Death on Demand

Starred review from September 7, 2015
Why would anyone want to kill Ruby Bright, a resident at the Marsh House Rest Home, who was just about to celebrate her 100th birthday? That question is but one of the intriguing challenges that Kelly gives his two appealing West Norfolk policemen, Det. Insp. Peter Shaw and his partner, Det. Sgt., George Valentine, in their outstanding sixth outing (after 2014’s At Death’s Window). Someone took Ruby, in her wheelchair, to an area overlooking the coast, before suffocating her with a plastic bag. Apart from the lack of an obvious motive, Shaw and Valentine are stymied by the apparently impossible nature of the crime: all the facility’s exits are covered by surveillance cameras, yet none shows any sign of Ruby or her killer leaving the building. Meanwhile, their superior’s concern with security arrangements for an upcoming annual pilgrimage to a shrine of the Virgin Mary hampers their investigation. The plot takes some highly unusual detours en route to the surprising solution. Agent: Faith Evans, Faith Evans Associates (U.K.).

Starred review from December 22, 2014
Kelly’s superior fifth Shaw and Valentine police procedural (after 2012’s Death’s Door) kicks off with a man being killed in the so-called samphire wars, in which organized crime gangs take over the lucrative business of picking samphire, a much-prized edible plant grown on the Norfolk coast. Det. Insp. Peter Shaw and Det. Sgt. George Valentine must also contend with a possibly related problem: pricey second homes along the coast have been vandalized as part of a political protest. The top brass has kept the lid on news of these crimes, but it’s bound to come out eventually. Meanwhile, Shaw is ambivalent about his wife’s desire to open a restaurant on the beach. The shadow of Shaw’s late father, also a cop, hangs over the case, and the sea itself is a living, breathing entity, as potent as any other character. Long after the pieces of the puzzle fall into place, the mystery of the human psyche remains. Agent: Faith Evans, Faith Evans Associates (U.K.).

November 1, 2015

Why would anyone want to kill a harmless centenarian? The newspaper shows up to celebrate Ruby Knight's 100th birthday, but her room has been ransacked and her corpse is found by the sea. DI Peter Shaw and DS George Valentine of the West Norfolk Constabulary investigate in their sixth outing (after At Death's Window). Shaw and Valentine remain an original and intelligent crime-solving duo.

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2015
Detective Inspector Peter Shaw of the West Norfolk Constabulary is a triple threat: he heads up the CID Unit, crews a lifeboat, and pilots an inshore rescue hovercraft. His partner, Detective Sergeant George Valentine, is more a threat to himself: depressed, chain-smoking, solitary, a broken man who used to work with Shaw's cop father. There's a nice balance to the duo of semi-superhero and falling man that's one of the pleasures of this series. In the fifth Shaw-Valentine procedural, Shaw commands a daring hovercraft rescue of a father and three small children who have been cut off from the mainland by high tide. Just behind them is the body of a murdered man, fastened to a buoy. The victim's pockets are filled with samphire, an in-demand sea asparagus that grows wild in the marsh. Shaw suspects the murder is tied to London organized crime moving into the profitable trade. In addition, their tiny coastal town is hit by burglaries of second homes and an inundation of deadly adulterated cocaine. Darkly atmospheric, fast-paced, and involving.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)

October 15, 2015
Kelly, awarded the UK's Dagger in the Library Award, specializes in police procedurals that highlight both the complexities of the case and the characters of the investigators. Detective Inspector Peter Shaw and Detective Sergeant George Valentine of the Norfolk Constabulary have forged a grudging respect for each other over the past six mysteries, despite the fact that Valentine, much older than Shaw, has to take orders from him. Both men are wounded: Shaw has lost the sight in his left eye, and this book episode reveals a grim medical prognosis for Valentine. And both men carry a cop's cynical outlook. This is reinforced when Ruby Bright, a woman in a seaside nursing home, expecting a big party and a call from the Queen on the occasion of her 100th birthday, is found murdered in her wheelchair. The perplexing question of who would murder a woman that old leads Shaw and Valentine through a labyrinthine plot containing more murders, and into settings, like the derelict Lister Tunnel, that are filled with peril. A wrenching addition to the series.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)