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Death Toll: A Mystery (Detective Shaw Mystery)

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The words that most clearly convey the theme of DEATH TOLL are spoken by Mark Antony is Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar" - "the evil that men do live after them...."

The story opens on December 12, 2010. The bodies buried at a cemetery are being moved to higher ground to avoid flooding. When the grave of Nora Tilden, buried in 1982, is opened, grave diggers are shocked to find another body, a skeleton, on top of the casket. The body had to have been thrown into Nora's grave on the day she was buried. Nora was the owner of the Flask, a popular pub, which she inherited from her father, Arthur Melville. Nora is a hard woman and her relationship with her husband, Alby, is stormy, that is, until the night Alby pushed Nora down the stairs. With Nora dead and her father in prison, their daughter, Lizzie, becomes the owner of the Flask.

As was her mother, Lizzie is only nineteen when the business is passed to her. Alby wants to protect her so he contacts her aunt, Bea, Nora's younger sister who has been living for many years in the United States, asking her to return to East Lynn to help Lizzie. Bea does as requested and moves back to her home town with her son, Pat, who is twenty.

The major players are now in place but they are by no means the only characters who will walk across this stage. The catalyst of the story is Latrell Garrison, an American GI, a black man, who marries Bea. Together they have their son, Pat. When Bea returns to East Lynn with Pat, the resentments created by Latrell's presence awaken. Pat doesn't have an easy time and when he disappears Bea doesn't look for him, believing that he returned to the United States. Now Pat has been found in Nora' grave. Detective Inspector Peter Shaw and Detective Sergeant George Valentine are assigned this very cold case.

On their own, Shaw and Valentine have been working on another cold case, the murder of Jonathan Tessier, a nine year-old who knew too much about a puppy. Shaw is determined to solve the case because it is the one his father couldn't let go. Valentine wants the solution to be found because a misuse of evidence cost him his rank and derailed a trial. Shaw and Valentine are both in danger of losing their jobs if they antagonize the chief suspect, a wealthy and respected solicitor.

DEATH TOLL is a saga, a big story about a family. Arthur Melville fathered Nora and Bea. Nora gives birth to Mary, who died when still an infant, and Lizzie. Bea is the mother of Pat, the mixed race child she has with Latrell. As other characters are introduced, the frailty of the bonds of the descendants of Arthur Melville are revealed.

DEATH TOLL is a saga that addresses big issues as they impact on one family. There is the hatred between Bea and Nora that surfaced when Bea decides to go to America with Latrell. Nora swore that she would never speak to Bea again if she left with him. Nora isn't a racist; she doesn't want Bea to be out from under her control. Nora keeps her word. She never speaks to Bea again. Racism is the elephant in the parlor of East Lynn. Latrell was welcome, a well-liked man. But by the time Pat arrives in East Lynn, PEN, the Party of English Nationalism, is gaining supporters among the electorate and a black man is suspect.

Overshadowing life in East Lynn is incest, literally and figuratively. There are frequent references to Leviticus , the third book of the Bible. Leviticus describes the punishment in store for those who violate the boundary that protects the family unit. Incest among the players and characters in East Lynn is a poison that is destroying the family Arthur Melville established.

DEATH TOLL is a book that cannot be put down. From the beginning scene, when Nora's grave is found to contain the body of another victim, everyone must question their relationships. Trust is violated. Secrets are hiding in plain sight. The evil that men do live after them and engulf their posterity, an inheritance that poisons the lives of those who should not be punished for the sins of their fathers. This is an exceptionally engrossing book and a satisfying mystery.

ET IN ARCADIA EGO, (I also lived in Arcadia (paradise) is engraved on Nora's grave stone. On one hand, it is a gross mistake. There was nothing of paradise in East Lynn. But another interpretation of the phrase has Death uttering the words. No matter the place, no matter the innocent, death can be found lurking in the shadows.

The author does the reader a considerable favor by including a family tree on page 164.

the plot is complicated--mom (Nora) is killed by dad (Alby) in 1982, today another body is found in the grave when the graves are exhumed in an archaeological dig. Patrick, the surprise body of an African american buried also in 1982, is that of another parent, the father of Ian, a local racially mixed young man, the grandson of Nora and the son of Lizzie, who was 19 when her mother was killed. Lizzie, with dad in jail and mom dead takes over the local business, a pub, and marries John, another local who adopts Ian as his step son. As if these family dynamics are not complicated enough, throw in an Aunt, Dad's release from prison and eventual disappearance, another dead baby and some religious fanatics.

Racial tensions in the 1980's suggest one motive for murder, and a convenient group of three local racists (including John) looms large as suspects. One of the potential suspects is even in the process of planning a dinner to raise money for a local racist organization. But other factors don't fit and the detectives must look further afield--at Bea, Lizzie's aunt who returned from the US when her sister was killed to help care for Lizzie; at Kate, the mentally disabled young woman who lives with Bea and who let it be known that the three suspects followed the dead man to the grave yard, or is it Lizzie, the soon to be mother killing the father of her child on the same day as her own mother's funeral? To complicate matters, two of the three major suspects are poisoned at the dinner, along with 60 other people, coincidence or attempted murder?

Newly appointed detective Shaw and his sidekick Sergeant Valentine are busy enough trying to prove that Shaw's father and Valentine were not once guilty of police corruption, but they take on the new case as well. Shaw is also trying to play his role of father with his own young daughter and racially mixed wife. This part of the plot does not get as much development as we might like, and if there are any weaknesses, it is that Kelly makes this family relationship seem more important than his attention to it actually indicates. Similarly, Valentine, a depressed and lonely alcoholic, seems intriguing but we don't get enough about this side of him.

Still the two work well together and follow the leads for both cases, in the process almost losing their jobs when they allow an innocent man to be killed by one suspect.

So, what makes this book worth reading-it's well plotted, the story works, and it engages not only with teasers to get you to figure out who did it but with the relationships among the many characters and the difficult and sometimes murderous ties of family. It's not melodramatic, the characters aren't too depressed (even Valentine), whiny or constantly reflecting on the meaning of life, as in some British detective fiction. Yet, they are generally fleshed out so they do not feel like cardboard or one dimensional.

The book is long, but I actually wished for a bit more development of Shaw and Valentine's lives.

A protagonist like DI Peter Shaw gives the author license to throw more curve balls at the reader than a major league pitcher. Shaw, a super-cerebral, over-intuitive detective who develops more and more theories as a case develops and he encounters more facts, certainly proves the point in this novel, which has two plot lines, both based in the distant past.

As a result of severe river flooding, graves along the bank in a cemetery are being exposed. When one is opened, a skeleton is found atop the casket which contains the remains of the landlady of a local pub. This sets off an investigation leading Shaw to discover a number of family secrets, with dire consequences to all concerned. The inquiries move back and forth, uncovering events from a decade ago.

Meanwhile, Shaw, and his partner, DS Valentine, continue to try to prove one Bob Mosse a murderer. It was Shaw's father who arrested Mosse years before, only to see the charges thrown out of court because the judge declared a crucial peace of evidence had been contaminated by mishandling. Consequently Shaw pere took early retirement under a cloud, and his partner, Valentine, was demoted and sent into limbo.

The story moves forward on both plot lines, more or less simultaneously, with Shaw, Valentine and the rest of the team uncovering a clue here, a fact there, until finally it all comes logically together, even if the conclusion requires a bit of manipulation by the author. Well done, and recommended.

In the Flensing Meadow Cemetery of King`s Lynn, graves are being relocated as part of a flood-prevention project. During the excavation of the grave belonging to Nora Tilden (a woman murdered by her husband Alby), the skeleton of a young man of mixed race is found lying twisted near the top of the casket lid. While investigating this grisly murder that occurred nearly thirty years ago, DI Peter Shaw and DS George Valentine uncover a group of skin heads, a cult of religious fanatics and an incestuous, morally bankrupt family. The death toll mounts as dark secrets are revealed and a treacherous past returns to haunt those responsible for murdering a man who refuses to stay buried.

"Death Toll" is Jim Kelly's best, most intriguing novel yet in his popular Inspector Shaw series. It has the same cold, dark, creepy atmosphere that was the trademark of his previous novels, "Death Wore White" and "Death Watch." Once again, the odd couple team of Shaw and Valentine are investigating a hideous crime involving a corrupt family. The family that lies together stays together. Unfortunately, in this novel, the word "lies" has two connotations. I thought only first cousins kissed in the Deep South of the Good Ole USA; it seems they also do it in Merry Olde England. This novel has more lust, betrayal, hatred and vengeance than a television soap opera. The characters seemed so real. I kept asking myself, "How did Jim Kelly create such despicable people?" Needless to say, I stayed up late reading this novel until my eyes blurred.

The case of a murdered man of interracial parents becomes very personal for Peter Shaw. He is married to a black woman, Lena, and together they have a child, Fran. Swallowing his pride, he must exercise self-control when interviewing racist men who eat and drink at the Flask, a local pub that oversees Flensing Meadow Cemetery and was once owned by Nora Tilden. Shaw, who is a devout atheist, must also exercise self-control when interviewing bigots at the nearby Elect of the Free Church of Christ the Fisherman, a close-knit cult of which Nora was a prominent member. Racists not only drink at the Flask but they are politically active in the Party of English Nationalism (PEN); however, in lieu of being openly hostile towards blacks, they are more belligerent towards migrant workers, which, sometimes, seems to be the case here in the USA.

The setting for "Death Toll" is a cold desolate one as it was for the series' previous installments. However, the time frame for this one is less than two weeks before Christmas; in fact, the climax occurs on Christmas Eve. (This is my favorite time of the year; I love mystery and horror novels/films with Christmas settings.) The streets of King's Lynn are strung with festive, holiday lights. At Christmastide in Wells-Next-the-Sea, Santa Claus is visiting the harbor on a boat drawn by inflatable, floating deer; Fran desperately wants to see him. The Christmas holidays are suppose to be a peaceful, joyous time; unfortunately, for everyone involved in solving the mystery, the holidays become a horrifying ordeal. The killer's identity is kept a secret until nearly the last pages. Was I shocked? I had my suspicions but I never had any irrefutable proof.

I'm happy to see that Shaw and Valentine are getting along better than they were in "Death Wore White." Their professional relationship has improved; I seriously doubt they will ever become bosom buddies. They have so little in common. Fortunately, they are getting closer to convicting Robert Mosse, a wealthy, celebrated solicitor, for murdering nine-year-old Jonathan Tessier thirteen years ago. This case has tied the two men together and has served as a back story that has continued from the first novel to the latest one. "Death Toll" can be read as a standalone but I recommend reading the entire series from the beginning because each novel builds upon the preceding one. In "Death Toll," not only does the reader learn that Shaw is growing closer to his partner but he is also becoming closer friends with his other coworkers such as the very standoffish, professional Dr. Justina Kazimierz who performs the autopsies.

I was highly impressed to learn that DI Peter Shaw is a sketch artist who studied forensic art at the FBI college in Quantico, Virginia. He is able to take photographs of the skull found in the grave and sketch the murdered man's face. The reader will be pleasantly surprised as I was to be introduced to DS George Valentine's sister, Jean Walker, who served sandwiches at the Flask when Nora Tilden was murdered. Jean assists her brother with solving the murder.

"Death Toll" is an engrossing, fast-paced novel that fans of British mysteries will definitely not want to miss. The more I read from it, the more difficult it became to put down. An exotic setting, unusual characters, a bizarre mystery and grotesque deaths make this novel a winner. "CSI" fans will also want to read "Death Toll" for the great police and forensic science procedures depicted within it.

Joseph B. Hoyos

Setting is key to this English police procedural, which is set in Lynn, an old seaport, in winter. The story begins in an old cemetery. Graves are being relocated because of flooding problems. The workers discover an extra body in one grave (a skeleton resting atop a coffin) and call in the police. Police detectives Peter Shaw and his assistant George Valentine quickly find evidence of homicide and then must try to identify the body. This search quickly takes them to the Flask, since the official occupant of the grave was the owner of this pub and it seems reasonable to assume that the murder took place around the time of this woman's funeral. It turns out that this family-owned pub is a hotbed of dysfunction. The plot is fairly complicated and there are a lot of characters, which seems to be a hallmark of Kelly's books (that and the Norfolk coast in winter).

A couple of themes run through the book: racism and first-cousin marriage. It's difficult for me to understand why the author has chosen marriage between first cousins as the focus of the book, as there have always been mixed opinions on this, even in religious circles.

Which brings me to another irritation: I felt that the author was handicapped in writing this book by his relative lack of knowledge of certain key areas, including religion and the United States. And although he clearly deplores racism, his depiction of Blacks in the book is not particularly favorable and falls into a racist stereotype: Black men are womanizers in general and want to sleep with White women. As to his depiction of the United States - I had to laugh when he said that a Black man's hometown was in North Dakota. that is perhaps the most lily-white state in the union, particularly in the time period in question. The population was well under 1% Black at that time (I got curious and checked). It's not clear to me why he would choose that state as the home of this character. An even bigger blunder is the curious statement that in parts of the United States at the time events took place, marriage between Blacks and Whites would be illegal. Umm, no, the Supreme Court ruled those kinds of laws (which were specific to certain states) to be unconstitutional in 1967 - well before the events described. And then he mentions sending to the United States for medical records, as if there were a centralized system. In reality, finding medical records from decades previously would be quite difficult because of the difference in medical systems.

Then there's the treatment of religion. The Free Church (which plays a prominent role in this book) is an absolute caricature and reveals both an anti-religious bias and a lack of knowledge of the evangelical church. A Calvinist church (and evangelicals tend to be Methodist in orientation rather than Calvinist) would not pray for the dead, but he mentions that the church has continued to pray for a baby who died many years ago. In addition to the oddity of a Calvinist church praying for the dead, in any church, prayer lists need continual pruning, otherwise they would over time become impossibly long - churches that celebrate All Souls Day, which I don't think Calvinist churches tend to do, might pray once a year for those placed on the list by church members. He also describes the church as telling someone they can't come to a public concert because of a past sin. Public concerts are open to the public - you don't need an invitation. It's not an issue that would come up. But as I said, this book is full to the brim with unlikeable, unpleasant people doing rotten things to each other, so a church with unlikeable people behaving badly fits right in. The result of the factual areas I spotted was that I didn't have much confidence in his description of this town or its history. They tell would-be authors to stick to subjects you know. If an author is not willing to do that, then he should get someone who does know the subject to read the book before it's published!

The quality of the writing is high, particularly for the mystery genre. Kelly creates a setting that you can imagine in your mind, of snowy December in East Lynn, an old seaport town in England now depending increasingly on tourism. All in all, I enjoyed the book, although it could have been shortened by about 50 pages. Part of the problem was that there was another mystery going on throughout the book, involving a child murder from a couple of decades ago. Shaw's father was disgraced, as was his father's partner George Valentine (now Peter's partner), and both Peter & George are anxious to find evidence to convict the person they believe committed the crime, who has been known all along but escaped prosecution. There are quite enough characters and plot twists in the main story without complicating the story with a second investigation.

Still, I like the quality of writing well enough that I will continue to read Kelly's atmospheric English police procedurals.

Rookie West Norfolk Defective Inspector Peter Shaw and his experienced partner Detective Sergeant George Valentine, who worked with the former's late father, are assigned two cold cases. Almost three decades ago a, mixed race male vanished without a trace. The moving of a graveyard at Flensing Meadow Cemetery finds his remains on top of the coffin of homicide victim Nora Tilden a pub owner. The victim died from a trauma to his head.

The two cops also seek a ruthless killer in which Peter's father and Valentine failed to solve the case years ago when they investigated the homicides; in fact they fumbled the inquiry costing a potential conviction. That failed inquiry still haunts Valentine and Shaw's dad took it to retirement and soon afterward the grave regretting his biggest professional error. As the neighbors offer no useful information, more homicides occur.

This strong Shaw-Valentine atmospheric police procedural (see Death Watch) is a terrific character driven thriller as the two British detectives work a pair of murder cold cases in which the haunting one has heated up with new homicides. Fast-paced and vividly described, readers will feel the cutting cold of the West Norfolk coast although the investigations are difficult to follow. Readers will enjoy the second chance at redemptions for two good diligent cops although one is through his surrogate son.

Harriet Klausner