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The Detective's Daughter #8
The Distant Dead
The detective's daughter Stella Darnell connects a murder in Tewkesbury Abbey to a decades-old mystery in wartime London. From the number 1 bestselling author of The Detective's Daughter.
London, 1940
A woman lies dead in a bombed-out house. It looks like she's another tragic casualty of the Blitz, until police pathologist Aleck Northcote proves she was strangled and placed at the scene. But Northcote himself has something to hide. And when his past catches up with him, he too is murdered.
Tewkesbury, 2020
Beneath the vast stone arches of Tewkesbury Abbey, a man has been fatally stabbed. He is Roddy March, an investigative journalist for a podcast series uncovering miscarriages of justice. He was looking into the murder of police pathologist Dr Aleck Northcote – and was certain he had uncovered Northcote's real killer.
Stella Darnell used to run a detective agency alongside her cleaning business. She's moved to Tewkesbury to escape from death, not to court it – but Roddy died in her arms, and Stella is someone impelled to root out evil when she finds it. Now she is determined to hunt down Roddy's killer – but then she finds another body...
London, 1940
A woman lies dead in a bombed-out house. It looks like she's another tragic casualty of the Blitz, until police pathologist Aleck Northcote proves she was strangled and placed at the scene. But Northcote himself has something to hide. And when his past catches up with him, he too is murdered.
Tewkesbury, 2020
Beneath the vast stone arches of Tewkesbury Abbey, a man has been fatally stabbed. He is Roddy March, an investigative journalist for a podcast series uncovering miscarriages of justice. He was looking into the murder of police pathologist Dr Aleck Northcote – and was certain he had uncovered Northcote's real killer.
Stella Darnell used to run a detective agency alongside her cleaning business. She's moved to Tewkesbury to escape from death, not to court it – but Roddy died in her arms, and Stella is someone impelled to root out evil when she finds it. Now she is determined to hunt down Roddy's killer – but then she finds another body...
400 pages, Paperback
First published May 13, 2021
55 people are currently reading
164 people want to read
About the author
Lesley Thomson
30 books174 followersLesley Thomson was born in 1958 and grew up in London. She went to Holland Park Comprehensive and the Universities of Brighton and Sussex. Her novel A Kind of Vanishing won The People's Book Prize in 2010. Lesley combines writing with teaching creative writing. She lives in Lewes with her partner.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 45 reviews
April 17, 2021
Lesley Thomson's latest in her Detective's Daughter series has echoes of the golden age of crime, it has Stella Darnell uprooting herself from London and leaving her cleaning business, Clean Slate, and breaking off her relationship with Jack Harmon and his children. Stella has been laid low by her unresolved grief for her police officer father, Frank, and is seeking a path to come to terms with it, which is how she comes to attend The Death Cafe, a group set up to discuss death, run by retired pathologist, Felicity Branscombe. Stells has moved to Tewkesbury with the spritely and stubborn journalist, Lucie, who had loved her father. Stella is now employed as a cleaner, one of her jobs is to clean Tewkesbury Abbey, which is where she meets Roddy Marsh, only to bump into him again at her second meeting of The Death Cafe. Shortly after the meeting, she discovers a dying Roddy at the Abbey, stabbed in the back, unable to make any sense of what he is saying.
In a story that shifts from the past to the present, with the WW2 London Blitz in 1940 in which young mother, Maple Greenhill, is strangled, a case diligently investigated by DI George Cotton. When Cotton finds clear cut evidence of the murderer's identity, his career is derailed when his superiors and the establishment decide to cover up who killed Maple, because the killer is just too important to them in the war. Roddy has been working on a series of true crime podcasts under the title of The Distant Dead, looking at murder cases where the real killer has got away with it. He had claimed that he knew the real killer of pathologist, Dr Aleck Northcote, murdered in 1963, a crime for which Northcote's gambling son, Giles, was convicted at the time and hanged. Jack, and the Clean Slate staff, Jackie and Beverly, conduct a dangerous joint murders inquiry into the past and the present, with Stella and Lucie.
This is a atmospheric, twisted and suspenseful crime read from Thomson, with a wonderful cast of characters and suspects from The Death Cafe, which includes landlady, Gladys Wren, clockmaker, Clive Burgess, Abbey organist, Joy Turton and gardener, Andrea Hammond, none of whom are as they first appear. Stella once again finds herself in the all too familiar territory of murder, despite all her efforts to escape it, and reconnects with her father's old life, when a favourite colleague of his, WPC Janet Piper, becomes the police SIO of Roddy's killing. This is a terrifically entertaining crime series, this addition made all the more intense with the historical thread that relates the death of Maple and Cotton's investigation and its connections with the present day Tewkesbury murders. Many thanks to Head of Zeus for an ARC.
In a story that shifts from the past to the present, with the WW2 London Blitz in 1940 in which young mother, Maple Greenhill, is strangled, a case diligently investigated by DI George Cotton. When Cotton finds clear cut evidence of the murderer's identity, his career is derailed when his superiors and the establishment decide to cover up who killed Maple, because the killer is just too important to them in the war. Roddy has been working on a series of true crime podcasts under the title of The Distant Dead, looking at murder cases where the real killer has got away with it. He had claimed that he knew the real killer of pathologist, Dr Aleck Northcote, murdered in 1963, a crime for which Northcote's gambling son, Giles, was convicted at the time and hanged. Jack, and the Clean Slate staff, Jackie and Beverly, conduct a dangerous joint murders inquiry into the past and the present, with Stella and Lucie.
This is a atmospheric, twisted and suspenseful crime read from Thomson, with a wonderful cast of characters and suspects from The Death Cafe, which includes landlady, Gladys Wren, clockmaker, Clive Burgess, Abbey organist, Joy Turton and gardener, Andrea Hammond, none of whom are as they first appear. Stella once again finds herself in the all too familiar territory of murder, despite all her efforts to escape it, and reconnects with her father's old life, when a favourite colleague of his, WPC Janet Piper, becomes the police SIO of Roddy's killing. This is a terrifically entertaining crime series, this addition made all the more intense with the historical thread that relates the death of Maple and Cotton's investigation and its connections with the present day Tewkesbury murders. Many thanks to Head of Zeus for an ARC.
May 13, 2021
Detectives Daughter #8
Stella Darnell is in Tewkesbury having some time away from her company Clean Slate and detecting with Jack Harmon. However, a murder in the Abbey draws her into s complex investigation which links back to the murder in December 1940 of Maple Greenhill and of Dr Aleck Northcote in 1963 who was the police pathologist involved in her case. The storyline alternates between 1940 and 2019.
Well, this one sure starts with you sitting in the edge of your seat in eager anticipation! This is a good series and I like it’s originality, I’ve read all except number 7 and I’m not sure how I missed that one! What I like is the quirkiness of them, they are just a little bit different. The characters are really good, they’re a bit unusual, very colourful and just a bit dissimilar from what you might encounter elsewhere. By now they feel like old friends! I especially like Jack who is very complex, his boyhood experiences frame his life, he feels things deeply and he is head over heels in love with Stella. The funniest character is ‘old hack’ Lucie (sorry Lucie but let’s face it old girl you must be in your seventies!) who is hilarious but also incredibly sharp and clever. Let’s not forget Stanley the dog who is such a character in his own right. This addition to the series is especially atmospheric as we have wartime London and Tewkesbury in the present day with the Abbey lending itself to some spookiness and some chilling scenes. There are some good descriptions capturing place, mood and emotion. I think the tone of this one feels like that of a 1930’s cozy mystery which is fitting as Ngaio Marsh is mentioned twice and she’s regarded as one of the Queens of Crime. It has that same sort of over the top feel in the eccentricity of the characters, strange gatherings at a tea room, a host of suspects and rather a lot of people getting bumped off, a least one in a very creative fashion. A lot of it is very lively and engaging, there’s some great dialogue to amuse. I think in places it’s a bit long especially when the characters discuss what they know so the pace becomes a bit ponderous. However, overall it’s a fun, enjoyable and entertaining read and a good homage to the Queens of Crime.
With thanks to NetGalley and Head of Zeus for the arc in return for an honest review.
Stella Darnell is in Tewkesbury having some time away from her company Clean Slate and detecting with Jack Harmon. However, a murder in the Abbey draws her into s complex investigation which links back to the murder in December 1940 of Maple Greenhill and of Dr Aleck Northcote in 1963 who was the police pathologist involved in her case. The storyline alternates between 1940 and 2019.
Well, this one sure starts with you sitting in the edge of your seat in eager anticipation! This is a good series and I like it’s originality, I’ve read all except number 7 and I’m not sure how I missed that one! What I like is the quirkiness of them, they are just a little bit different. The characters are really good, they’re a bit unusual, very colourful and just a bit dissimilar from what you might encounter elsewhere. By now they feel like old friends! I especially like Jack who is very complex, his boyhood experiences frame his life, he feels things deeply and he is head over heels in love with Stella. The funniest character is ‘old hack’ Lucie (sorry Lucie but let’s face it old girl you must be in your seventies!) who is hilarious but also incredibly sharp and clever. Let’s not forget Stanley the dog who is such a character in his own right. This addition to the series is especially atmospheric as we have wartime London and Tewkesbury in the present day with the Abbey lending itself to some spookiness and some chilling scenes. There are some good descriptions capturing place, mood and emotion. I think the tone of this one feels like that of a 1930’s cozy mystery which is fitting as Ngaio Marsh is mentioned twice and she’s regarded as one of the Queens of Crime. It has that same sort of over the top feel in the eccentricity of the characters, strange gatherings at a tea room, a host of suspects and rather a lot of people getting bumped off, a least one in a very creative fashion. A lot of it is very lively and engaging, there’s some great dialogue to amuse. I think in places it’s a bit long especially when the characters discuss what they know so the pace becomes a bit ponderous. However, overall it’s a fun, enjoyable and entertaining read and a good homage to the Queens of Crime.
With thanks to NetGalley and Head of Zeus for the arc in return for an honest review.
January 12, 2024
The Distant Dead is the eighth book in Lesley Thomson's 'The Detective's Daughter' crime series. Like the latest book in the series, The Mystery of Yew Tree House, The Distant Dead has a dual timeline, moving back and forth between 1940 during the height of the Blitz and the present day (2020). The wartime mystery element and the present day murder investigations can definitely be enjoyed without having read any of the previous books. These are satisfyingly complex, with lots of potential suspects and some surprising reveals. There are also a few rather convenient coincidences with Stella, in particular, having a knack for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
However, a lot of the book involves the ups and downs of Stella and Jack's relationship (it's a definite down at this point) and this element definitely engaged me a lot less. I noted in my review of The Playground Murders that I felt I'd missed out by not having followed the development of their relationship from the beginning, and the same was true here. Additionally, it took me a bit of time to recall who was who when it came to the employees of Clean Slate, the cleaning business started by Stella, and their various partners. I also found Stella's journalist friend and current flatmate, Lucie, increasingly annoying.
I enjoyed the unravelling of the mystery, which spans six decades, and I thought the scenes in wartime London were really realistically evoked. George Cotton, the detective assigned to the 1940 murder case, was a brilliant character, an example of a dogged, thorough and principled police officer determined to bring the culprit to justice. If I'm honest, I found the book quite slow, mainly for the reasons I mentioned above. However, those who've followed the series from the beginning and are fans of Stella and Jack, will I'm sure find it another satisfying outing for the duo.
However, a lot of the book involves the ups and downs of Stella and Jack's relationship (it's a definite down at this point) and this element definitely engaged me a lot less. I noted in my review of The Playground Murders that I felt I'd missed out by not having followed the development of their relationship from the beginning, and the same was true here. Additionally, it took me a bit of time to recall who was who when it came to the employees of Clean Slate, the cleaning business started by Stella, and their various partners. I also found Stella's journalist friend and current flatmate, Lucie, increasingly annoying.
I enjoyed the unravelling of the mystery, which spans six decades, and I thought the scenes in wartime London were really realistically evoked. George Cotton, the detective assigned to the 1940 murder case, was a brilliant character, an example of a dogged, thorough and principled police officer determined to bring the culprit to justice. If I'm honest, I found the book quite slow, mainly for the reasons I mentioned above. However, those who've followed the series from the beginning and are fans of Stella and Jack, will I'm sure find it another satisfying outing for the duo.
May 20, 2021
“She’s moved to Tewkesbury to escape from death, not to court it”
I feel as though I have lived every moment of this investigation with cleaner turned amateur detective, Stella Darnell and her team, and now I am all worn out and ready for a rest before my next case!
With the prologue really setting the scene, the pace of the ensuing storyline is defined, which although not fast paced, has an abundance of really quite dark and understated murders for our intrepid team of amateur sleuths to solve, before the rather satisfying conclusion is reached, and the ‘Detective’s Daughter’ lives to fight another day – but only just!
As I have come into the series with this, book #8, I can see that there is a backstory running through each episode, although the author did a good job of drip-feeding me the pertinent facts at just the right time, so that I never really felt short-changed in knowing what the characters were talking about and why they were interacting with each other in a certain way. For me personally, that was enough to make this book work fine as a stand alone story.
This dual timeline story, which begins during the London wartime blitz of 1940, and concludes many miles away in Tewkesbury several decades later, is told in alternating chapters, which are well signposted and kept short, so that tracking the many scene changes and keeping things fluid, is relatively straightforward.
This story definitely wasn’t written for the reader who likes their murders to be neatly packaged and compartmentalised. Everyone was both a suspect and a potential victim. My own suspect list had so many names on it, I began to lose track of them all, particularly as they were crossed off then added back on again, with every new twist and turn, of which there plenty. And No! I didn’t even guess the real perpetrator in the end, which was a little frustrating. There were just too many lies and secrets, so much double crossing and back-stabbing, that sorting out the guilty from the innocent, needed a criminology degree!
This multi-layered, well structured story, is richly textured and intense, as with potential suspects lurking around every corner, who is it safe to trust? The pace of the plot has natural peaks and troughs and the author has the skill, authority and confidence in her writing, to allow her characters a voice of their own and free reign to take control of a situation. At times the atmosphere is a little claustrophobic and almost too replete with detail, especially as much of the action takes place in the dead of night and, typically for England, during adverse and inclement weather conditions. However, for invoking a real sense of time and place and for ratcheting up the tension a notch or two, this was a great touch and never out of step with events as they occurred in either time period.
Complex family connections, a corrupt police investigation leading to a complete travesty of justice, and victims still seeking closure, revenge, retribution and truth, link these crimes, only separated by time, but never far from thought and definitely never forgiven or forgotten by so many. All the result of one person’s incontrovertible belief, that their status in the community gave them carte blanche to behave in whatever way they chose without justification, made them untouchable and immune from suffering any consequences, even when their heinous crimes are uncovered, with the shifted burden of guilt even transcending their death.
Author Lesley Thomson, has created a large sprawling cast of well drawn, defined and developed, characters, only a small percentage of which I was particularly eager to engage with, which is exactly as it should have been, given the many personal vendettas and rivalries involved. Although Stella herself is an authentic and genuinely believable character, she still comes across as a very emotionally complex person, even somewhat vulnerable, in that she seems almost reluctantly desperate to carry on in her detective father’s footsteps, as if to honour him and keep his memory alive in some way. In that respect, maybe she is still trying to find her place in life, searching for a sense of belonging and trying to decide whether beginning a new life with Jack and his young family, is really the right road for her to take towards her future happiness.
As a purely personal connection and a nod to the author, Stella also has a constant companion of the four-legged variety, a poodle called Stanley, whose bark is much worse than his bite, although both would make any unsuspecting potential attackers think twice!
I was always led to believe that “revenge is a dish best served cold”, although Stella and her team are very much of the opinion that it can be served at any temperature, and I have to say, I can see where they are coming from!
To check out more extracts and excerpts from the the book, visit
https://www.fiction-books.biz/reviews...
I feel as though I have lived every moment of this investigation with cleaner turned amateur detective, Stella Darnell and her team, and now I am all worn out and ready for a rest before my next case!
With the prologue really setting the scene, the pace of the ensuing storyline is defined, which although not fast paced, has an abundance of really quite dark and understated murders for our intrepid team of amateur sleuths to solve, before the rather satisfying conclusion is reached, and the ‘Detective’s Daughter’ lives to fight another day – but only just!
As I have come into the series with this, book #8, I can see that there is a backstory running through each episode, although the author did a good job of drip-feeding me the pertinent facts at just the right time, so that I never really felt short-changed in knowing what the characters were talking about and why they were interacting with each other in a certain way. For me personally, that was enough to make this book work fine as a stand alone story.
This dual timeline story, which begins during the London wartime blitz of 1940, and concludes many miles away in Tewkesbury several decades later, is told in alternating chapters, which are well signposted and kept short, so that tracking the many scene changes and keeping things fluid, is relatively straightforward.
This story definitely wasn’t written for the reader who likes their murders to be neatly packaged and compartmentalised. Everyone was both a suspect and a potential victim. My own suspect list had so many names on it, I began to lose track of them all, particularly as they were crossed off then added back on again, with every new twist and turn, of which there plenty. And No! I didn’t even guess the real perpetrator in the end, which was a little frustrating. There were just too many lies and secrets, so much double crossing and back-stabbing, that sorting out the guilty from the innocent, needed a criminology degree!
This multi-layered, well structured story, is richly textured and intense, as with potential suspects lurking around every corner, who is it safe to trust? The pace of the plot has natural peaks and troughs and the author has the skill, authority and confidence in her writing, to allow her characters a voice of their own and free reign to take control of a situation. At times the atmosphere is a little claustrophobic and almost too replete with detail, especially as much of the action takes place in the dead of night and, typically for England, during adverse and inclement weather conditions. However, for invoking a real sense of time and place and for ratcheting up the tension a notch or two, this was a great touch and never out of step with events as they occurred in either time period.
Complex family connections, a corrupt police investigation leading to a complete travesty of justice, and victims still seeking closure, revenge, retribution and truth, link these crimes, only separated by time, but never far from thought and definitely never forgiven or forgotten by so many. All the result of one person’s incontrovertible belief, that their status in the community gave them carte blanche to behave in whatever way they chose without justification, made them untouchable and immune from suffering any consequences, even when their heinous crimes are uncovered, with the shifted burden of guilt even transcending their death.
Author Lesley Thomson, has created a large sprawling cast of well drawn, defined and developed, characters, only a small percentage of which I was particularly eager to engage with, which is exactly as it should have been, given the many personal vendettas and rivalries involved. Although Stella herself is an authentic and genuinely believable character, she still comes across as a very emotionally complex person, even somewhat vulnerable, in that she seems almost reluctantly desperate to carry on in her detective father’s footsteps, as if to honour him and keep his memory alive in some way. In that respect, maybe she is still trying to find her place in life, searching for a sense of belonging and trying to decide whether beginning a new life with Jack and his young family, is really the right road for her to take towards her future happiness.
As a purely personal connection and a nod to the author, Stella also has a constant companion of the four-legged variety, a poodle called Stanley, whose bark is much worse than his bite, although both would make any unsuspecting potential attackers think twice!
I was always led to believe that “revenge is a dish best served cold”, although Stella and her team are very much of the opinion that it can be served at any temperature, and I have to say, I can see where they are coming from!
To check out more extracts and excerpts from the the book, visit
https://www.fiction-books.biz/reviews...
June 15, 2024
As with the previous novel in the series “The Playground Murders”, here a recent murder in Gloucestershire is somehow connected to two earlier ones.
Having temporarily split from Jack Harmon, Stella Darnell has moved to Tewkesbury where she discovers the body of true crime podcaster Roderick March in the town’s abbey. March was researching into the murder of pathologist Aleck Northcote on November 22nd 1963 – the same day as the Kennedy assassination. Northcote’s son Giles was convicted and executed for the murder although March insists he was innocent.
In 1940, during the height of the blitz, 24 year old Maple Greenhill, a clerk with Express Dairies, is strangled to death in west London. Although the detective in charge solved the case, he was forced by those higher up to drop it. A miscarriage which haunted him the rest of his life.
Although Stella had moved to Tewkesbury to escape detective work and stick to cleaning, she unwittingly finds herself drawn into the riddle of the unsolved murders and soon finds her life in danger.
Another very worthy offering in this enjoyable series.
Having temporarily split from Jack Harmon, Stella Darnell has moved to Tewkesbury where she discovers the body of true crime podcaster Roderick March in the town’s abbey. March was researching into the murder of pathologist Aleck Northcote on November 22nd 1963 – the same day as the Kennedy assassination. Northcote’s son Giles was convicted and executed for the murder although March insists he was innocent.
In 1940, during the height of the blitz, 24 year old Maple Greenhill, a clerk with Express Dairies, is strangled to death in west London. Although the detective in charge solved the case, he was forced by those higher up to drop it. A miscarriage which haunted him the rest of his life.
Although Stella had moved to Tewkesbury to escape detective work and stick to cleaning, she unwittingly finds herself drawn into the riddle of the unsolved murders and soon finds her life in danger.
Another very worthy offering in this enjoyable series.
February 16, 2022
4.5 stars. Loved it but not as much as her previous. This is also the first time I was able to guess the killer. Can't wait for the next one!
June 16, 2021
I've read all the books in the series and look forward to each new story coming out. I love Jack and Stella as characters though was disappointed when they started becoming romantically involved... However, I'd seen book no 8 had been released so downloaded it and started reading straight away.
From other user reviews, I seem to be very much in the minority here but I really disliked this story and found the style really inconsistent with the rest of the series. It almost felt in places like it was trying to be the Thursday Murder Club with the Death Cafe line up...
There was also waaaayyyyyy too many coincidences in this story, some completely irrelevant; Maple's family living in Jackie's house, out of the millions in London totally unnecessary to the plot and felt ridiculous!
Stella was all too central to the crimes too and how incompetent are the Tewkesbury police?! The place has a population of 20,000 and they have 2 murders in 2 days and a number of attacks and they put it down to a gang of kids...
I have really enjoyed the 7 books that came before this one but felt the author might be running out of steam a bit with this latest installment. Hopefully no 9 will be back on track!
From other user reviews, I seem to be very much in the minority here but I really disliked this story and found the style really inconsistent with the rest of the series. It almost felt in places like it was trying to be the Thursday Murder Club with the Death Cafe line up...
There was also waaaayyyyyy too many coincidences in this story, some completely irrelevant; Maple's family living in Jackie's house, out of the millions in London totally unnecessary to the plot and felt ridiculous!
Stella was all too central to the crimes too and how incompetent are the Tewkesbury police?! The place has a population of 20,000 and they have 2 murders in 2 days and a number of attacks and they put it down to a gang of kids...
I have really enjoyed the 7 books that came before this one but felt the author might be running out of steam a bit with this latest installment. Hopefully no 9 will be back on track!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 15, 2021
In the eighth installment of the series, the Detective’s Daughter Stella Darnell has reached a crisis point in her life. She is feeling the loss of her detective father full force. Although it’s been seven years since Terry Darnell succumbed to a heart attack, Stella, a cleaner by trade and an excellent sleuth by accident, was suddenly struck that her father was truly well and gone. She has left her life in London that includes a successful cleaning business called Clean Slate and the love of her life Jack Harmon (and his young twins) to get some space and perspective in Tewkesbury. Both her business associates and Jack are floundering without her and wondering if she will ever return to them.
Stella is employed by a cleaning service in Tewkesbury, and she’s living in what at first seems an odd arrangement of sharing an apartment with Lucy May, a journalist in her 70s who had had an intimate relationship with Stella’s dad at several points in their lives. Stella had been involved with Lucy a few months back in solving a murder case, and Lucy had received a bad head injury. So, they are both in a recuperative state and trying to return to some sort of normal. Cleaning in the Tewkesbury Abbey is one of Stella’s cleaning assignments, and she has found some much needed peace at the abbey. It’s a different kind of cleaning for Stella, as the old statues and buildings require a gentler touch than her normal scrubbing. It’s rather a new concept to Stella that not everything needs or should have a deep clean. Wear of time has a beauty all its own.
Stella decides to attend something called a Death Café, where people talk about death, thinking it might help her sort through her feelings of grief. She assumes that the small group of people who show up are strangers to one another, as that’s how they act, and they seem not to even like one another much. Stella considers herself a stranger to everyone, except her reputation as a capable sleuth has preceded her more than she realizes. Also, one of the attendees named Roddy March, does have a demonstrable interest in Stella, having come across Stella cleaning in the abbey, what we learn is a deliberate act on his part, and trying to engage her in conversation.
When Roddy shows up at the Death Café that night, Stella isn’t half pleased. He wants to involve Stella in his new podcast about a series of murders that began in 1940. He’s aware of Stella’s detecting success and thinks she will add interest to the program, where he plans to reveal the real killer of a famous pathologist who was murdered in 1963 in his home. The home is named Cloisters, and it happens to sit right next to Stella’s beloved abbey in Tewkesbury. The pathologist is connected to an unsolved murder of a young woman from 1940 in London. And here is where murder once again finds Stella, even as she tries to hide from it in Tewkesbury. After two Death Café meetings, one of the group will be dead, stabbed in the abbey, and it is, of course, Stella who comes upon him and hears the man’s dying words. The policewoman who shows up in charge of the official investigation is none other than the favorite colleague of her father’s, Janet Piper. Janet had worked as a WPC in London with Terry and had loved him, although neither ever acted on their affection for one another. The past is present in abundance in this story.
To solve the current murder, the 1940 and 1963 murders must be revisited and re-examined. Maple Greenhill and her lover were together in an abandoned house as the air-raids sounded and the rain pounded on that miserable night of December 11, 1940, but it was far from the romantic rendezvous that Maple expected. Maple discovered her lover was not the fiancé she thought but her killer instead. No one knew the identity of this man in her life, so he was able to remain anonymous and get away with murder, almost. One man put the pieces together, but his findings were discounted, as corruption and status overpowered justice.
Some things occur just as natural as day follows night, and the investigation Stella and Lucy begin soon draws in the rest of the cleaning/detecting crew from London, including Jack. It is fascinating reading when these characters work together to find answers to a murder. One of the crew in her digging even finds out that she lives in the house in which Maple Greenhill grew up. The connections of the Death Café attendees to the distant dead are also revealed in the author’s always brilliant timing, and the more revealed the more dangerous it becomes for those investigating, especially Stella. More deaths occur as the killer desperately attempts to contain the secrets of a lifetime. The suspense, intensified by so much of the story occurring at night and in the rain, will grip the reader and not let go until the last secret surprises you. The ending to the drama is large and frightful, an ending that begs to be on film.
The book is divided into two parts, with part one alternating between the time periods of 1940 and 2019 and the locations of London during the Blitz and present-day Tewkesbury. Part two focuses on the present-day Tewkesbury and the unraveling of the past into the present-day investigation. Lesley Thomson creates such amazing characters, with the regular ones returning from book to book to the absolute delight of the many fans of this series. Stella and Jack have both captured our hearts, and their separation is cause for alarm in this book. The new characters in each book are deeply developed, too, and are always intriguing in their backgrounds and purpose in the story. In The Distant Dead, there are quite a few characters with which to keep up, but I had no trouble in doing so. Thomson has a deft hand at creating a large cast with memorable attributes. I had no moments when I had to look back at a previous part of the book to sort the character’s name or role. The author maintains a continuity of the different characters’ appearances, not leaving them behind for chapters and chapters.
I need to mention the dialogue in The Distant Dead, as dialogue is something at which Lesley Thomson also excels. Listen carefully to the conversations, as they help move the plot forward. There’s much appreciated wit to be had in Thomson’s dialogue, too. One of my favorite bits of dialogue was the exchange between two members of the Death Café as each attendee was introducing him/herself. It goes as follows:
‘Joy by name. Joy by nature,’ said the woman in the hunting tunic.
‘You hide that well, Lovey,’ Gladys grinned at Joy.
The Distant Dead is an amazing read in one of my favorite series. Lesley Thomson is one of the best writers and best storytellers I read. Thomson’s stories are always complex but never confusing. Her Detective’s Daughter series is one that should be on every mystery/crime reader’s automatic read list and on every writer’s reading list for learning what works.
Stella is employed by a cleaning service in Tewkesbury, and she’s living in what at first seems an odd arrangement of sharing an apartment with Lucy May, a journalist in her 70s who had had an intimate relationship with Stella’s dad at several points in their lives. Stella had been involved with Lucy a few months back in solving a murder case, and Lucy had received a bad head injury. So, they are both in a recuperative state and trying to return to some sort of normal. Cleaning in the Tewkesbury Abbey is one of Stella’s cleaning assignments, and she has found some much needed peace at the abbey. It’s a different kind of cleaning for Stella, as the old statues and buildings require a gentler touch than her normal scrubbing. It’s rather a new concept to Stella that not everything needs or should have a deep clean. Wear of time has a beauty all its own.
Stella decides to attend something called a Death Café, where people talk about death, thinking it might help her sort through her feelings of grief. She assumes that the small group of people who show up are strangers to one another, as that’s how they act, and they seem not to even like one another much. Stella considers herself a stranger to everyone, except her reputation as a capable sleuth has preceded her more than she realizes. Also, one of the attendees named Roddy March, does have a demonstrable interest in Stella, having come across Stella cleaning in the abbey, what we learn is a deliberate act on his part, and trying to engage her in conversation.
When Roddy shows up at the Death Café that night, Stella isn’t half pleased. He wants to involve Stella in his new podcast about a series of murders that began in 1940. He’s aware of Stella’s detecting success and thinks she will add interest to the program, where he plans to reveal the real killer of a famous pathologist who was murdered in 1963 in his home. The home is named Cloisters, and it happens to sit right next to Stella’s beloved abbey in Tewkesbury. The pathologist is connected to an unsolved murder of a young woman from 1940 in London. And here is where murder once again finds Stella, even as she tries to hide from it in Tewkesbury. After two Death Café meetings, one of the group will be dead, stabbed in the abbey, and it is, of course, Stella who comes upon him and hears the man’s dying words. The policewoman who shows up in charge of the official investigation is none other than the favorite colleague of her father’s, Janet Piper. Janet had worked as a WPC in London with Terry and had loved him, although neither ever acted on their affection for one another. The past is present in abundance in this story.
To solve the current murder, the 1940 and 1963 murders must be revisited and re-examined. Maple Greenhill and her lover were together in an abandoned house as the air-raids sounded and the rain pounded on that miserable night of December 11, 1940, but it was far from the romantic rendezvous that Maple expected. Maple discovered her lover was not the fiancé she thought but her killer instead. No one knew the identity of this man in her life, so he was able to remain anonymous and get away with murder, almost. One man put the pieces together, but his findings were discounted, as corruption and status overpowered justice.
Some things occur just as natural as day follows night, and the investigation Stella and Lucy begin soon draws in the rest of the cleaning/detecting crew from London, including Jack. It is fascinating reading when these characters work together to find answers to a murder. One of the crew in her digging even finds out that she lives in the house in which Maple Greenhill grew up. The connections of the Death Café attendees to the distant dead are also revealed in the author’s always brilliant timing, and the more revealed the more dangerous it becomes for those investigating, especially Stella. More deaths occur as the killer desperately attempts to contain the secrets of a lifetime. The suspense, intensified by so much of the story occurring at night and in the rain, will grip the reader and not let go until the last secret surprises you. The ending to the drama is large and frightful, an ending that begs to be on film.
The book is divided into two parts, with part one alternating between the time periods of 1940 and 2019 and the locations of London during the Blitz and present-day Tewkesbury. Part two focuses on the present-day Tewkesbury and the unraveling of the past into the present-day investigation. Lesley Thomson creates such amazing characters, with the regular ones returning from book to book to the absolute delight of the many fans of this series. Stella and Jack have both captured our hearts, and their separation is cause for alarm in this book. The new characters in each book are deeply developed, too, and are always intriguing in their backgrounds and purpose in the story. In The Distant Dead, there are quite a few characters with which to keep up, but I had no trouble in doing so. Thomson has a deft hand at creating a large cast with memorable attributes. I had no moments when I had to look back at a previous part of the book to sort the character’s name or role. The author maintains a continuity of the different characters’ appearances, not leaving them behind for chapters and chapters.
I need to mention the dialogue in The Distant Dead, as dialogue is something at which Lesley Thomson also excels. Listen carefully to the conversations, as they help move the plot forward. There’s much appreciated wit to be had in Thomson’s dialogue, too. One of my favorite bits of dialogue was the exchange between two members of the Death Café as each attendee was introducing him/herself. It goes as follows:
‘Joy by name. Joy by nature,’ said the woman in the hunting tunic.
‘You hide that well, Lovey,’ Gladys grinned at Joy.
The Distant Dead is an amazing read in one of my favorite series. Lesley Thomson is one of the best writers and best storytellers I read. Thomson’s stories are always complex but never confusing. Her Detective’s Daughter series is one that should be on every mystery/crime reader’s automatic read list and on every writer’s reading list for learning what works.
May 17, 2021
The Detective Daughter series delivers an original twist on the classic murder mystery genre. Stella, the detective's daughter, has a cleaning business and a detective agency with an eclectic mix of employees. The main protagonists are believably eccentric and flawed. This story reads well as a standalone, but the series is addictive and engaging and worth reading in its entirety.
This dual timeline story explores a wartime murder during the London blitz and murder in Tewkesbury in 2019. The connections between the two stories are revealed in a suspenseful way and involve Stella, Jack and the other team members across London and Tewkesbury.
The recent murders are catalysed by The Death Cafe, a group that discusses death that Stella is drawn to. The story has important character development for the main protagonists in addition to the well-plotted murder mystery.
Evocative with vivid sensory imagery, the reader is drawn into a world of deceit and murder that is chilling and disturbing. The historical and contemporary are interwoven convincingly and give the story its classic murder mystery ethos.
This story's atmospheric settings and vibrant characters elevate the simple murder mystery into something that resonates.
I received a copy of this book from 'Head of Zeus' via NetGalley in return for an honest review.
This dual timeline story explores a wartime murder during the London blitz and murder in Tewkesbury in 2019. The connections between the two stories are revealed in a suspenseful way and involve Stella, Jack and the other team members across London and Tewkesbury.
The recent murders are catalysed by The Death Cafe, a group that discusses death that Stella is drawn to. The story has important character development for the main protagonists in addition to the well-plotted murder mystery.
Evocative with vivid sensory imagery, the reader is drawn into a world of deceit and murder that is chilling and disturbing. The historical and contemporary are interwoven convincingly and give the story its classic murder mystery ethos.
This story's atmospheric settings and vibrant characters elevate the simple murder mystery into something that resonates.
I received a copy of this book from 'Head of Zeus' via NetGalley in return for an honest review.
May 18, 2021
What a fantastic addition to this great series!
During the bombing in London, 1940, a scream is heard coming from a derelict house, but no-one paid much notice. However, a young woman's body is found, strangled. In Tewkesbury, 2020, a man's body is found; he broadcast a true-crime podcast describing his investigation into the murder of a 1940's police pathologist - how close to the truth did he get? Stella moved to Tewkesbury to get away from murder, but when this man died in her arms she finds herself right back in the middle of it - again.
This series just keeps getting better; Lesley Thomson really knows how to grab her reader's attention and keep it there until the very end. With this being a dual timeline mystery, I found that I got so involved in each one that it was a bit of a surprise when it all changed. Intricately woven and with plenty going on, I was hooked from the word go. Expertly written with well-developed characters, this is an exciting read which I'm happy to recommend and give 4.5*.
During the bombing in London, 1940, a scream is heard coming from a derelict house, but no-one paid much notice. However, a young woman's body is found, strangled. In Tewkesbury, 2020, a man's body is found; he broadcast a true-crime podcast describing his investigation into the murder of a 1940's police pathologist - how close to the truth did he get? Stella moved to Tewkesbury to get away from murder, but when this man died in her arms she finds herself right back in the middle of it - again.
This series just keeps getting better; Lesley Thomson really knows how to grab her reader's attention and keep it there until the very end. With this being a dual timeline mystery, I found that I got so involved in each one that it was a bit of a surprise when it all changed. Intricately woven and with plenty going on, I was hooked from the word go. Expertly written with well-developed characters, this is an exciting read which I'm happy to recommend and give 4.5*.
December 23, 2024
I’m going to be honest: I’m kind of mad at Lesley Thomson for this book. It is one thing to have multi-layered mysteries with rich characters, but this was going way too far. There were literally 5 murders in here, and so many characters that I couldn’t tell them all apart until I was about 65% of the way in. This was more like a rude mind game or a test (to see if you could follow it). I kept going, because I’ve come so far in the series and I guess I still want to read the subsequent book, so I kept going. But I don’t feel glad for having slogged through. By the end, I felt more like “WTH was that?! Was it honestly fun to write or edit? And who else is going to read the whole thing?” It was way too complex to be a fun read; it was more like work or studying for the analytical section that used to exist in standardized tests.
February 22, 2025
It is a long time since I read any of the Detective's daughter series but my feeling was that I had enjoyed them. Maybe that was why I grabbed a more recent book from the series when I saw it.
Some facts returned as I started reading but it became obvious that something momentus had happened in the books that I have missed.
Why did Stella have the need to be alone and why Tewksbury? I must admit I nearly gave up about the 35% mark. There seemed to be a gaggle of women chatting to each other who I didn't know (did I miss the introductions or were they just characters from books I had missed) Maybe my fault for not reading all of the books inbetween.
We are often presented with a present day murder mystery spliced with an old case but here, not only do we have an old and a new, we also have a London during the blitz as an intermediary.
Yes it got interesting towards the end but I felt that my interest was more to get the book finished by then, than to find out who were the killers.
Maybe it was me but I felt that it could have been so much better. It seemed over complicated (as even one of the 'Team' commented at one stage and that was before they knew half the story!) and weren't there too many characters in the 'present' section of the story.
We visited Tewksbury about 10 years ago and could follow much of the action particularly in and around the Abbey.. In the Abbey the furnace and the gift shop return readily to mind. I bought a goblet from the Abbey shop, I wonder if I was served by Joy!
Some facts returned as I started reading but it became obvious that something momentus had happened in the books that I have missed.
Why did Stella have the need to be alone and why Tewksbury? I must admit I nearly gave up about the 35% mark. There seemed to be a gaggle of women chatting to each other who I didn't know (did I miss the introductions or were they just characters from books I had missed) Maybe my fault for not reading all of the books inbetween.
We are often presented with a present day murder mystery spliced with an old case but here, not only do we have an old and a new, we also have a London during the blitz as an intermediary.
Yes it got interesting towards the end but I felt that my interest was more to get the book finished by then, than to find out who were the killers.
Maybe it was me but I felt that it could have been so much better. It seemed over complicated (as even one of the 'Team' commented at one stage and that was before they knew half the story!) and weren't there too many characters in the 'present' section of the story.
We visited Tewksbury about 10 years ago and could follow much of the action particularly in and around the Abbey.. In the Abbey the furnace and the gift shop return readily to mind. I bought a goblet from the Abbey shop, I wonder if I was served by Joy!
May 16, 2021
I wasn't a fan of the previous book i read in this series but I loved this one and I'm thinking of going back and read the rest of the series.
A well written, gripping and entertaining story that kept me hooked and guessing.
The author did an excellent job in delivering this story full of twists and turns.
The characters are well thought and I liked them.
I can't wait to read the rest of the series.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine
A well written, gripping and entertaining story that kept me hooked and guessing.
The author did an excellent job in delivering this story full of twists and turns.
The characters are well thought and I liked them.
I can't wait to read the rest of the series.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine
April 7, 2022
This time Thomson gives us a dual narrative - 1940 and 2019 -
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August 2, 2021
I've read all the books in this series and enjoyed them all. I did wonder where the story would go after the end of the previous book and now I know! For me it's all about the characters and I guess as a reader you either gel with them or you don't. I think the range of ages is a real positive. There are certainly more female characters in the permanent cast but that doesn't bother me as there are always plenty of male characters who appear story by story. I appreciated the historical aspect and the harking back to the 2nd WW was particularly pertinent in our pandemic times. I'm not for a moment comparing the deprivations in the UK over the last two years or so with what people had to deal with during the war years but there are some parallels for sure. If I have any criticisms I did find the plotting a bit over complicated. Were there too many coincidences? Oddly enough I did think there seemed to be several grammatical errors, typos or call them what you will. But no matter I'm ready for book number 9.
March 21, 2024
I usually enjoy this series for a bit of light escapism, but I felt this instalment dropped the ball. It had a different tone to the rest of the series, less gritty. It was much too long for the story, which felt stretched to breaking point. There was a lot of repetition and tiresome recaps of the plot, which could have been safely removed. The story itself and the characters behaviours were often farcical and the writing cheesy and melodramatic. A lot could have been remedied with better editing and proofreading (there were so many mistakes in my Kindle version). I finished it to see whodunnit, but by the end I didn’t care, as I’d lost interest by this point.
Maybe this series isn’t what it once was, but I will definitely try the next one, because I care about the regular characters.
Maybe this series isn’t what it once was, but I will definitely try the next one, because I care about the regular characters.
September 30, 2021
Jon Appleton - Proofreader missed a lot of mistakes!
I did not enjoy the first part of the book with Stella living and cleaning in Tewkesbury, having left everyone behind except her dog and Lucie. It was a bit of a struggle to keep reading, but I'm glad I did as by the end of the book the gang were back together, in Tewkesbury, looking forward to the future back in London and the cleaning company.
I did not enjoy the first part of the book with Stella living and cleaning in Tewkesbury, having left everyone behind except her dog and Lucie. It was a bit of a struggle to keep reading, but I'm glad I did as by the end of the book the gang were back together, in Tewkesbury, looking forward to the future back in London and the cleaning company.
May 1, 2023
Original plot alternating between events in 1940, 1963 and current day. Irritated by Lucie and her off the cuff use of the English language making it difficult to understand what she is saying. Comment no doubt a reflection on my age. Some of the sentence construction made it difficult to follow in parts. A good proof reader required in future.
March 24, 2024
Good read
Struggled a little getting into this episode of the detectives daughter but once I did it was a good read.
Struggled a little getting into this episode of the detectives daughter but once I did it was a good read.
May 20, 2021
I was gifted this to review by Head of Zeus, so huge thanks to them. The Distant Dead is the eighth in a series by Lesley Thomson, so I am coming late to the party. What attracted me to the book? Two things, really. Firstly there was a mention of a WW2 element, and I am a sucker for anything war-related. Secondly, some of the action takes place in the Gloucestershire town of Tewksbury. Years ago now, a very dear friend of mine, Miles Amherst - long since gone,sadly - founded a choir school at Tewksbury Abbey. I had taught with him in Ely, but we had gone our separate ways. When the choir school was running, I was teaching in a Shropshire prep school, and I always had a half day on Mondays. It was a bit of a drive, but sometimes I used to motor down to Tewksbury, rehearse with the choir and help them sing Evensong. Afterwards was always beer, food - and an small-hours drive back to Salop.
So, happy memories, but what of the book? I am not the biggest fan of split time narratives, but many authors are, so it is what it is. In this case, at least, the connection between the narratives is clear. In Blitz-torn London, a young woman is found dead - strangled in an abandoned house. The pathologist called to the scene, and who later carries out the post mortem, is a man called Aleck Northcote. He tells the police investigating the case that the woman, Maple Greenhill was a common prostitute.
Years later, Northcote has retired to Tewksbury, but is found dead. His wastrel son is convicted of his murder. Pretty much present day, Stella Darnell, the daughter of a policeman, now working as a contract cleaner in Tewksbury, meets a man named Roddy March who has produced a podcast about the 1963 murder of Northcote. Roddy investigates cases where he thinks the wrong person went to prison - or, in this case, the gallows. When Roddy is found murdered next to an ancient tomb in Tewksbury Abbey, Stella feels connected enough to find out the truth about how past and present have merged - with fatal consequences.
So, what exactly happened in 1940?. We know - from the prologue - that Maple Greenhill has gone into an empty house with a man friend, and that he strangles her. When her body is found, London copper George Cotton is called, but his investigation leads nowhere until a cigarette lighter is found at the scene. It is engraved with the initials AXN. Cotton puts two and two together, and assumes that the pathologist - Aleck Xavier Northcote - must have dropped it when he was called to look at the body. Then, in a separate breakthrough, a garment repair ticket is found in Maple's coat. When Cotton visits the tailor, he is astonished to be joined by a woman who says she has lost the self-same ticket. The woman is Mrs Aleck Northcote.
Lesley Thomson switches the narratives very cleverly and poses important questions as the book progresses. Was Northcote Maple's man-friend, and did he kill her? If he did, how then did he avoid prosecution and survive to be murdered in his own house twenty three years later? And if Giles Northcote - who had visited his father on than fateful evening to ask for money to pay off a gambling debt - didn't kill his father, then who did? And was the killer somehow connected to the death of Maple Greenhill.
Obviously, I am not about to reveal the answer to the conundrum, but you will enjoy - as I did - how Lesley Thomson has Stella Darnell - and her companions - searching for, and then finding, the truth. The actual solution to what turns out to be multiple murders is breathtakingly complex, but this a clever, literate and totally convincing murder mystery - and thoroughly, thoroughly English. People who follow the news know that Tewksbury is notoriously susceptible to flooding, standing as it does at the confluence of the rivers Severn and Warwickshire Avon, and Lesley Thompson uses the power of the river as it hurtles over weirs and beneath bridges as a very effective metaphor for the violence in human souls.
So, happy memories, but what of the book? I am not the biggest fan of split time narratives, but many authors are, so it is what it is. In this case, at least, the connection between the narratives is clear. In Blitz-torn London, a young woman is found dead - strangled in an abandoned house. The pathologist called to the scene, and who later carries out the post mortem, is a man called Aleck Northcote. He tells the police investigating the case that the woman, Maple Greenhill was a common prostitute.
Years later, Northcote has retired to Tewksbury, but is found dead. His wastrel son is convicted of his murder. Pretty much present day, Stella Darnell, the daughter of a policeman, now working as a contract cleaner in Tewksbury, meets a man named Roddy March who has produced a podcast about the 1963 murder of Northcote. Roddy investigates cases where he thinks the wrong person went to prison - or, in this case, the gallows. When Roddy is found murdered next to an ancient tomb in Tewksbury Abbey, Stella feels connected enough to find out the truth about how past and present have merged - with fatal consequences.
So, what exactly happened in 1940?. We know - from the prologue - that Maple Greenhill has gone into an empty house with a man friend, and that he strangles her. When her body is found, London copper George Cotton is called, but his investigation leads nowhere until a cigarette lighter is found at the scene. It is engraved with the initials AXN. Cotton puts two and two together, and assumes that the pathologist - Aleck Xavier Northcote - must have dropped it when he was called to look at the body. Then, in a separate breakthrough, a garment repair ticket is found in Maple's coat. When Cotton visits the tailor, he is astonished to be joined by a woman who says she has lost the self-same ticket. The woman is Mrs Aleck Northcote.
Lesley Thomson switches the narratives very cleverly and poses important questions as the book progresses. Was Northcote Maple's man-friend, and did he kill her? If he did, how then did he avoid prosecution and survive to be murdered in his own house twenty three years later? And if Giles Northcote - who had visited his father on than fateful evening to ask for money to pay off a gambling debt - didn't kill his father, then who did? And was the killer somehow connected to the death of Maple Greenhill.
Obviously, I am not about to reveal the answer to the conundrum, but you will enjoy - as I did - how Lesley Thomson has Stella Darnell - and her companions - searching for, and then finding, the truth. The actual solution to what turns out to be multiple murders is breathtakingly complex, but this a clever, literate and totally convincing murder mystery - and thoroughly, thoroughly English. People who follow the news know that Tewksbury is notoriously susceptible to flooding, standing as it does at the confluence of the rivers Severn and Warwickshire Avon, and Lesley Thompson uses the power of the river as it hurtles over weirs and beneath bridges as a very effective metaphor for the violence in human souls.
May 16, 2021
‘The Distant Dead’ is the eighth book in the bestselling series featuring the part time cleaner and part time detective Stella Darnell. I haven’t quite caught up with every book in the series but I am getting there. I read the synopsis for ‘The Distant Dead’ and it certainly appealed to me – partly because I love the character of Stella Darnell and partly because of the fact that part of the story takes place during the Second World War, which is a period that I am fascinated by. So without further ado, I grabbed my copy of the book, I grabbed a cup of tea and settled down for what proved to be an interesting afternoon of reading. I thoroughly enjoyed reading ‘The Distant Dead’ but more about that in a bit.
It took me no time at all to get into ‘The Distant Dead’. In fact by the time I got to the end of the second chapter, I knew that I would find it increasingly difficult to put the book to one side for any length of time. The book seemed to have developed a hold over me and it was a hold that I wasn’t willing to break. The dual timelines fascinated me and I had to keep reading to discover how the two timelines were connected and whether or not Stella managed to solve the cases. The pages flew over at speed and at one point the page numbers became a blur. I found ‘The Distant Dead’ to be a gripping read, which certainly kept me guessing and kept me on the edge of my seat.
‘The Distant Dead’ is superbly written but then I think that to be true of all of the books in the series. Lesley certainly knows how to grab the reader’s attention and draw them into what proves to be a compelling story. The author has one of those easy going writing styles that is easy to get used to and easy to get along with. She has a way o making the reader feel as though they are part of the story and at the heart of the action so to speak. I loved the way in which Lesley told the story using dual timelines. The two timelines interlinked well and the story flowed seamlessly as a result. Reading ‘The Distant Dead’ felt like being on an at times scary and unpredictable rollercoaster ride with several twists and turns along the way.
In short, I thoroughly enjoyed reading ‘The Distant Dead’ and I would recommend it to other readers. I will certainly be reading more of Lesley’s work in the future. The score on the Ginger Book Geek board is a very well deserved 5* out of 5*.
It took me no time at all to get into ‘The Distant Dead’. In fact by the time I got to the end of the second chapter, I knew that I would find it increasingly difficult to put the book to one side for any length of time. The book seemed to have developed a hold over me and it was a hold that I wasn’t willing to break. The dual timelines fascinated me and I had to keep reading to discover how the two timelines were connected and whether or not Stella managed to solve the cases. The pages flew over at speed and at one point the page numbers became a blur. I found ‘The Distant Dead’ to be a gripping read, which certainly kept me guessing and kept me on the edge of my seat.
‘The Distant Dead’ is superbly written but then I think that to be true of all of the books in the series. Lesley certainly knows how to grab the reader’s attention and draw them into what proves to be a compelling story. The author has one of those easy going writing styles that is easy to get used to and easy to get along with. She has a way o making the reader feel as though they are part of the story and at the heart of the action so to speak. I loved the way in which Lesley told the story using dual timelines. The two timelines interlinked well and the story flowed seamlessly as a result. Reading ‘The Distant Dead’ felt like being on an at times scary and unpredictable rollercoaster ride with several twists and turns along the way.
In short, I thoroughly enjoyed reading ‘The Distant Dead’ and I would recommend it to other readers. I will certainly be reading more of Lesley’s work in the future. The score on the Ginger Book Geek board is a very well deserved 5* out of 5*.
May 16, 2021
Always tricky to write a review of a detective/crime/thriller without giving away any spoilers - but I will try my best.
First, I have read all of the books in this series and the characters are very much alive in my head. I cannot travel on the underground without thinking of Jack, for example. And now we are split between London and Tewkesbury (in geography and in time) in this book and I have a soft spot for Tewkesbury and the Abbey in particular. I spent a few Saturdays in my youth singing in the Abbey as part of the Royal School of Church Music get togethers and I have many lovely memories. So, I when I read these books they are about people and places I feel I know (I read a lot of fantasy as well and the same hold true - I get very involved and worry about what might happen).
The Distant Dead gives me a great deal to worry about because it starts with chaos - nothing is the same in Stella and Jack's world(s), the ground is uncertain and is shifting. Normally it is a murder that causes the ground to shift in crime novels, but Lesley Thomson, in this book, shows that life can be uncertain, ground can shift regardless and the resolutions at the end of a crime novel within a series are not always a sign of a happy ever after. But, do not be dismayed, if you want murder then there are plenty to satisfy the most hungry of appetites - and murders/characters from the past haunt the murders/characters of the present. London and Tewkesbury also play their part in the story as characters in their own right - and Tewkesbury is a very soggy character, reflecting recent flooding where the Abbey is seen to stand on an island.
Haunting is a good word to use in the context of this book, with so many haunted by actions or figures of the past as well as the atmospheric use of the Abbey.
I have learnt to trust Lesley, that she will carry the reader safely through the book, allowing you to be immersed in the story, scared and to be worried and to be doubting. My hope always being that all will be well in the end so I can manage the anxiety - for some reason my anxiety is usually about Jack who appears to have found a special place in my heart! So, no spoilers, but this is another cracking read that keeps you guessing all the way through to the end as well as enabling the main characters to develop and for their lives to move on.
One thing I learned - I won't be going to a Death Café any time soon - not my cup of tea!
First, I have read all of the books in this series and the characters are very much alive in my head. I cannot travel on the underground without thinking of Jack, for example. And now we are split between London and Tewkesbury (in geography and in time) in this book and I have a soft spot for Tewkesbury and the Abbey in particular. I spent a few Saturdays in my youth singing in the Abbey as part of the Royal School of Church Music get togethers and I have many lovely memories. So, I when I read these books they are about people and places I feel I know (I read a lot of fantasy as well and the same hold true - I get very involved and worry about what might happen).
The Distant Dead gives me a great deal to worry about because it starts with chaos - nothing is the same in Stella and Jack's world(s), the ground is uncertain and is shifting. Normally it is a murder that causes the ground to shift in crime novels, but Lesley Thomson, in this book, shows that life can be uncertain, ground can shift regardless and the resolutions at the end of a crime novel within a series are not always a sign of a happy ever after. But, do not be dismayed, if you want murder then there are plenty to satisfy the most hungry of appetites - and murders/characters from the past haunt the murders/characters of the present. London and Tewkesbury also play their part in the story as characters in their own right - and Tewkesbury is a very soggy character, reflecting recent flooding where the Abbey is seen to stand on an island.
Haunting is a good word to use in the context of this book, with so many haunted by actions or figures of the past as well as the atmospheric use of the Abbey.
I have learnt to trust Lesley, that she will carry the reader safely through the book, allowing you to be immersed in the story, scared and to be worried and to be doubting. My hope always being that all will be well in the end so I can manage the anxiety - for some reason my anxiety is usually about Jack who appears to have found a special place in my heart! So, no spoilers, but this is another cracking read that keeps you guessing all the way through to the end as well as enabling the main characters to develop and for their lives to move on.
One thing I learned - I won't be going to a Death Café any time soon - not my cup of tea!
January 18, 2024
Another great crime novel by Lesley Thomson.
There's an author's note at the back in which she explains that she wrote this book during the first Covid lockdown, and having been aware of an idea for a story set in 1940 for a while, she saw such parallels between the Home Front restrictions during the war and the government lockdown rules that worked their way into this novel.
Certainly, she's captured the claustrophobic feeling and the bizarrely empty landscape of the first lockdown and which does seem to resonate with what people who lived through the 40s told us. The murder scene itself is amazingly creepy, happening in a situation it's difficult to imagine in other periods, when there would have been more people out in the streets to be random witnesses. I also like the way she's found a period in time in which forensics were sufficiently early and the need for people with certain skills so profound that it is believable that a blind eye would be turned to such a heinous murder.
The one quibble I had was with the clue from Roddy Marsh in which Stella tried to make out his dying words. Like all anagram-like puzzles, there will always be some that you just see straight away (and many more you don't), and unfortunately for me, I read the letters as the phrase and only then noticed some of the letters were missed out. So I had a lucky guess on the murderer too early.
That didn't spoil my enjoyment, though. The whydunnit was the real driver in this novel (as is so often the case with this book series).
As someone who enjoys "Christmas books", I also enjoyed that this one was set over Christmas. It was lovely to see Stella and Jack with their investigating team for the holiday, having solved the murder just in time.
Three word review: Blitz murder mystery
There's an author's note at the back in which she explains that she wrote this book during the first Covid lockdown, and having been aware of an idea for a story set in 1940 for a while, she saw such parallels between the Home Front restrictions during the war and the government lockdown rules that worked their way into this novel.
Certainly, she's captured the claustrophobic feeling and the bizarrely empty landscape of the first lockdown and which does seem to resonate with what people who lived through the 40s told us. The murder scene itself is amazingly creepy, happening in a situation it's difficult to imagine in other periods, when there would have been more people out in the streets to be random witnesses. I also like the way she's found a period in time in which forensics were sufficiently early and the need for people with certain skills so profound that it is believable that a blind eye would be turned to such a heinous murder.
The one quibble I had was with the clue from Roddy Marsh in which Stella tried to make out his dying words. Like all anagram-like puzzles, there will always be some that you just see straight away (and many more you don't), and unfortunately for me, I read the letters as the phrase and only then noticed some of the letters were missed out. So I had a lucky guess on the murderer too early.
That didn't spoil my enjoyment, though. The whydunnit was the real driver in this novel (as is so often the case with this book series).
As someone who enjoys "Christmas books", I also enjoyed that this one was set over Christmas. It was lovely to see Stella and Jack with their investigating team for the holiday, having solved the murder just in time.
Three word review: Blitz murder mystery
June 6, 2021
This is Thomson's 8th book in the Detective's Daughter series but the first I have had the pleasure to read,
A very clever story that deals with a murder during the second world war and then other killings over the decades culminating in 2019 with the death of a true crime pod-caster and clock repairer in Tewkesbury.
The different timelines, killings, family dynamics, historic events and motives are expertly tied together as Stella and her friends pull at the threads to discover who was responsible for what killing at various times in the past. There are enough reasons for a cast of suspects to be responsible for the deaths over the decades and this is an excellent read.
If you want a fun, clever read that deals with the past and present you will not be disappointed.
Thank you NetGalley for the ARC in return for an impartial review.
A very clever story that deals with a murder during the second world war and then other killings over the decades culminating in 2019 with the death of a true crime pod-caster and clock repairer in Tewkesbury.
The different timelines, killings, family dynamics, historic events and motives are expertly tied together as Stella and her friends pull at the threads to discover who was responsible for what killing at various times in the past. There are enough reasons for a cast of suspects to be responsible for the deaths over the decades and this is an excellent read.
If you want a fun, clever read that deals with the past and present you will not be disappointed.
Thank you NetGalley for the ARC in return for an impartial review.
December 27, 2022
I was really disappointed when Stella and Jack split up in the last book, but while I won't spoil it, I will say I'm glad there's still hope. The ending was left in a way that the series could end or continue, and I hold out hope that it will continue. I won't offer spoilers about Lucie either except to say that I'm glad she's not definitely gone from the series. I liked the history that that was part of this story, not only from WWII, but also some history about the Abbey.
From book 1, when I found this series by accident, just a book to read between other series, I have enjoyed watching this circle of friends and colleagues grow and become closer, so that they feel like a sort of literary family or friend group to me too.
From book 1, when I found this series by accident, just a book to read between other series, I have enjoyed watching this circle of friends and colleagues grow and become closer, so that they feel like a sort of literary family or friend group to me too.
May 28, 2021
Another Detective's Daughter novel!!! I got very excited. I even re-read The Playground Murders (which was sort of creepy) to get ready for this one. Which was a good idea, because I needed the backstory to get ready for Stella's situation at the beginning of this novel. As with each of these novels, there is an historic mystery that still needs to be solved (or really solved) in order to make sense of the present situation. In this instance, I didn't find either the historic or the present-day mystery as compelling as some of the others — the one with the tower! But I was pleased to see Stella and Jack again.
September 15, 2021
It took me a long time to get into The Distant Dead, I don't know why, perhaps the change of location or the fact that Stella and Jack were apart?
I really enjoyed the plotline with Maple set in the 40s and George Cotton's heroic efforts to bring Northcote to justice, but admit found some of the twists and turns and extraordinarily convoluted story towards the end hard to follow, especially the Greenhill family line, maybe I was just tired when reading?
All in all, it was another great Detective's Daughter book and because Lesley Thomson is such a descriptive writer it made me research Tewkesbury and now I want to visit.
Would I recommend the book, of course I would.
I really enjoyed the plotline with Maple set in the 40s and George Cotton's heroic efforts to bring Northcote to justice, but admit found some of the twists and turns and extraordinarily convoluted story towards the end hard to follow, especially the Greenhill family line, maybe I was just tired when reading?
All in all, it was another great Detective's Daughter book and because Lesley Thomson is such a descriptive writer it made me research Tewkesbury and now I want to visit.
Would I recommend the book, of course I would.
May 3, 2021
It is always a pleasure to return to this series. I have read all of them and they remind me of the best golden age crime writing. The plot of every book is well worked out, the characters are familiar yet quirky. This book is set in different surroundings and switches between past and present, because the murder at heart of the story has its roots at the beginning of WW 2. Stella finds herself in Tewkesbury where the atmosphere is very British with an Abbey, cottages, villages and lots of peculiar characters. A bit "Midsomer Murders" but a bit less predictable. A very enjoyable read.
May 28, 2021
It was such a joy to catch up with Stella and Jack again. Lesley Thomson’s detective-cleaners become involved with murders past (1940), the sixties and present day in this Agatha Christie-like whodunnit with lots of red herrings thrown around. Set in Tewkesbury where Stella has come to escape the pressures of London and consider her true feelings for Jack. The cathedral and town itself, which is prone to flooding, give a gothic feeling to the story. A great addition to the “Detective’s Daughter” series.
June 10, 2025
I remember reading one or two of the earlier books in this series and really liking the characters of Stella Darnell and Jack Harmon. Perhaps I'd have enjoyed this book more had I read the whole series in chronological order, but I did find the large cast of characters confusing . This is a split story - part concerning the murder of a young woman in London in World War Two, the other involving the brutal killing of a podcaster in Tewkesbury where Stella is now living. As the complicated plot develops the connection between the historical murder and the present day one becomes clear.
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