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Lane Winslow #3
An Old, Cold Grave
The third book in the popular Lane Winslow mystery series by an author the Globe and Mail has called a -writer to watch.-
It's early spring of 1947 in idyllic King's Cove, and the Hughes ladies, mere et filles, are gardening and sorting through the jars of food that have been put up for the winter. But while cleaning up after the roof of their root cellar has caved in slightly, they are horrified to discover a small skeletal hand embedded in the mess. Panicked, they call Lane Winslow, the ex-British secret service agent, and, not without some misgivings about the state of their tense relationship, Lane calls Inspector Darling.
Before long the police crew discover the body of a young child buried almost 40 years before. Who is the child, and why has it not been buried in the local cemetery? Inspector Darling, already busy dealing with a teenage girl who has gone on a destructive rampage at a local mill, asks Lane for help in unearthing the long-forgotten secrets of the early life of the tiny town, and the identity of the long-forgotten child.
This delightful new historical mystery series will appeal to fans of Maisie Dobbs and Bess Crawford.
It's early spring of 1947 in idyllic King's Cove, and the Hughes ladies, mere et filles, are gardening and sorting through the jars of food that have been put up for the winter. But while cleaning up after the roof of their root cellar has caved in slightly, they are horrified to discover a small skeletal hand embedded in the mess. Panicked, they call Lane Winslow, the ex-British secret service agent, and, not without some misgivings about the state of their tense relationship, Lane calls Inspector Darling.
Before long the police crew discover the body of a young child buried almost 40 years before. Who is the child, and why has it not been buried in the local cemetery? Inspector Darling, already busy dealing with a teenage girl who has gone on a destructive rampage at a local mill, asks Lane for help in unearthing the long-forgotten secrets of the early life of the tiny town, and the identity of the long-forgotten child.
This delightful new historical mystery series will appeal to fans of Maisie Dobbs and Bess Crawford.
352 pages, Paperback
First published September 26, 2017
139 people are currently reading
574 people want to read
About the author
Iona Whishaw
16 books440 followersIona Whishaw has been a youth worker, social worker, teacher and an award winning High School Principal, who continued with her writing throughout her working life. Receiving her Masters in Creative writing from UBC, Iona has published short fiction, poetry, poetry translation and one children's book, Henry and the Cow Problem. The Lane Winslow mystery series is her first foray into adult fiction.
Iona was born in Kimberley BC, but grew up in a number of different places, including a small community on Kootenay Lake, as well as Mexico and Central America, and the US because of her father's geological work. She took a degree in history and education from Antioch College, and subsequent degrees in Writing at UBC and pedagogy at Simon Fraser University. Her own writing output took a brief back seat during her teaching career, but she shared her passion for writing by nurturing a love of writing in the students in English, Creative Writing, and Spanish classes. During the course of her career as a Principal in Vancouver she was awarded the Woman of Distinction in Education by the YWCA in 2010 and a Canada's Outstanding Principals award in 2012.
Her hobbies have included dance, painting, reading, and gardening. She currently is a vocalist for a small Balkan dance band in Vancouver, and is patiently waiting for her next opportunity to engage in her current pash, long distance, cross country rambling in England.
She is married, has one son and two grandsons, and lives in Vancouver with her artist husband, Terry Miller.
Iona was born in Kimberley BC, but grew up in a number of different places, including a small community on Kootenay Lake, as well as Mexico and Central America, and the US because of her father's geological work. She took a degree in history and education from Antioch College, and subsequent degrees in Writing at UBC and pedagogy at Simon Fraser University. Her own writing output took a brief back seat during her teaching career, but she shared her passion for writing by nurturing a love of writing in the students in English, Creative Writing, and Spanish classes. During the course of her career as a Principal in Vancouver she was awarded the Woman of Distinction in Education by the YWCA in 2010 and a Canada's Outstanding Principals award in 2012.
Her hobbies have included dance, painting, reading, and gardening. She currently is a vocalist for a small Balkan dance band in Vancouver, and is patiently waiting for her next opportunity to engage in her current pash, long distance, cross country rambling in England.
She is married, has one son and two grandsons, and lives in Vancouver with her artist husband, Terry Miller.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 249 reviews
September 26, 2022
3.5 stars rounded up for a pleasnt cozy mystery, with only 1 body and no graphic violence. The body is discovered in Chapter 1 by 1 of 2 Hughes sisters. Lane Winslow, British expat now living in King's Cove, British Columbia, Canada, is asked to help with the investigation by Police Inspector Darling. She has proven to be an excellent detective and helped solve cases in books 1 and 2. This is book 3 in the series and the books work better if you read them in order.
There are alternating time lines, flashbacks between when the body is discovered, March 1947 and when the person died, March 1910. There is another timeline, explaining how some of the characters are transported to Canada. This makes for a somewhat convoluted story line. Also, one character is identified with 2 different names. All of these elements are explained by the end of the book with a satisfactory ending. If you read my review of book 1, you will be happy to know that that this book has a Hallmark movie ending. I read this book in 3 days. I recommend it and I think that the series would appeal to Louise Penny fans.
Two quotes: Inspector Darling to Constable Ames; "We're off up to the lake to see Miss Winslow. She's found another body."
Lane to Darling, who is depressed about his job: "I think that people are going to die, but what matters is making sure their story is not lost. Every time you solve a crime, a murder, you recapture some of the story."
My review of book 1 A Killer in King's Cove https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
My wife and I plan to continue reading this series.
Thanks to Curtis Samuel at Touchwood Editions for sending me this book.
There are alternating time lines, flashbacks between when the body is discovered, March 1947 and when the person died, March 1910. There is another timeline, explaining how some of the characters are transported to Canada. This makes for a somewhat convoluted story line. Also, one character is identified with 2 different names. All of these elements are explained by the end of the book with a satisfactory ending. If you read my review of book 1, you will be happy to know that that this book has a Hallmark movie ending. I read this book in 3 days. I recommend it and I think that the series would appeal to Louise Penny fans.
Two quotes: Inspector Darling to Constable Ames; "We're off up to the lake to see Miss Winslow. She's found another body."
Lane to Darling, who is depressed about his job: "I think that people are going to die, but what matters is making sure their story is not lost. Every time you solve a crime, a murder, you recapture some of the story."
My review of book 1 A Killer in King's Cove https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
My wife and I plan to continue reading this series.
Thanks to Curtis Samuel at Touchwood Editions for sending me this book.
August 6, 2018
I think that these Lane Winslow mysteries are getting better all the time!
I love how Iona weaves the backstory in through someone's memories, recalling or recounting an event. This was a sad tale of children brought to Canada off the streets of London and how sometimes what was to be a better life took a tragic turn.
I enjoy how each mystery reveals more about the past of the residents of the village of King's Cove, situated on the water outside Nelson, BC.
Looking forward to getting my hands on #4
I love how Iona weaves the backstory in through someone's memories, recalling or recounting an event. This was a sad tale of children brought to Canada off the streets of London and how sometimes what was to be a better life took a tragic turn.
I enjoy how each mystery reveals more about the past of the residents of the village of King's Cove, situated on the water outside Nelson, BC.
Looking forward to getting my hands on #4
March 1, 2020
more convoluted than it needed to be
January 1, 2023
This is a perfect cozy mystery; no eyes-closed graphic scenes, likeable characters, and an enjoyable reading escape. I enjoy the early-mid twentieth setting in rural BC, with the tiny community of mixed residents, and look forward to reading more of the Lane Winslow series.
Some highlights I made:
"they look to have been planting there for aeons....Write that in your report, but only if you can spell it properly with the a" (I didn't realize eons was spelled with an a!)
"could you put that old dog rug down here by the door and plant a pair of boots onit. it might encourage them to take off their muddy shoes when they come into the house." (lol, no one wants to ask anyone to take off their shoes!)
"I'm not sure now that all sorrow does heal. It fades a bit, I suppose, until something reminds you."
"The job of fear was to clarify the mind and stimulate all the resources of survival." (seems like it should be true but I think most of us have to train ourselves to do this, rather than let our minds be frozen by fear?)
"Ames, I'll need to use that door in a minute, and I don't want you blocking it up." (some cute humour throughout)
"I was named after Frederick the Great because my mother admired the idea of an emperor composting music." (I'm glad Iona Wishaw throws in the history lesson for those like me who don't remember their history or didn't study enough history!)
Some highlights I made:
"they look to have been planting there for aeons....Write that in your report, but only if you can spell it properly with the a" (I didn't realize eons was spelled with an a!)
"could you put that old dog rug down here by the door and plant a pair of boots onit. it might encourage them to take off their muddy shoes when they come into the house." (lol, no one wants to ask anyone to take off their shoes!)
"I'm not sure now that all sorrow does heal. It fades a bit, I suppose, until something reminds you."
"The job of fear was to clarify the mind and stimulate all the resources of survival." (seems like it should be true but I think most of us have to train ourselves to do this, rather than let our minds be frozen by fear?)
"Ames, I'll need to use that door in a minute, and I don't want you blocking it up." (some cute humour throughout)
"I was named after Frederick the Great because my mother admired the idea of an emperor composting music." (I'm glad Iona Wishaw throws in the history lesson for those like me who don't remember their history or didn't study enough history!)
August 17, 2019
I did feel that this one was a bit slow-moving. Perhaps because most of the action was very much in the past. Mostly, I'm here for the character development in this one, which was the most interesting part. Wouldn't have minded seeing more of Lane and Darling actually interact.
July 28, 2025
3.5 I liked the way it came around, maybe I will read the next book in the series
February 13, 2022
This is the one of the series that cemented my interest in it. I had started with #2, then went back to #1.
Whishaw has been honing her skills and consistently coming up with excellent, intriguing combinations of interpersonal relations, mystery, rural sociology, the physical countryside of post - WW2 Canada. (If I say British Columbia, I'm sure to be wrong.. but it's been a while since I read these).
I have read them ALL, eagerly (even bought a copy of #8 for the nearby public library that had 1-7) and am now about to start the search for a 9th (or is it 10th) in the series.
Whishaw has been honing her skills and consistently coming up with excellent, intriguing combinations of interpersonal relations, mystery, rural sociology, the physical countryside of post - WW2 Canada. (If I say British Columbia, I'm sure to be wrong.. but it's been a while since I read these).
I have read them ALL, eagerly (even bought a copy of #8 for the nearby public library that had 1-7) and am now about to start the search for a 9th (or is it 10th) in the series.
September 23, 2019
4.5
Wow! Iona Whishaw has really hit her stride with this series. This book has well-paced plot, different from the past two efforts and the pathos that Whishaw creates around the melancholy aspects of the story is just right. The will-they-wont-they-WHY WONT THEY aspect of Lane and Darling's hesitant romance makes sense - it's not just a plot ploy - you really get the psychological reasons for their hesitancy to be vulnerable. Whishaw continues to describe the setting beautifully and give the reader a real sense of time and place.
yay!
Wow! Iona Whishaw has really hit her stride with this series. This book has well-paced plot, different from the past two efforts and the pathos that Whishaw creates around the melancholy aspects of the story is just right. The will-they-wont-they-WHY WONT THEY aspect of Lane and Darling's hesitant romance makes sense - it's not just a plot ploy - you really get the psychological reasons for their hesitancy to be vulnerable. Whishaw continues to describe the setting beautifully and give the reader a real sense of time and place.
yay!
March 3, 2019
Disappointing. The author didn’t do a good job with either the romance or the mystery, and then threw in some heavy-handed Issues of gender inequality. The problem is that since the book jumped around from topic to topic none of these were very cohesive or fleshed out. The supposed romance was pretty lame and the resolution to the mystery fell flat. Lane’s past experience with romance was hinted at but then never really explored.
July 24, 2022
I continue to enjoy the characters and setting and the series overall but this book’s mystery didn’t quite do it for me - the “cold case” that revolved around some of the least developed side characters had me feeling 🤷♀️ everything else going on in the book was fun though!
September 7, 2023
Although I enjoy the series in general, this book in particular isn't cosy at all. It is depressing, tragic, and anticlimactic. There's basically no murder mystery at all. The plot moves very slowly. If I knew, I would have skipped this one.
July 11, 2021
Another entertaining mystery. Fun, fairly light, great characters.
October 28, 2021
The third in one of the series of these cozy mysteries that keep getting better with each one.
November 21, 2024
A cosy mystery, part of a series. I liked the setting but the story was too drawn out.
Read
February 14, 2025This one builds nicely on the patterns and characters established in the first two. The identity and motivation of the killer is different enough this time to avoid the potential trap of simply repeating a working pattern. Again, the real depth here is in the characters, the back stories. I do have some doubts about repressed memory syndrome, but then I don't (to my knowledge :-) ) have any experience with deeply repressed memories of awful things. My wife and I agreed tonight that the ending is very "Awwwwwwww...."
December 15, 2018
An excellent mystery. I stumbled into this series three books in. I love Lane and her inner conflict over men and love and her career. I love Darling’s fumbling. This book had Agatha Christie elements with some of the pondering of an Anne of Green Gables (but maybe I just think that because Canada IS a character). The scenery is beautiful. The mystery wasn’t gory but was still gripping. I loved this book! More people should read it!
May 20, 2018
Story was OK.
A lot of the emotions in the story seemed synthetic and verging on Harlequin, which was a bit off-putting.
A lot of the emotions in the story seemed synthetic and verging on Harlequin, which was a bit off-putting.
July 9, 2018
This series keeps getting better
June 8, 2021
“Ames was right. He was an idiot, and he had no idea how to not be one.” I loved this sentence. It was at the end of the story, but it very easily could have been said by Inspector Darling at any point in the book. I am not often taken by a sentence or comment in a book but this one was perfect. I quite like the way Iona Whishaw writes and I like her characters.
This story was interesting because it gave more information on the people who live in Kings Cove. It gave some back history on these people. People who are in their 50’s and 60’s were young once. It gave more information on the relationship between Inspector Darling and Lane Wilson. I just love the budding relationship between these two and the way they talk to each other. The story was also interesting because it talked about women having to give up dreams because people expect them to marry and have children when they would rather go to school, work and be independent. The story was good because it went back and forth in time. The early 1900’s before WW I and gave a fairly good picture of what life was like before the modern conveniences of the 1940’s after WW II.
The story was also interesting because it had a historical perspective. Young children, supposedly homeless being round up on the streets of England and shipped off to the colonies to work. What a horrible life for these children.
The story is simple enough, a body of a child is found buried in the roof of a root cellar in King’s Cove. I find it fascinating that a whole history of life in England, life in King’s Cove past and present was built on finding a body.
I like the character, Lane Wilson. I like that she is intelligent, resourceful, independent, and beautiful. I liked that she served as a spy during WW II. I quite like Inspector Darling and see him as dashing, confident, trustworthy, intelligent and a no-nonsense type of man. I am smitten with constable Ames. He is always happy and always looking out for the best interest of his boss Inspector Darling. He is young and wants everyone to be in love. He himself is in love everyday. All the other characters who make up King’s Cove add some spice and interest to Lane’s new life in Canada.
October 22, 2021
When one of newcomer Lane Winslow's neighbors finds a skeleton (literally) in her root cellar, Lane has another opportunity to work with Inspector Darling, who is just admitting to himself that he is in love with her. The skeleton is that of a child, and is found with a gold locket. Flashbacks tell the stories of poor children in London who find themselves shipped to Canada, and also about the last time the root cellar was enlarged, before the Great War. No one knows who the child is, but the burial was conducted by someone in the remote area of King's Cove. A mysterious vagrant who appears from time to time seems to have no connection to what appears to be an old, old crime, but he puts the community on edge nonetheless.
September 13, 2022
Book 3 takes us back over 30 years into King's Cove pre-WWI. A child's body is found within the walls of the root cellar on the Hughes's property, and all King's Cove is involved as Lane helps out the police interviewing everyone to determine 1) who the child was and 2) who might have killed the child. Throw in some current women's inequality issues and a little more movement on the glacially paced relationship of Darling and Lane, and you have a book. While I might sound whiny about the romance, Whishaw does a good job unwrapping their pasts and why they are reticent now to take a chance on each other. Very realistic and the notion that the past haunts us all is all too true.
March 28, 2020
Love the Lane Winslow books! Review coming soon.
February 24, 2023
Another great book in the Lane Winslow series. Similar cozy mystery with familiar characters but I enjoyed it a lot.
September 15, 2023
I loved this book, the third in the series. Iona's writing seems to get better with every book. The story is fascinating and the characters continue to develop. Anyone interested in a Western Canadian parallel to Louise Penny should consider this Lane Winslow series! It is set in 1947, the year of my birth, and Lane suffers from the same struggles faced by my own mother and many other intelligent, independent women of that genre.
June 4, 2024
Continuing to enjoy this series based in British Columbia. The mysteries are clever & unpredictable. Lane & Inspector Darling continue their love hate relationship which is predictable.
January 30, 2025
This one was also good but hit VERY close to home regarding children being shipped overseas to Canada from England during WW2…..
May 15, 2025
Oh man! I'm blazing through this series! it's so good!!
February 9, 2023
My favourite so far in the series; it's getting better with every title.
September 25, 2023
Lane Winslow is back at it again with - yep, you guessed it - another dead body! Incredible that everyone in town loves her so much in spite of the three dead bodies she’s uncovered in her six months of living in king’s cove. Looking forward to more dead bodies in the fourth instalment!
January 4, 2023
Charming post WWII mystery series set in a small British Columbia village. Charming setting. Charming characters. Charming romance. All this charm brings me back for more.... This one lacked the engrossing mystery part. But it did offer an interesting historical perspective into British orphans, the poor or otherwise underprivileged who were shipped off to Canada under the false pretense of a fresh start and instead were forced into farm labour. Consequently families or siblings were broken apart and the small or weak were often abandoned.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 249 reviews