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Arsenic Labyrinth, The
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Arsenic Labyrinth, The
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Arsenic Labyrinth, The
Ebook412 pages6 hours

Arsenic Labyrinth, The

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

3.5/5

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About this ebook

After ten years, Guy - a drifter with a taste for deception - has returned to Coniston in England's Lake District. Local journalist Tony di Venuto is campaigning to revive interest in the disappearance of Emma Bestwick, and Guy knows what happened to her.

When Guy tips off the newspaperman that Emma will not be coming home, DCI Hannah Scarlett, head of Cumbria's Cold Case Review Team, re-opens the old investigation. Her inquiries take her to the Museum of Myth and Legend and to the remote and eerie Arsenic Labyrinth - a series of stone tunnels used to remove arsenic from tin ore.

Meanwhile, historian Daniel Kind is immersing himself in the work of John Ruskin, whose neighbors created the Arsenic Labyrinth. A shocking discovery made against the stunning backdrop of the Lake District in winter makes it clear to Hannah that there is more than one mystery to solve, and she turns to Daniel for help in untangling the secrets of the past....

LanguageEnglish
Release dateJan 31, 2010
ISBN9781615950508
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Arsenic Labyrinth, The
Author

Martin Edwards

Martin Edwards is an award-winning crime novelist whose Lake District Mysteries have been optioned by ITV. Elected to the Detection Club in 2008, he became the first Archivist of the Club, and is also Archivist of the Crime Writers’ Association. Renowned as the leading expert on the history of Golden Age detective fiction, he won the Crimefest Mastermind Quiz three times, and possesses one of Britain’s finest collections of Golden Age novels.

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Rating: 3.564516232258064 out of 5 stars
3.5/5

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  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Set evocatively in Britain’s atmospheric Lake District, Martin Edwards’ The Arsenic Labyrinth blends character, scenery, murder and mystery in a complex labyrinthine plot. Events take place in and around a small town, nearby lake and mountain. A newspaper account revives a ten-year-old missing person case, and Hannah, head of the Cold Case Review Team, is pressured to resolve it. Meanwhile relationships shift and turn, perfection as elusive as love, and a wealth of surely-not suspects prove to hide many skeletons in their cupboards.The large cast of characters might sometimes confuse a reader new to the series (like me), but the fascinating plot and genuine small-town feel of the place, together with enticing details of history of character, keep the pages turning and the mystery revolving. Eventually there’ll be more than one case to resolve , while love and family, desire and betrayal all run their course. It’s low-key, fascinating and satisfying—a thoroughly enjoyable read for lovers of mystery, the Lake District, or character-driven police procedurals.Disclosure: I wasn’t in the Lake District when I bought it, but I wasn’t far away either.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Pretty much a Hallmark mystery of the week, set in the Lake District. I have little doubt that it would work perfectly in that format, if only Candace Cameron Bure could swot up a British accent. One good thing: it doesn't have one of those atrocious Hallmark soundtracks. Another one: it's good to know that hormones can rage even in historians, archivists, folklorists, librarians and booksellers.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    First Line: You'd never believe it to look at me now, but once upon a time I killed a man.When a grifter returns to Coniston in England's Lake District and tips off a local newspaperman that he knows what happened to a woman who went missing ten years before, DCI Hannah Scarlett and her Cold Case Review Team re-opens the case.Hannah's investigation takes her to the Museum of Myth and Legend and on to the remote and eerie Arsenic Labyrinth (a series of tunnels constructed to remove arsenic from ore). While Hannah is involved with her cold case, historian Daniel Kind is doing research for a new book on John Ruskin, whose neighbors built the Arsenic Labyrinth. It doesn't take Hannah long to discover that there are two mysteries to solve, and she enlists Daniel's aid. They have to hurry because someone out there has proven that they will kill to keep their secrets.Edwards brings the Lake District to life in this series of crime novels, along with a sense of the small villages and the people who live in them. In places like this, history still matters although it may not seem so to much of the rest of the country, as one character laments: "Perhaps it doesn't matter," he murmured. "These tales of the past, handed down through the generations. The sophisticates who live in our towns and cities have no truck with the tales and traditions of the countryside. Why should they, when they have broad minds and broadband?"Even more than the story, the setting and the sense of history, the characters of Hannah Scarlett and Daniel Kind are the glue that holds everything together. They are so well-drawn, so obviously attracted to each other, that I'm sure I'm not the only reader who would like to shake some sense into each of them and push them together. The fact that they're both first-class investigators is icing on the cake.If you're in the mood for an atmospheric mystery with a haunting setting, a touch of history, an involving mystery, and two excellent characters, by all means find yourself one of Martin Edwards' Lake District mysteries. Do you have to start at the very beginning? No, not at all. But with characters like Hannah and Daniel and a setting like England's Lake District, why deprive yourself?