Martin Edwards

Martin Edwards has written a series that takes place in the lake district of England. This series has developed some critical acclaim in some blogs are British mystery discussions. I began the series at the beginning which is a smart thing to do because  the subsequent book frequently talked about people, places and things that appear in book one THE COFFIN TRAIL.

The main characters are Daniel Kind an ex-Oxford historian who is seeking the quiet life in a new location and DCI Hannah Scarlett a police detective who had a case fall apart on her so she had been shunted to a newly formed cold case unit, of which she has been put in charge.

A coffin trail was a pathway from small towns to the nearest consecrated ground. It was used for transporting the caskets of dead people for burial. In the area in which where Daniel now lives  the trail is also associated with a large flat=topped stone that the ancients used for sacrifices of different kinds for different purposes, but mostly to appease the pagan gods in one way or another.


Daniel has moved into a lovely house that has unusual history. It is where an acquaintance of his once lived. He is now dead but was accused of murdering a lovely woman and leaving her on the altar stone before he tumbles to his death in a hideous accident. Daniel believes his friend was innocent but the incident was decades ago and is settled for most people.

Hannah is called to reopen this case.  The two dance around the case poking it to see if it stirs. This occupies the first 2/3 of the book. Finally the investigation begins and proceeds nicely to an interesting conclusion.

In THE CIPHER GARDENS Daniel and Scarlett dance the same dance around another case of the murder of as local lothario who was also a mean, disliked man who was part owner of a landscaping business. Both Daniel and Scarlett  worry at the edges of the mystery until finally the case opens up. There is a new murder and it is this one that helps the historian and the detective find the killer.

Mean while back at the ranch or the lakeside cottage Daniel is trying to figure out the mystery of his unusual garden which is called a cipher garden because it is a puzzle set up by early owners of the home to explain either their lives or their deaths.




A subplot running through the story is the relationship between Daniel and his live-in girlfriend who always appears to me to be straining at the leash which is just as well because Daniel has eyes for Hannah who is already in a long term relationship in which there are several cracks in the foundation.These little characterizations don't paint Daniel in the strongest light because the reader really questions his judgement.