A TWIST IN THE RIVER

Multiple murders rock an idyllic English village.

An oblique, lyrical prologue introduces a woman luxuriating in a river while a violent man hovers close by. Elsewhere, former London detective Jake Jackson is in a used bookshop in Meryton, near Little Sky, the farm he unexpectedly inherited from his uncle. He’s contemplating his good fortune when he gets the news that a woman’s accessories were found near the river and that the woman seems to have gone missing. As an ex-cop, Jake is the natural go-to, so he joins the search with his girlfriend, Livia, a veterinarian, and much of the community. The missing woman is nurse Claire Davidson. Jake’s fourth case is both a tangled mystery and a love letter to a British pastoral ideal. The book’s deliberate pace makes room for many colorful portraits of village characters. Cutting through the lightness a bit for both Jake and the reader is tough, distant advisor Martha, a mystery writer who often spars sardonically with Jake online about crime novels and his investigations. The discovery of a body in the river brings a kind of relief until it becomes clear that it’s not Claire Davidson. Could it be the victim of a serial killer? The novel’s pastoral strain is underscored by the inclusion of bits of rustic literature, a hand-drawn map of the village, and many references to the halcyon nature of the title river.

A leisurely whodunit wrapped in a loving homage to the bucolic life.