. "Wow!" [See Prepub Mystery, "LJ" 10/1/09; large-print ed. ISBN 978-1-59058-594-8.]

Copyright 2009 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 1, 2009
Book lovers, especially fans of nineteenth-century writer and opium addict Thomas de Quincey, will enjoy the latest Lake District mystery. DCI Hannah Scarlett reopens another cold case, this one involving the drowning death, seven years ago, of a young woman. But Hannah is distracted by her personal life, especially by her rocky relationship with book dealer Marc Amos, who is himself rather upset over the death of one his best customers (whose murder-by-fire opens the novel). Meanwhile, Hannahs friend and sometime sidekick, historian Daniel Kind, is deep into a new book on de Quincey (who was among the first writers to consider murder as the basis of a literary art form), but he, too, soon becomes distracted: his sister thinks she has accidentally killed her lover, who also happens to be a book collector. In his usual leisurely but always compelling way, Edwards pulls together these various plot threads, rewarding the patient reader with a story that is complex and intellectually stimulating. Certainly the most labyrinthine of the Lake District novels, but perhaps also the best.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)