Serpent's Point: Book 26 in the DI Wesley Peterson crime series

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Claye's journal entries gave me delicious little shivers because they reminded me so much of Robert Browning's "My Last Duchess". This was so interesting and really got exciting at the end as they rescue a friend of Wesley's wife, Pam, who has apparently been taken advantage of it by a murderous con man.

The woman had been house-sitting at Serpent's Point and Wesley is surprised to discover that she was conducting an investigation into unsolved missing persons cases. Kate Ellis's writing draws me in and the problem with that is that her books only take a few days to read and I am then on pins until the next in the series of 'DI Wesley Peterson' and his colleagues, family and friends. I wouldn't say this story gripped and intrigued me as much as some of the others but still a solid, very readable instalment.

The book starts with the friend of a woman getting married at the courthouse without family or friends attending. I did knock it down one star because I felt as though there was too many characters involved and I was having a hard time trying to remember who was who and how it related to the plot.

Meanwhile Neil, Wesley's friend from his days as an anthropology student, is excited to find what looks like the remains of a Roman village and we learn, through letters, that this is not a new discovery. Susan is sure that her friend Avril's husband, Ian, is up to no good but Avril doesn't want to hear it. There were a few other little leaps of logic in the book which also jarred slightly and could very easily have been smoothed out.I've read all books in this series and this one didn't disappoint, though I did get a bit confused with the number of characters appearing and had look back sometimes to remember who was who. You could easily slip into this series with Serpent's Point because Ellis does a good job of supplying enough backstory to answer questions without bogging down the plot.

As he delves into the case, he starts to notice that there are other murders from around England that could be linked to why Susan had been killed. Also, that she had been conducting an investigation into unsolved missing person cases, in various parts of the country. There’s two plots that run alongside one another, one of the main investigation but another of a historical Roman archeological dig that’s occurring, which at first I didn’t like. A complex story, involving the detectives travelling to Yorkshire and the Cotswolds in their efforts to find out the reason for Susan's death.Such a gripping tale that, as well as Wesley and Gerry being in Devon, where their the first murder takes place, takes us to The Cotswolds and Yorkshire on the track of a what they now know is a serial killer. This is extremely difficult to do because author Kate Ellis is one of the best at supplying some first-class misdirection. I can’t count the number of books I’ve read and the plot is over in 50 pages, where the author is cramming the ending like a pack of sardines in.

A beguiling author who interweaves past and present' The Times__________________Serpent's Point in South Devon is the focus of local legends. I was checking this blog and learned that I hadn't read one from 2011 so I'll be getting to that eventually but right now I have a shelf full of books from the library.She has also twice been shortlisted for the CWA Short Story Dagger and been longlisted for the Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award. While the case takes Wesley to Yorkshire and the Cotswolds, archaeologist Neil Watson is making a dramatic discovery of his own in the fields near the house. There were elements in the story as I read that seemed familiar but it still felt as if I hadn’t read the book. In this case, Wesley, Gerry, and the team are trying to solve the murder of a young woman who was doing a bit of detective work of her own, trying to find the man who married and murdered one young woman, then married another (the woman's friend) who mysteriously disappeared. Two young girls with metal detectors were looking for treasure in a nearby field but wearing headphones and concentrating on their metal detecting they were unable to offer any useful information.