MURDER IN THE DROWNED VALLEY: a gripping British crime mystery

by Roy Lewis

221 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 24, 2026

About the author

John Royston Lewis, who published his fiction under the name Roy Lewis, was a prominent English crime writer who wrote more than 60 novels. He was also a teacher, and he taught Law for 10 years before being appointed as One of Her Majesty’s Inspectors of Further & Higher Education. He lived in the north of England where many of his novels are set.

Lewis is also the author of several law texts, which he published under the name J.R. Lewis.

Librarian's note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Reviews

[william wright · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gripping Resd

An excellent piece of literature. Cracking good plot. The authors use of the human condition was refreshing, I particularly enjoyed his juxtaposition of characters. Looking forward to reading his next book. I would highly recommend this book

[David Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

A thought provoking read

The book started slowly and meandered close to a psychological bog in places. However it cleverly draws on the reader to keep going and ends up with an exciting flourish. Well worth a read.

[Cidney · Rating 4 out of 5]

Robert Fanshaw is a school inspector now retired but he's been asked to come back briefly and make an inspection of a school for difficult boys, he is reluctant to do so but goes anyway as there is no-one else available. He arrives in the town and goes for a walk down to the river at the bottom of the valley and comes across something very disturbing, a dead sheep having been very badly mutilated and covered in dried blood. He is moving away when he feels the presence of someone behind him, it's the owner of the dead sheep plus a rifle. He remains calm and begins to slowly and steadly walk away from him to return to his hotel, the farmer/local bigwig begins to follow him and tells him about the boys from "that" school who butchered his sheep.

He finally manages to leave the angry farmer/local bigwig unharmed and goes back to his hotel, well really it's a pub with rooms, he's sat down with a drink when some boys come in asking for drinks too, the barman turns them away as they are underage, one of the lads is getting ready to fight when another boy comes in and stands up to the fighter, the fight doesn't happen, and all leave, but this leaves a lasting impression on Fanshaw who is going into the school in the morning to start his inspection, one now he's not particularly looking forward to.

The next day is a bit of a strange one for him as he meets the head who seems a man with a good vision for the school but seems to be hampered by most of his staff who seem unable or unwilling to really interact with the pupils and help lead down a better pathway and on to moving out into the community. But Fanshaw can immediately spot there is a lot of work here if the headmaster can pull this school up out of the bog it's mired in. Fanshaw leaves the head to think on what he is looking for in his inspection and returns to the pub and goes out for another of his walks in the forest when this time he finds the dead body of a man, and a knife close by. (I think I would stop walking there if I was him as he and others are in danger later on). The police reveal that the dead body found is the body of the missing Deputy Head and by whose body Fanshaw found a knife. If he was worried when he got to the school and met the struggling Head and some rampant bad behaviour of the pupils then he is even more worried now. Things begin to turn darker, a lot darker, as the book moves on. I am assuming that the book was written in the 1960s because of the lengthy language used and the use of a public phone box and the stricter licencing laws and the vehicles! It is slow moving and a bit pendantic but I liked it for that, a reminder of how books were written in a bygone age, slower and more thoughtful, and I think this is now probably reflected in the style in which I have written this review!!

[Rhys Jones · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good story badly edited

This is a good story from a wonderful writer, many of whose books I have enjoyed. Unfortunately it has been ruined by an apparent total lack of proofreading in this edition.