The Dead Beneath us by Matthew J Evans

 

You can buy The Dead Beneath Us...Here

You can find out more about Matthew J Evans...Here

• The Blurb....

Our darkest places are never far away, and in a Tudor manor house, there's a dark place that holds the cruellest secret of all.

When a brutal murder strikes a prestigious private school in Sussex, Detective Chief Inspector Beniamin Dinescu finds himself entangled in a complex investigation, including the mysterious disappearance of a schoolgirl in the 1980s. How are these two cases connected?

Dinescu is joined by a new sergeant, DS Emily Summers, in the Chichester Major Crimes team. Tension rises as Summers tries too hard to prove herself and win the respect of her colleagues.

Can Dinescu confront his deepest fears to uncover the dark secrets of the past? Can his team bring justice and closure for the dead? And with all of this, can Dinescu rein in DS Summers?

This is the first police procedural crime novel in the Chichester Crime Mysteries series.

• Our Review....

The Dead Beneath Us is a tightly plotted whodunnit in the style of Agatha Christie. And it is a very good whodunnit.

It tells the tale of the search for the murderer of Charles Brady, a reserved teacher at a prestigious public school. The top cop is Benjamin Dinescu and he leads a diverse team of investigators, each with their own issues and foibles. 

There is a focus on the relationship between Dinescu and his newly arrived, keen to impress, Detective Sergeant. DS Emily Summers is the new broom that rubs up his settled crew, the wrong way. They need to sort themselves out before they can perform as a team.  

There are a lot of partly broken people in this book. There are acknowledgements to PTSD, domestic abuse, disability, blindness and gambling addiction among others. They are not discussed in depth or at length but are used to point out that everyone has history, there are no "perfect" people and to a greater or lesser extent we are all vulnerable to something, but the important thing is not our weakness but our strength of character in overcoming the afflictions that life has dealt. This is a recurring but subtle theme throughout this novel.

The motley crew of investigators uncover a myriad of potential killers and indeed another historic murder. Two whodunnits for the price of one! The headmaster wants to keep media fallout to a minimum, One of the older students is infatuated with a young teacher who responds. The caretaker is also involved in dirty dealings. It's a web of lies and intrigue that goes back for decades. 

The beauty of this novel is that it is authentic in that the author is an ex copper with 18years experience. This really tells in the latter stages of the book where the cumulative interrogations escalate to a crescendo. As well as being intense they are also educational. Did you know that, in UK law, an arrested person is not entitled to one phonecall or a solicitor cannot demand a break in questioning? 

The spotlight falls on several red herrings and false trails before the final reveal. I'll be honest I didn't spot the killer and I'm normally pretty good at that. In hindsight the clues were all there. And at the end there's a little twist on top of the twist.

The writing style is spare and workmanlike, no verbosity or purple process. The plot is all.

This is such a cleverly plotted murder, police procedural. Well worth a read. This novel is the first in a series. I for one will be buying the rest in the series. 

• Selected Quotes...

The next flight of steps was darker and more enclosed. That sour, rotting odour was coming from above him, and he recognised it now. His heart sank.

in front of it was a large pond encircled by a wire fence. Several off- road police vehicles and SOCO vans were gathered there like thirsty savannah beasts surrounding a watering hole.

He had never filled that love- shaped hole left by her father.

“I need to make a call first.” Burgess snatched the phone out of her hand before she could hit the call button. “Hey! What are you doing? I get the right to make a bloody phone call!” “You’re mistaken, Mrs Grainger,” said Summers. “This isn’t a US cop show.

• If You Liked This Then You May Like...

Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie

The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides

The Murders in the Rue Morgue by Edgar Alan Poe

• About The Author...

I'm married, have three children (all now adults), and two grandchildren. My background is in electronics and software engineering, which I did for about twenty years. However, soon after my son was born with Down syndrome, I made a radical career move and halved my salary—I joined the police in Hampshire, wanting to give something back to society. I have served both in Hampshire and Sussex as a regular police constable and special constable

In addition to being a Chichester crime author, I’m also a folk musician, playing a mix of Irish, Scottish, and English traditional tunes. I also compose music. I play Irish whistles, the melodeon, the recorder, the ukulele, and the EWI (Electronic Wind Instrument). Therefore, I’m a big fan of folk musicians like Cara Dillon and Sam Lakeman, Capercaillie, Kate Rusby, and Solas. Also, I love the American gospel group Casting Crowns

I’ve done some session work on several albums, including most recently on Prayerscapes albums, playing whistles.

My favourite thriller and crime authors include  Cara Hunter, Lee Child, Ian Rankin, C. L. Taylor, Ann Cleeves, and Elly Griffiths. Fantasy writers C. S. Lewis, Frank Peretti, and Stephen Lawhead have strongly influenced my writing.

Every day has been a school day. I was never trained formally in writing. In fact, it took me five attempts to pass my English ‘O’ Level back in the day. My background was purely technical, not fiction.

As I took up writing, I learned from my mistakes and lots of study. As an independant author, my journey has also been about learning how to publish and market my books.

I have completed the Crime Fiction Certificate course at West Dean College led by Elly Griffiths and Lesley Thomson and various other writing courses, including one led by Greg Mosse.

(from MarrhewJEvans.co.uk)

The LIghtning And The Few by Patrick Larsimont

 

302 pages

You can buy The Lightning And The Few....Here

You can buy the latest Patrick Larsimont novel The Maple & The Blue...Here 

• The Blurb...

Scotland, 1939

When Jox McNabb is expelled from school he is forced to look to his future.

Inspired by the sight of a Hurricane flying over him, he becomes determined to join the RAF.

And after basic training, Jox is posted to RAF Montrose with the growing group of other recruits he has met along the way.

Battling the bleak Scottish elements and finding themselves immediately thrown in at the deep end, the lads struggle to keep up with the training.

Many are deemed unfit for service, and after tragedy strikes, Jox questions if he’s got what it takes.

Can Jox earn his wings to face Blitzkrieg and defend his country in its hour of need? Does he have the courage and skill to become one of The Few?

Will he beat the odds to survive his first battle?

• Our Review...

The Lightning and the Few is a straight forward account of young Jox McNabb from his leaving public school in 1939, joining the RAF and becoming a fighter pilot during the Battle of Britain.

To say it is a straight forward narrative takes nothing away from the writing. Indeed after my last two reads (Blood Meridian and 11:22:63) it made for a refreshing change to not have to think about the complicated messages implied between the lines, obscure language of time paradoxes. Without these distractions I found my self becoming engrossed in our young protagonist's adventures.

It is similar to Titanic in a respect that you  already know what happens in the bigger picture but the interest is in wether the plucky pilot lives and indeed will his life, and love blossom into all it could be.

The tale is book-ended by some young modern day researchers from the Imperial War Museum who are digging up a downed WW2 fighter plane. This is a clever way to link the here and now to the past. More so when you see a deeper link between the two.

As enjoyable as this adrenaline, fighter pilot rush of a book is, I feel the book it is written with an inherant reverance or appreciation for the public school type establishment and Winston Churchill. This does not sit comfortably with me as old Etonians, have, in my view,  done  much damage financially to this country in this century as the Luftwaffe did in the last. And while Mr. Churchill has been air-brushed into his position as the greatest British Leader of all time, he isn't very popular with a large slice of the older generation in my neck of the words after turning the army loose on starving, striking miners in Tonypandy with the infamous phrase "If they are hungry we will fill their bellies full of lead." I think the upper class had more to lose during the war. As a working-class character in another recent WW2 book that I read remarks that all it would mean to him if the Germans were running the country was  that his taxes would go to Berlin rather London. I was in two minds about including this paragraph as it is more about me and my background rather than the very intersting book I was reading. However I did decide to include it in the end, as the aim of the blog is and remains to record my thoughts as I am immersed in the narrative. Of course my thoughts and feelings may be different to another reader. 

The above notwithstanding this is a well researched, interesting exciting novel. Written by a very capable author, who knows not to put to many distractive points into a great scenario and setting.

• Selected Quotes...

Most striking was the control stick, topped by a black padded ring with a large brass button at eleven o’clock, to fire the guns with pressure from the right thumb. It was like a golden nipple of doom.

They were Flying Officer David Bury from Carlisle, former head boy of Eton College, and Pilot Officer Ian Moorwood from Boscombe in Dorset. ‘David is … er, was a really close friend of mine,’ said Bruce, his voice catching. ‘What a bloody waste. He was so full of promise. Only last week, he and I cadged a lift to visit his father’s grave, Captain Edmond Bury of the King’s Royal Rifles, killed in France in 1915. He’s buried in Fleurbaix, 

Once settled into their cockpits, their chamois leather masks went straight on and the knobs were swiftly turned to release an invigorating blast of oxygen from their tanks. A few deep sniffs were just the thing to clear thick heads. It was a miracle how well it worked, and it wasn’t the first time they’d depended on this gaseous morning regimen. Officially frowned upon by the powers that be, it had pretty much become standard practice amongst fighter pilots who needed to let off steam after trying missions,

what Ferriss called ‘a half-decent Pouilly-Fumé’ served by the attentive sommelier cum airman. It was the best glass of wine Jox had ever tasted, second only to the ‘fine Bourgogne Aligoté’ they’d enjoyed earlier with their buttered potted shrimp. It appeared Ferriss knew his way around a wine list,

At school, Jox had been taught not to speak with his mouth full, but it wasn’t a lesson taught in the rough Dundee quarter where the Glasgow twins were from.

In reality, war is very boring. We do the same thing over and over again. We hurry, then wait long hours until we are suddenly faced by minutes of sheer terror, then go off and do it all over again. It’s so very dull and utterly exhausting, and yet is also the greatest endeavour of my life. We’ll never be more tested and will no doubt look back at this time as the best of our lives. It all seems so utterly pointless and a terrible waste.’

• If You Liked This Then You May Like...

Spitfire Pilot: A personal account of the Battle of Britain by David M Crook

Breaking Point: A novel of the Battle of Britain

Vengence of the Allies: A World War Two novel by Ethan Watts

• About The Author

Patrick worked in advertising for many years with some of the most globally recognised agencies and brands. He’d go as far as saying that he doubts there is anyone in the UK that hasn’t seen some of his work. Before that, he served in military intelligence, was educated in Scotland and now describes himself as a Dorset Highlander. He is the mixed heritage son of two diplomats and as a result has lived in over twenty countries around the world.

Patrick has always been fascinated by history, particularly military history, and spurred on by the time on his hands during two lockdowns, he took to writing stories. To date, he has completed two stand-alone supernatural historical novels, one about past lives and the other about the ghosts haunting a military cemetery. The latter was long-listed for the inaugural Morley Prize for unpublished authors of colour.