Dark Secrets (Severn House Large Print) [Large Print] [Hardcover]

Peter Turnbull (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Peter Turnbull's fifth Hennessey and Yellich police procedural, Dark Secrets, though a well-written page-turner, doesn't quite satisfy the expectations raised by its dramatic opening: an alcoholic shows up at the Mickelgate Bar Police Station in York to report the murder of a young girl that he witnessed 20 years earlier. The engaging pair manage to plow straight ahead and avoid dead ends, but the predictable resolution lessens the power of this grim tale.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

It's another challenging case for the Yorkshire detective duo of Hennessey and Yellich as the pair tackle a decades-old quadruple murder. After an aging drunk comes forward to purge his guilty conscience and confess that he witnessed the murder of a young woman 20 years earlier, Hennessey and Yellich feel defeated almost before they begin working on the case. With an evidence trail gone stone cold after so many years, they know finding the killer will be especially tough. Things can't get much worse--until the weed-filled lot where the young woman was killed yields up not only her remains but also those of three additional victims. An entertaining police procedural featuring good pacing, an intriguing plot, and a detective duo as likable as they are competent. Recommend Hennessey and Yellich to all fans of British procedurals. Emily Melton
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Severn House Publishers (April 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0727873598
• ISBN-13: 978-0727873590
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,153,984 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Good plot, formulaic in all other respects, October 3, 2011

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Booker G "ultimate reader" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dark Secrets (Hardcover)

"Dark Secrets" has a great plot. I was totally engrossed in it, and I really wanted to know the story behind the four bodies dug up in a wasteland years after they were buried. A belated eye witness account of one of the killings and the burial of the body is a tantalizing start to the book. The solving of the case does not disappoint at all.

This book does have some problems--at least for me. The writing is very formulaic as far as how the main characters live their private lives. I don't think the author had much trouble writing these parts as he could just lift them from all his previous books. One change in this book, however, is that Hennessey goes back to his neighborhood in London and meets an old acquaintance as he solves the murders. That made for a nice change.

The two main characters, detectives Hennessey and Yellich, are just not interesting characters though the author tries to invest their lives with both joys and sorrows. I can't put my finger on what it is that makes these characters more like cardboard cutouts than real people. Perhaps it is how they speak so formally to each other and everyone else. I also do not like the medical examiner, Louise D'Acre, who is Hennessey's love interest. Perhaps it is because of her overbearing attitude in keeping her relationship with Hennessey a secret. She is overbearing in other attitudes also, and this seems to be a requirement of women in that role in all the mysteries I read, and that is growing tiresome.

In this book too much time is spent on the autopsies. The "recovered memory" part of the plot is used for the second time by Turnbull, and neither time is it a convincing plot contrivance. Also, the word "warmly" is used so many times in this book to describe interactions between Hennessey and others that I feel like a halo of glowing light must encircle him wherever he goes.

Still, the plot is a good one, and the book is one you can zip through on your way to another mystery.