David Blake's Horsey Mere (DI Tanner no.5) kicks off with a Gothic, eerie, grotesque scene.
Three children visit the infamous Hawthorne tree, at the edge of Horsey Mere, on Hallowe'en. Recent torrential rain has washed away the earth by the tree's tangled roots, exposing a broken slab of stone with an engraving dating back to 1637. The kids want to prove that this is the final resting place of Elizabeth Craddock.
The local newspapers are all agog, they are saying that "now Elizabeth Craddock's body has been exhumed, her spirit is free to seek revenge on all those who'd accused her of witchcraft, including their descendants". It so happens that the local MP for Norfolk, named Patrick Hopkins, is one such descendant.
In fact, he is a direct descendant of the self-proclaimed Witchfinder General Matthew Hopkins, the person who has tried and hanged Craddock. "He was responsible for more people being tried and hanged for witchcraft in England than during the previous hundred years".
The local newspaper Norfolk Herald is having a field day, posting stories centred around the witch's revenge.
When the MP is found dead in his office, hanging above a five-pointed star, it sets off a series of dramatic events.
DI Tanner is the senior investigating officer on the case. He is giving orders to his team to look into Patrick Hopkins' life. "He may have been a popular MP, but that doesn't mean he didn't have enemies. We need to know who they might be, and which of them are most likely to have gained from his death".
Other deaths occur in a quick succession, all seemingly related to the old curse and the witches' persecutions. However, a different angle is becoming obvious.
Tanner believes that "with all these recent attacks, the motivation was more likely to have been racial, using witchcraft as an excuse to justify their actions".
While investigating the series of murders, DI Tanner and DS Evans keep postponing their plans for the big day. The murder of the MP is a catalyst for a chain of horrific events, none of which the police are able to stop.
Horsey Mere is my first introduction to DI Tanner (I'm now reading the next book in the series). I found his policing techniques a bit on the cowboy (i.e. blundering) side. While we are all human and sometimes the drive for revenge is overwhelming, I would expect a policeman to act in a more professional and less arrogant way.
I enjoyed the Norfolk setting. It brings back happy memories of a distant summer many years ago, when we spent a week on the Broads, sailing with friends (well, they did the sailing bit).
This murder mystery is a dark, twisty read, with an atmospheric Norfolk setting and a flawed but fascinating protagonist.
Purchase Link - getbook.at/HorseyMere
Author Bio
Consistently ranked within the top 30 most read authors on Amazon.co.uk, David Blake is a full-time author living in North London. To date he has written eighteen books along with a collection of short stories. He’s currently working on his nineteenth, The Wherryman, which is the next in his series of crime fiction thrillers after Broadland, St. Benet's, Moorings, Three Rivers and Horsey Mere. When not writing, David likes to spend his time mucking about in boats, often in the Norfolk Broads, where his crime fiction books are based.
Social Media Links
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Twitter: @DavidDBlake
This post is part of the blog tour.
Many thanks to David Blake and Rachel's Random Resources for my e-copy of the book!
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