Serpent Pool [Hardcover]

Martin Edwards (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 16, 2010

The Lake District's cold case specialist, DCI Hannah Scarlett, is determined to uncover the truth behind Bethany Friend's apparent suicide in the Serpent Pool. Why would Bethany, so afraid of water, drown herself? Hannah fears that her partner, bookseller Marc Amos, is keeping dark secrets. Does he hold the key to Bethany's past - and why was his best customer burnt to death in an Ullswater boathouse? Hannah still carries a torch for Daniel Kind, who is researching Thomas De Quincey and the history of murder. Once Daniel and Hannah suspect connections between Bethany's drowning and a current sequence of killings, death comes dangerously close to home.

Editorial Reviews

Review

'With evocative descriptions of everything from landscape to cocktail parties, expert plotting, an engaging protagonist and strongly delineated characters, 'The Serpent Pool' is old-fashioned, well-made crime fiction at its best, and the denouement will have you choking on your Kendal mint cake.' LAURA WILSON, THE GUARDIAN

Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Allison & Busby (January 16, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0749007893
• ISBN-13: 978-0749007898
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.4 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,941,656 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Martin Edwards is an award-winning crime writer whose fourth and most recent Lake District Mystery, featuring DCI Hannah Scarlett and Daniel Kind, is The Serpent Pool, published in February 2010. Earlier books in the series are The Coffin Trail (short-listed for the Theakston's prize for best British crime novel of 2006), The Cipher Garden and The Arsenic Labyrinth (short-listed for the Lakeland Book of the Year award in 2008.) He has written eight novels about lawyer Harry Devlin, the first of which, All the Lonely People, was short-listed for the CWA John Creasey Memorial Dagger for the best first crime novel of the year. In addition he has written a stand-alone novel of psychological suspense, Take My Breath Away, and a much acclaimed novel featuring Dr Crippen, Dancing for the Hangman. The latest Devlin novel, Waterloo Sunset, appeared in 2008. He completed Bill Knox's last book, The Lazarus Widow. He has published a collection of short stories, Where Do You Find Your Ideas? and other stories; 'Test Drive' was short-listed for the CWA Short Story Dagger in 2006, while 'The Bookbinder's Apprentice' won the same Dagger in 2008. A well-known commentator on crime fiction, he has edited 16 anthologies and published eight non-fiction books, including a study of homicide investigation, Urge to Kill .In 2008 he was elected to membership of the prestigious Detection Club. In his spare time he is a partner in a law firm and blogs daily at 'Do You Write Under Your Own Name?'

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars well-crafted mystery, August 26, 2011

By 

happy_monkey (Hamilton New Zealand) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Serpent Pool (Lake District Mystery 4) (Kindle Edition)

This is the first book I have read by this author, and it was good enough for me to seek out and buy others in the series. Recommended for those who enjoy well-crafted British "police-procedural" mysteries.

3.0 out of 5 stars Too Much Jumping Off Towers, August 6, 2011

By 

Bill Kupersmith (Iowa City, IA USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Serpent Pool (Lake District Mysteries) (Kindle Edition)

First be reassured. Despite the title, there are no snakes in this book, unless one includes Hannah Scarlett's lover the odious book dealer Marc Amos. (Was any Englishman ever really named "Marc Amos"? In this day and age perhaps.) I enjoyed the first in the series, The Coffin Trail, and felt that Hannah and Daniel Kind deserved each other and so skipped to the latest to find out if the sleazy Marc had finally been written out of the series. Unfortunately they are still together in this one, and Marc indulges in some very risky and risque behaviour, but to avoid any spoilers I'll not tell you if he meets the end he deserves. This one was not too hard to figure out because the villains are about the only characters left who haven't been murdered yet. And Edwards has too many characters who kill themselves by jumping off towers. But it's not a bad read and the Lake District settings are attractive.

5.0 out of 5 stars The Serpent Pool, June 2, 2010

By 

Dorte Jakobsen "DJs krimiblog" (Denmark) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Serpent Pool (Hardcover)

This British crime novel is the fourth Hannah Scarlett and Daniel Kind story. The story begins when affluent George Saffell is trapped in a fire together with his beloved collection of books. A few weeks later, on New Year's Eve, DCI Hannah Scarlett and her partner Marc Amos meet Saffell's widow and many of the other people who are involved in this plot. The host is the ruthless lawyer Stuart Wagg, Louise Kind's latest conquest - or is it the other way round? Workwise, Hannah Scarlett is involved in the cold case of Bethany Friend, a young woman who drowned in the shallow Serpent Pool six years earlier in what may be suicide or murder. Soon Hannah begins to suspect there is a connection between her case and the new murder case.

As usual in the series, Daniel gets involved in the murders, partly because of his sister Louise's relationship with Stuart Wagg, partly because of his job. And as Hannah and Marc's private problems are escalating, it is very tempting for her to discuss the case with Daniel who is single again after Miranda left him and the cottage for glittering London. Just as I expected, this was an exciting and very well-written crime novel. Martin Edwards is in great shape!