Lake District Mysteries

The Lake District Mysteries are a series of detective novels by British crime writer Martin Edwards. The books feature Hannah Scarlett and the historian Daniel Kind, and are the first series of crime novels by a British detective novelist to be set in the Lake District, a region in North-West England.

The first book in the series, The Coffin Trail, was one of six books shortlisted for the Theakston’s Old Peculier Award for best crime novel of 2006, and each of the novels has received outstanding reviews.[1][2][3][4][5][dubiousdiscuss] The books are published by Allison & Busby in the UK, by Poisoned Pen Press in the US, and by Luebbe in Germany.

Novels

edit
  • The Coffin Trail (2004)
  • The Cipher Garden (2006)
  • The Arsenic Labyrinth (2007)
  • The Serpent Pool (2010)
  • The Hanging Wood (2011)
  • The Frozen Shroud (2013)
  • The Dungeon House (2015)
  • The Crooked Shore (aka The Girl They All Forgot) (2021)

Characters

edit

Daniel Kind

edit

Daniel is a historian with a personal and professional interest in the work of detectives who has abandoned a highly successful career following the suicide of his partner. During the course of the Lake District Mysteries, Daniel comes to know Detective Chief Inspector Hannah Scarlett and gradually a relationship develops between them.

Daniel first appeared in The Coffin Trail.

Hannah Scarlett

edit

She is a Detective Chief Inspector in the Cumbria Constabulary and heads the Cold Case Review Team.

Hannah first appeared in The Coffin Trail. She lives with bookseller Marc Amos, but during the course of the Lake District Mysteries she becomes increasingly drawn to the historian, Daniel Kind, son of the veteran police officer who was her mentor in the early years of her career in the police.

References

edit
  1. ^ Michael Jecks, British Crime Writing vol. 1, p. 239.
  2. ^ Philip Scowcroft, British Crime Writing vol. 2, p. 794.
  3. ^ "Review of Arsenic Labyrinth". Eurocrime. March 2007.
  4. ^ "Review of Coffin Trail". March 2009.
  5. ^ "Review of Cipher Garden". BooksPlease. April 2009.
edit