Book info

• Title Bamburgh
• Author L. J. Ross
• Year 2022
• Genre Mystery

When a cantankerous old woman dies at her home in the sleepy, picturesque village of Bamburgh, DCI Ryan doesn’t think much of it―except, that is, for the small matter of it having been his wife who happened to find her body. Then another body turns up amongst the sand dunes at the base of the mighty castle fortress, and he decides it can’t be a coincidence... Meanwhile, after a recent revelation about her sister, DC Melanie Yates’ quest to avenge her death is becoming an obsession―much to the concern of those around her. With a new DCS to contend with and hundreds of cold case files to sift through, the chances of uncovering a dormant killer seem unlikely. But as Melanie delves deeper into the secrets of the past to uncover the truth, she soon realises it lies much closer to home...

Thoughts

This was another enjoyable read in the Ryan series, but I have to admit it was less good than some of the previous ones. There’s a mystery of the week to investigate, but the big hook is Melanie Yates finding out what happened to her sister. Unfortunately, it was a bit disappointing that it’s yet another top brass copper who is the villain - but at least this time we knew that straight away and followed quite a lot of his thought process as we went along. The beach hut ending seemed unlikely, but go with it and we set things up nicely for the next book in the series.

Rating: 3 / 5