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The Shroud Maker
Wesley Peterson Murder Mystery - Book XVIII
Kate Ellis

Piatkus (Little, Brown)
2 January 2014 / ISBN 9780749958046
Mystery / British

Reviewed by Rachel A Hyde

 

It’s festival time in Tradmouth and the streets are filled with people in mediaeval costume, while out in the bay floats the replica cog, Maudelayne. The reason for the annual festival is 14th century John Palkin, successful merchant, several times mayor of Tradmouth and reputed to have been a pirate. A year ago, Jenny Bercival vanished at this time, and now a young woman has been murdered, found wearing a mediaeval dress and adrift in a boat. Meanwhile, many people are into the website, Shipworld, which features a fantasy version of events with Palkin as the hero and a mysterious masked creature known as the Shroud Maker?

Reading the next in this series is a treat I look forward to every year. There are many reasons for this, not least the thrilling plots where suspects change from page to page as the detectives uncover more clues, the well rendered background of my own county of Devon, the frisson of eeriness as past and present collide, and the mix of police work and archaeology. There is a lot to like in short, and all of it well done and innovative. As with any series, part of the pleasure each time I open the latest title is to see how the characters are getting on: Wesley with his family, Rachel with her impending wedding, Gerry with his new lover, are as much a part of the enjoyment as the setting and story. Ms Ellis has the length exactly right, as well, with all the many parts of the tale in balance and nothing dragging or seeming rushed. Long may this excellent series continue, and may it never be televised!

An Hallowed Grave #3
The Bone Garden #5
A Perfect Death #13
The Flesh Tailor #14
The Shadow Collector #17
The Shroud Maker #18
House of Eyes #20
The Mechanical Devil #22

Reviewed 2014
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