The Arsenic Labyrinth (The Lake District Mysteries #3) by Martin Edwards

The Arsenic Labyrinth (The Lake District Mysteries #3) Reviews

• 
  Bev

  When Emma Bestwick disappeared ten years ago without a trace, the senior detective on the investigating team determined that it was simply a matter of someone who wanted to disappear. No foul play involved. But Hannah Scarlett, a young policewoman--now a DCI, had her doubts. Why would a woman who had just started a business that she seemed to enjoy and who had just come into a large amount of (unexplained) money decide to chuck it all and fade out?
  
  On the anniversary of Emma's disappearance, reporter Tony Di Venuto publishes a retrospective article that asks "What Happened to Emma Bestwick?" DCI Scarlett, now on the Cold Case team, doesn't like being maneuvered into reopening the case by the press but can't really say she's upset when an anonymous caller contacts Tony to tell the reporter that he knows that Emma won't be coming home. Scarlett's boss, always on the lookout for good press for the police, insists that the case be reopened and Scarlett and her team begin making the rounds of the previous suspects--jogging memories and digging up a past that some would like to keep buried.
  
  Then the anonymous caller strikes again--this time telling Tony that he knows where the body is; that the police need to look below the Arsenic Labyrinth. Scarlett's team gets to work searching the long-abandoned arsenic mines and are rewarded with no one body, but two--hidden in the Labyrinth about fifty years apart. Is there any connection besides the convenient hiding place? That's what the police will need to find out. And then body number three shows up.
  
  This is the third book in Edwards' Lake District Mysteries featuring DCI Hannah Scarlett and historian Daniel Kind. In this one, Daniel takes more of a backseat--contributing very little to the more recent murders, but he is able, while doing research on a book about John Ruskin, to track down the details of of the fifty-year-old murder. The reader will need to swallow a heaping helping of coincidence to accept the method by which he comes across his information, but it does make for interesting reading.
  
  The plot is well done and if I had paid attention to certain clues and comments dropped along the way, I might have been able to figure it out--but I didn't. So, well done, Martin, for keeping me distracted with other things. One thing I wasn't too keen on was being inside the head of the "anonymous" caller (anonymous to the report and the police, but not the reader) who had his share of the guilt (though not all of it). I'd rather be in the position of figuring it all out than to know who the villain (or one of the villains) is up front. No a fan of inverted mysteries or even partially inverted. But that's a personal preference. Edwards does a fine job with it and manages to have a final twist that left this reader surprised. ★★★ and 1/2.
  
  First posted on my blog
  My Reader's Block. Please request permission before reposting. Thanks.
• 
  Anna

  This was a weirdly paced book. It didn't work for me to have been told who the murderer was a quarter into the book. It was almost as if the second and third corpses where thrown in at a later date because the writer/editor realised the book was boring due to such an early reveal. Meh.
• 
  Cleopatra Pullen

  This is the third of the Lake District Mysteries and for once I am working my way through in strict order, something I’m glad I chose to do as the back story of how historian Daniel Kind left his teaching post at Oxford and his television career to live in a cottage there, while not key to the individual mysteries themselves, does of course work better when you the story arc plays out in the correct order.
  
  I have to mention how thrilled I was to open the book to two family trees one for the Clough family and one for the Ichmore family. I love touches like this in books and although the significance of these families isn’t apparent for a while, once it was you can be sure I turned back to the beginning to acquaint myself with the details. After that we have an excerpt from a journal – something neither the police or Daniel have seen. Don’t you just love that feeling that we know something the investigators don’t?
  
  Chillingly the journal starts with the words:
  You’d never know it to look at me now, but once upon a time I killed a man.
  
  So on to the mystery which starts with DCI Hannah Scarlett opening an old case file because local journalist Tony di Venuto, chooses the tenth anniversary to campaign for an investigation into the disappearance of Emma Beswick. For publicity reasons it seems like a good time to re-evaluate what Cumbria’s Cold Case Review Team know, and where they should look to see if any new information comes to light. This is a case that DI Hannah Scarlett knows well, she was part of the original investigation team working for Daniel’s father.
  
  Along the way she visits the Museum of Myth and Legend run by local man Alban Clough and managed by his daughter Alexandra because Emma used to work there, and she had a relationship with Alexandra. What she learns isn’t so much about Emma though, but about the local folklore and the arsenic labyrinth, set in a remote spot of the lakes.
  
  Part of what I love about this series is the well-researched information that that the author carefully weaves into the storyline. Nothing as clumsy as an information drop for this accomplished author, rather key information in direct relation to the mystery which is fascinating.
  
  With the professional detective and an amateur side-kick both involved in the investigation, although not in any formal way, the reader is offered an insight into the different ways key bits of information can be found, and used to unravel the different questions that need answers. For light relief we watch a con-artist weave his artful magic on an unsuspecting, desperate and gullible B&B Landlady to get a more comfortable bed for a few nights.
  For a book that I would classify as at the more comfortable end of crime fiction it is jam-packed with literary references, historical information, an ancient feud and of course a solid mystery. Because there are so many strands to these books it can seem as though it takes longer to get to the heart of the puzzle than you expect but it really is well worth the wait.
  
  This series really is a satisfying read, a beautiful location bought to life against the backdrop of the flip-side which investigates the darker side of human nature. It certainly won’t be long before I read the next in the series, The Serpent Pool.
• 
  Noble

  A good introduction to the Lake District mysteries by Martin Edwards, though this wasn't the first book in this series. I enjoyed the cleverly constructed plot (with some surprising twists and revelations) and the folklore; its a triple murder mystery of which one is historical. Decent writing too. Overall, a pretty underrated/overlooked series of which I plan to read more.
• 
  John Lee

  Some books just draw you in from the start. It isnt with any great flash bangs of excitment but here it is the style of writing and in my case, a bit of knowledge of the surroundings and ,from having read the previous two books, the characters.
  
  Here the cold case unit is looking at another case from 10 years ago when the now DI Hannah Scarlett was working with Daniel's father on the case. ( Obviously a bad time for the force with unsolved cases as the one at the heart of Coffin Trail was at the same time !).
  
  The close relationships between the families here were always going to have some significance but I found it difficult to get these relationships straight in my mind and perhaps I should have gone back to re read about them but somehow I dont think that should be necessary. This was my loss.
  
  I liked that way that the opening chapter of the book, which at first seemed so isolated from the story and then almost forgotten about, is brought in and explained later.
  One thing that I thought was a bit of a 'cop out' was the discovery of one of the murderers very much by chance.
  
  Nevertheless I still enjoyed the read and have the next one lined up for the not too long distant.
• 
  Annerlee

  Ok read, but (for me) nothing special. I was disappointed at the poor sense of place. The lake district is a special region, but this didn't come through very well.
  
  The mystery was ok, but there were no red herrings and I wasnt involved enough to try and work it out... Couldn't have really because there were too few puzzle pieces made available to me.
  
  The characters felt a bit flat and the author somewhat opinionated on occasion.
  
  My verdict? Meh... Disappointed : (
  
• 
  Maggie

  Third in the series. As with the the previous two books, the main storyline has numerous twists and turns, while the ongoing story featuring Hannah and Daniel also moves on. And I love the references to the various locations in the Lake District and surrounding area - places that I know so well.
• 
  Larraine

  obtained a copy of this book through paperbackswap.com. After reading the first book in the series, I was interested enough to get two more through the swap group. This is the second in the series. After reading it I've decided not to continue with the series. If I was 20 years younger, perhaps I would, but there are so many books in my TBR shelf that I really want to concentrate on the series that I find the most interesting. This series features a contemporary female detective who heads a cold case division and a historian. The first book, Coffin Trail, introduced the characters. There was a lot of emotion crackling both on the surface and beneath. In this book the characters are bloodless and uninteresting. I stuck with the book to the end, but that's it. It was interesting to learn that arsenic was actually mined in this area of the Lake District of England. The book opens with Guy who is back in the area with plans to get a big financial windfall. When he calls a local newspaper reporter that a missing woman will never be found, DI Hannah Scarlett opens a new cold case investigation. The police find her body and another one that is a considerably older murder. That's where historian Daniel Kind comes into the picture. It was all very contrived in my opinion and the history is not all that interesting. At least it wasn't to me. It was ok and did have an ending that was more than just a little bit of a twist. Still, it wasn't enough to encourage me to continue with the series.
• 
  Wendy Percival

  I’d promised myself to read Martin Edwards’ Lake District novels in order and then messed up by missing this one out! So after Number 4, I nipped back to catch up.
  
  I wasn’t sure about it to begin with as I’m not a fan of being in the head of the villain but I stuck with it (after all, it wasn’t as though he was a blood-thirsty psychopath) and it was clear as we reached the climax why it was necessary to understand the mindset of this character - his motivation may have not been fully appreciated had it relied entirely on supposition by others.
  
  The story centres on a cold case which DCI Hannah Scarlet is persuaded to reopen, about a missing woman assumed to have left the area. Naturally, our other Lake District Mystery mainstay, historian Daniel Kind (son of Hannah’s late boss), is drawn into the case and both he and Hannah find their brief moments of inevitable collaboration tantalising in the extreme, as they delight in finding excuses to seek out one another’s company. Meanwhile, Daniel’s partner Miranda is beginning to pine for the bright lights of London…
  
  This was another excellent story, lots of well hidden secrets slowly rising to the surface and throwing curved balls to the reader. A great read which only goes to entice me to keep reading the rest of the series.
  
• 
  Sheila

  Set evocatively in Britain’s atmospheric Lake District, Martin Edwards’ The Arsenic Labyrinth blends character, scenery, murder and mystery in a complex labyrinthine plot. Events take place in and around a small town, nearby lake and mountain. A newspaper account revives a ten-year-old missing person case, and Hannah, head of the Cold Case Review Team, is pressured to resolve it. Meanwhile relationships shift and turn, perfection as elusive as love, and a wealth of surely-not suspects prove to hide many skeletons in their cupboards.
  
  The large cast of characters might sometimes confuse a reader new to the series (like me), but the fascinating plot and genuine small-town feel of the place, together with enticing details of history of character, keep the pages turning and the mystery revolving. Eventually there’ll be more than one case to resolve , while love and family, desire and betrayal all run their course. It’s low-key, fascinating and satisfying—a thoroughly enjoyable read for lovers of mystery, the Lake District, or character-driven police procedurals.
  
  Disclosure: I wasn’t in the Lake District when I bought it, but I wasn’t far away either.
  
• 
  Richard Howard

  There are so many 'regional police' series ranging from the sublime (Rankin, Booth...) to the ridiculous (L.J. Ross.) These Lakeland books are fast becoming a favourite read. The characters are Interesting and believable. The plots are well thought out and, also, believable. And the setting is beautifully realised. I love reading books in their locale and I was lucky to be in the heart of the Lake District when I read this.
• 
  Melissa

  Enjoyed. Like the series characters a lot. Edwards does take you into the mind of one of the people responsible for one of the deaths, and that is not one of my favorite structures. Still, there is much more to the story than that, and one was not sorry when that character made a predictable but untimely end. Daniel's involvement makes sense in this one, where he puts his historian skills to good use.
• 
  Wren

  A Saturday Slaughters selection.
  
  This book has painted the Lake District as a dreich, gray landscape populated with dullards.
  
  The minor characters were better drawn and more interesting than the major characters.
  
  The one redeeming plot point revolves around revenge.
  
  I won’t bother reading any more of this series.
• 
  G

  Okay as a novel. I read it for the bits in John Ruskin. There wasn’t as much about him as I expected. The writing is decent, the plot a bit too simple & unengaging & I had a difficult time putting so many characters together. But the descriptions of the Lake District & the arsenic labyrinth was interesting.
• 
  Fraser Sherman

  3.5 A journalist does a spotlight on an old missing-persons case, forcing Edwards' series protagonist, Hannah Scarlett, to take a look at the case again. And someone's been calling the reporter, leaving cryptic messages about the case. Was it murder after all? Who's responsible?
  This is readable, and the writing is good, but something about it didn't quite satisfy me.
• 
  Nicky Warwick

  The first time I’ve read this author’s stories.
  Set in the Lake District it features DCI Hannah Scarlett who heads up the cold case review team.
  I really enjoyed this book. It’s what could be called an old time whodunnit clad in modern prose.
• 
  Andrea

  I am in oage 100 and I know who the murder is and just heard about the Arsenic Labyrinth once. I was hoping for more Arsenic Labyrinth and less ‘watch the murderer living life’. Just not what I wanted.
• 
  David

  Quite a slow book, may try one more to see if author can redeem himself.
• 
  Catriona Robertson

  A good enough book. Kept me interested, but not so good that I'd want to read more by the same author.
• 
  David Highton

  A decent police procedural, with a bit of historical research thrown in, as in the two earlier books. This one lacked a bit of pace, so only 3 stars