Martin Edwards, The Hanging Wood (2011)

Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press (a  NetGalley review copy).

The fifth Lake District Mystery, featuring DI Hannah Scarlett and historian Daniel Kind - to be published soon in the UK.

"I must talk to Hannah Scarlett, it´s a matter of life and death." This is how it all begins when Orla Payne calls the Cold Case Review Team of Cumbria Constabulary. Unfortunately she is so drunk that detective constable Linz Waller gives up understanding what she wants.

When Orla was a little girl, her teenage brother Callum went missing, and as his uncle committed suicide soon after, the police saw his death as an admission of guilt and closed the case. Orla never believed her Uncle Philip could hurt her brother, and even if he did, the body must be somewhere so she still wants closure of some kind. After her vain effort to get in touch with Hannah Scarlett, she goes to her father´s farm and commits suicide in a corn silo, however, a drastic action which indicates she may have received new information about her brother.

Central to the setting is St Herbert´s Residential Library where Daniel Kind is struggling to finish his latest book before deadline while all the beautiful women around him seem intent on taking his time. The library is also the place where Orla Payne worked, and so does the mysterious Aslan Sheik. Is the young man an idealist, or is there another reason why he chooses voluntary work among old books?

Followers of the series will know that Daniel has been single since Miranda left him, and now Hannah is also on her own as Marc moved out of their house a couple of months ago. Marc tries to make it up to her, but Hannah is not sure what she wants.

As usual, Martin Edwards offers a well-written story, an interesting setting and an intriguing cold-case mystery that captures your attention from the very first chapter. And what happens between Hannah and Daniel - well, you´ll have to read the book to find out.
.