The Death Season

These novels all take the form of two stories running in parallel: a modern-day mystery, usually set in the fictional town of Tradmouth in Devon, alongside an archaeological mystery. In this one the strands don’t come together until the very end. The modern-day mystery involves the unsolved death of a child 30 years earlier, two recent killings and a near-fatal attack on a local chef. The archaeological strand revolves around two local digs, one of them at an old manor house nearby and, interwoven in that, a story from 1913 about a ruthless and ambitious servant in the big house and how she inveigles herself into her mistress’s life and affection. If all this sounds complicated, it is! I found the modern-day case a bit too convoluted and enjoyed the historical story much more. The book does hang together in the end, but it takes some time to get there. I'd give 3-Stars to the historical strand and 2 to the modern crime story. And overall? Probably 2.5 Stars.
Review by: Freyja
Oundle Library's Crime Fiction Book Group