Ross Greenwood

OK, I'll 'fess up; these books are set in my locale, which gives them a head start in the positive review stakes. Death at Paradise Park is a well written book which is strong on characters. There are multiple police representatives as well as a good sprinkling of suspects and each comes across as a unique character. Even DS Ashley Knight, our main protagonist, is a realistic character - not the perfect genius, often afflicted by one flaw which disappears half way through their first appearance - she seems pretty decent, but not infallible.

My only complaint is that, when the villain is recognised, a character that I did not suspect more than any of the other possible murderers, I thought that credibility was a little stretched to accept the need for this person to have eliminated all the corpses in this tale.

A good read, none the less, and I have ordered book one (which I don't anticipate being spoilt by my reading it out of order) and look forward to the third.… (mehr)

The weakest of the series because there are too many villains and it's sort of a retreating tide of other crimes solved, but one remained until the end. And the end isn't a shining testimony to English policing. WTF is with Barton being alone for so long? Even if they want to weasel a confession out of him, it's stupid. And to keep the family there in the house is really stupid. At least watch some TV shows to learn how to do it. It's also one of the heavier social commentary novels in this series. I did like how many of the personal threads involving the other officers and Barton himself were resolved. The little epilogues about the main characters in this one was a nice touch, too.… (mehr)