Book review - A Deadly Thaw by Sarah Ward. Definitely deadly in Derbyshire!

In 2004, Lena Fisher was sent to prison for murdering her husband Andrew. An easy, open and shut case, after all, she even confessed to the murder.  Fast forward to 2016, a year after her release from prison and a man is found murdered – his body in an abandoned mortuary at Hale’s End.  DI Francis Sadler recognises the body as someone he went to school with.  That’s not as helpful as it sounds, because the dead man is undoubtedly Andrew Fisher, the man supposedly murdered in 2004!

The detective team, Sadler, Palmer and Childs challenges are – find out who the dead man was that they all thought was Andrew Fisher in 2004; work out where the real Andrew Fisher has been since 2004 and most of all answer the key question – why did Lena Fisher confess to murdering someone who wasn’t her husband, but she claimed was?  The location of Fisher’s Body, Hale’s End tells them the answer lies somewhere in the past – Sadler and the team just have to find out what was hidden so long ago.

I was instantly drawn into A Deadly Thaw.  The short pithy chapters give it real pace and an energy that keeps you wanting to find out what comes next - this style is simply excellent.  The plot develops convincingly, with little clues dropped in to keep you guessing about what’s really going on.  Finally, the relationships between the CID team, add a layer of richness, particularly, Palmer and Childs.  You can guess what’s going to happen – it’s not really a cliché, because we’ve all seen it happen in real life!

Final verdict – a definite yes.  As soon as I’ve got time I’ll be looking at Ward’s first novel, In Bitter Chill – I think I may have missed something by not reading that when it first came out!

Romancrimeblogger