Where Death Delights

April 12, 2010
Knight brings his own experience as a Home Office pathologist to this absorbing first in a new series set in Britain’s Wye Valley. When pathologist Richard Pryor and Angela Bray, a young biologist on the rebound from a broken engagement, go into business offering forensic expertise, they expect paternity tests and postmortems to be their bread and butter, but one of their first cases involves bones that two women each claim prove the death of a loved one. Later, what is first dismissed as an accidental drowning takes on a sinister dimension as a result of their testing. Knight (Crowner Royal
and 12 other mysteries in his medieval Crowner John series) describes the arcana of autopsy without going into overly graphic detail. While the testing processes considered state of the art in 1955 are crude by today’s standards, he succeeds in making them just as interesting. A couple of great plot twists at the end will leave readers eager for a sequel.

March 15, 2010
A forensic pathologist and a forensic scientist combine their talents to start a private practice in the Wye Valley of Wales.

Richard Pryor returns from Singapore in 1955 with enough money to start a practice using the big house he has inherited from an aunt as headquarters. His new partner is Angela Bray, a former Home Office scientist who's looking for a change after a nasty breakup with her police-officer boyfriend. With their lab tech Sian, their housekeeper and secretary Moira, and their odd-jobs man Jimmy all eager to help, they slowly build up a steady list of postmortems and testing cases for both government and private entities. Two of their inquiries stand out. The first involves trying to identify some bones which are being claimed by two different people. The second may be a case of murder. When the daughter of a prominent barrister is found drowned, he asks Pryor to redo the autopsy because he suspects that her husband, who wanted a divorce, may have killed her. The new firm's slow, careful investigations yield some surprising results.

In a major departure from his medieval Crowner John series (The Manor of Death, 2009, etc.), Knight, a retired Home Office pathologist, paints a realistic picture of all the job involves. There are no fireworks, just a quietly entertaining look at both an interesting field and life in a Great Britain emerging from the privations of World War II.

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May 1, 2010
It is 1955, and forensic science is just coming into its own. Dr. Richard Pryor and scientist Angel Bray form a partnership to provide forensic services to the police. The pair handle several cases requiring evidence to prove death by misadventure. VERDICT Knight, a retired Home Office pathologist, illustrates how the pioneers in this important field worked without modern equipment and techniques. The story is slow paced but so unusual that readers will get caught up in the science. Fans of "CSI" and forensic mysteries will enjoy this series debut from the author of the "Crowner John" medieval titles.

Copyright 2010 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 1, 2010
This entertaining slice of nostalgia for life in 1950s Britain should please Anglophiles and will also appeal to fans of forensically detailed crime fiction. Dr. Richard Pryor, recently returned from Singapore, has joined forces with biologist Angela Bray, a former Home Office scientist, to form a private forensic practice in the Wye Valley. The pair are at first worried about making ends meet, but word of their expertise spreads, and they quickly have their hands full with everything from settling paternity cases to identifying dead bodies to proving that a young woman found drowned off the coast was murdered by her husband. Knight, a former Home Office pathologist, shows off his detailed knowledge of forensics, especially as the science was practiced in the 1950s. The appeal of this story lies very much in the engaging cast of characters, the interplay between Pryor and Bray, and the intriguing forensic details. Although the story may be too gentle for fans of taut, suspenseful police procedurals, it will engage those with either a more scientific mind-set or an interest in the period.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)