Recalled to Death

August 17, 2015
Early in Masters’s gripping sixth Martha Gunn mystery (after 2014’s The Devil’s Chair), the gatekeeper at Moreton Corbet Castle, an English Heritage site in Shropshire, discovers while inspecting the castle’s grounds a homeless man with his throat slashed. Det. Insp. Alex Randall leads the investigation in a most baffling murder case, while coroner Martha plays a subsidiary role. The few clues make identifying the victim unusually difficult. More questions arise once the police learn that he was a nice guy, polite and well-spoken, with no history of drug or alcohol abuse. How did he fall so completely off the grid? Alex becomes as eager to understand what motivated the dead man to abandon his respectable life as he is to catch the man’s killer. The intricate plot slowly builds momentum until reaching a surprising resolution. Details that hint at future developments for several characters will leave readers eager for the next installment.

September 15, 2015
The murder of a homeless man in the ruins of a medieval Shropshire castle presents an unusual case for DI Alex Randall and Coroner Martha Gunn. The victim, called The Man by police, proves very difficult to identify. An old-fashioned child's shoe and four WWII army medals are hidden on his person, and investigation shows that he was well spoken, cultured, and never gave his name, speaking of himself as being among the dead. Gunn works out the literary clues that lead to solving the case as she, a widow, puzzles over her relationship with Randall, with his complicated personal situation. Masters' sixth Martha Gunn mystery, a procedural that details the painstaking police work needed to close such a case, is elevated by the details of the personal lives of the members of Randall's team and members of the Gunn family, with Gunn's twin teenagers adding life to the story. With the Gunn-Randall relationship at its center, this is an understated series that deserves attention as much for its domestic drama as for its crime solving.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)