Customer Reviews

Dead of Winter

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is the third in a series from Rennie Airth featuring his ex-policeman and soldier, John Madden, The first of these, River of Darkness, won the Grand Prix de Littérature Policière for best international crime novel in 2000 and was nominated for Edgar, Anthony, and Macavity awards. Airth supposedly found inspiration for the book in a scrapbook about his uncle, a soldier killed in World War I. The second, The Blood-Dimmed Tide, was published in 2003. I have read all three and do suggest that you read them in sequence. They can be standalone but you will benefit from the timeline and character clarity if all three are read.

I have given four stars to each of them largely based on the nice balance of historical accuracy, solid plots, brisk pace, and characters who you take a real interest in. One critique is novels two and three seemed to follow a very similar pattern but that is a small complaint. In terms of The Dead of Winter, the backdrop of World War 2 provides a rich setting for a series of murders that draws in Madden, Sinclair, Bennet, and Styles again. It is a shame that Airth does not provide more insight into what drives the villain because that character is almost one-dimensional. However, you will cheer with every deductive step that is taken to get closer to uncovering the killer and tracking that person down.

I still think that Airth can expand the series even though it is meant to be a closed trilogy. If it does continue, I will be sure to follow the additional adventures of Madden et al.

In three suspenseful crime novels set in England between the two wars, South African writer Rennie Airth tells the story of Scotland Yard detective John Madden and his wife, nee Dr. Helen Blackwell. John is a veteran of the Great War, unhinged by his experiences in the bloodbath in France and by the deaths of his wife and daughter. Helen comes into his life just in time to help nurse him back to health.

They meet in the first book, River of Darkness, set in the years following World War I, when John is assigned to an exceptionally brutal murder case in the countryside that taxes his skills and his already questionable emotional stability to the limit. Through an introduction from Helen, John enlists the help of a noted Viennese psychiatrist who assists him with an early version of what we now know as psychological profiling. The psychiatric insight eventually puts an end to a gruesome series of serial murders, leading John to the killer.

A decade later Germany is in the throes of a Nazi takeover, and England trembles. As we learn at the outset of The Blood-Dimmed Tide, the second book in Airth's trilogy, John Madden is peacefully retired with Helen on a farm far from Scotland Yard. When he chances upon a brutally murdered corpse on a walk through the countryside, his yearning for action comes to life once again. The officer in charge of the investigation, an old friend in a senior post on the force, takes advantage of John's eagerness to become involved again and seeks him out for advice. John circumvents his anxious wife's efforts to keep him out of the investigation and eventually plays a key role in solving the perplexing case.

Set in 1944, a dozen years later, John is drawn into another murder case when a young Polish girl who helps out at his farm is mysteriously murdered as The Dead of Winter commences. The police assigned to the case are reluctant to see more than a chance act of violence, but John uncovers a complex back-story involving an aged German-Jewish neighbor, a French art dealer, Nazi atrocities, and a fortune in stolen diamonds.

Rennie Airth writes with consummate skill, unfolding his complex plots with ease and painting fully three-dimensional portraits of the characters in these three engaging novels. If you're attracted to ably-written crime stories that bear no resemblance to the formulaic drawing-room who-dunits of years past, you'll enjoy these three books. Read them in chronological order, though. The reading experience deepens as you observe the aging protagonists live out their lives.

(From Mal Warwick's Blog on Books)

Rennie Airth once again writes another excellant combination of suspensful Investigator Madden World War II murder mysteries. As a student of criminal psychology and fan of mystery, Mr. Airth has never disappointed me. His discriptions of the British countryside and it's people combined with the exploration of the criminal mind are utterly fascinating. Awaiting, hopefully a fourth experience?

One of a series, this English police mystery is one of the best of the genre. A little different from the usual run of mysteries, the author highlights life in rural England in the period after WW1. The story is unique and the characters believable.

An excellent read.

This book was a disappointment. The rugged, vigorous language I loved in the earlier Rennie Airth books was still here in parts, particularly in the descriptions of the English countryside. But the dark, brooding menace of his earlier books -- River of Darkness and Blood-Dimmed Tide -- was barely present here.

One of the reasons was the curious absence of John Madden, whose trouble psyche added such resonance to the psychologically disturbed criminals he was chasing in the earlier books. Why Airth or his editor thought it would be a good idea to set this book more than 20 years later, and make Madden merely one player in an ensemble cast baffles me.

Oddly, Detective Inspector Angus Sinclair has as big a role in this book as Madden, and he is a consummately colorless individual. He is little more than a spouter of dialogue and an admirer of Madden's way too flawless wife, with a feeling that is more cloying than creepy. His dialogues with his superior, Bennett, are totally flat and seem interminable as the plot advances at a snail's pace through their insipid dialogue.

Airth has clearly set the stage for Lily Poole to take over the baton in the next book. Perhaps she will be entertaining on center stage. But Airth has lost his distinctiveness by consigning Madden's darkness to history.

The plot itself, if you're willing to stick with the plodding development, has a couple of nice twists. The ending has its drama and suspense but is remarkably similar to the endings in the other two books.

Sadly, it seems that Airth, who relaunched his literary career with River of Darkness, has run out of imagination. I can't recommend this book, though I would still urge people to read at least River of Darkness.

If you like talky novels, this will be your cup of tea. I'd estimate that at least 80% of the book consists of dialogue. Things are talked about once, twice, three times or more as the various characters explain to other characters some plot development. There's rarely a new take, only repetition that we the audience have heard over and over and over. At one point I wanted to scream as within two pages, the same exact thing was explained back-to-back to two people. As a result of this incessant yakking, the pacing, especially for the first 100 pages or so, is cold molassas-like. I haven't read the previous two books in the trilogy, but I'm going to assume they're as verbose as this one and avoid them.