This is the fourth in the Dales Detective series by Julia Chapman set in the picturesque small town of Bruncliffe in the Yorkshire Dales. It is spring time in Bruncliffe, a busy and nerve wracking time for farmers with lambing and the local vet is run off his feet. Cleaner Ida Capstick wants Samson O'Brien, an ex-police officer with the London Metropolitan Police, now a private investigator, to help her get rid of her cousin, Carol Kirby, who has come to live with her, and to do it quickly before she kills her. Delilah Metcalfe is struggling to keep her dating agency a viable concern, she and Samson are going to merge her IT skills with his business to offer a complete security package for local businesses and individuals. However, spring is set to usher in a toxic and fraught environment in Bruncliffe,
Samson's life is about to be completely wrecked and turned upside down as he is arrested for murder, and he is up for a career destroying misconduct hearing in London, whilst unsubstantiated rumours and gossip make him a reviled figure in the community, as he stands accused of being a drug dealer. A shell shocked Delilah can't believe that once again she has proved to be such a poor judge of character, she had come to trust Samson, and Tolpuddle, her dog adores him. These events are the tip of the iceberg as the Metcalfe family faces a litany of woes. Delilah's nephew and Samson's godson, Nathan finds himself in trouble at school when the villainous property developer, Rick Procter goads Nathan, and matters are to escalate considerably leading to Nathan disappearance just as the weather in the Dales turns deadly. Into this febrile atmosphere, the vet becomes increasingly convinced that someone is indiscriminately poisoning dogs and cats in the district, and with the police busy on other matters, he needs Samson to investigate.
This is my first read of this series, I found it worked reasonably well as a standalone, although I think it would have helped to understand the established characters more if I had started at the beginning. This is a hugely enjoyable read, although poor Samson really does go through the mill, with a local community just far too happy to judge him and implacably determined to get him to leave town. Thankfully for him there is a small core of individuals who believe in and trust him, and know that he is incapable of doing what he is accused of, including his ex-alcoholic father. This is a lovely and entertaining crime read, with a diverse range of characters, with their conflicts and fears, and I love the Yorkshire Dales backdrop to the murky mysteries that Delilah and Samson set out to solve, despite their tense and fractured relationship. Many thanks to Pan Macmillan for an ARC.