Tony R Cox is an ex-provincial UK journalist. The Simon Jardine series is based on his memories of the early 70s - the time of sex, drugs and rock 'n roll - when reporters relied on word of mouth and there was no internet, no mobile phones, not even a fax machine.
Over five enthralling novels, Sarah Ward’s Mallory Dawson series has taken readers on a thrilling, murderous journey through the Welsh province’s dramatic geography and dark history. This, the fifth book, takes us deep into ancient folk law.
The author has not so much ‘adopted’ her new life in west Wales as ‘absorbed’ the history and culture. And the result is arresting and a little unnerving.
Dawson, the central character, is an ex-MET police detective, injured in the course of duty, who has de-camped to Wales where she is co-opted by the regional CID to offer her investigative talents and aptitude.
A young school teacher, less than a week into her new job at a highly exclusive girls’ private boarding school, Penbryn Hall, is found dead. Presumed suicide, but the headmistress’s antennae are raised, along with those of the head of police, where the school is her alma mater. The two women are aware of the school’s strange history and they question whether this really is a self-inflicted-death.
Mallory Dawson, holder of a First Class Honours in maths that she’s never had cause to use, agrees, semi-reluctantly, persuaded by the thoughts of a warm room in what looks like being a cold, vicious winter, to masquerade as a replacement teacher. Rapidly, her attention is drawn to stories of a strange religious cult, the Solstice Sisterhood, where punishments are inflicted as a way to achieve purity, or perhaps just enjoyment by the inflictor.
Dawson is smart and clever, and she’s accepted by teachers as one of their own, but a few pupils have more inquisitive, questioning minds and can see through the pretence.
Time is moving inevitably towards the winter solstice and the aura of menace, compounded by more violence, raises the stakes and sense of urgency for Dawson and the police, headed by her close friend DI Harri Evans. The deeper she delves into the Sisterhood, the more threatening the cult becomes.
There is an intriguing love interest. She and DI Harri Evans have formed a professional alliance and, whilst he is her superior officer, she is a civilian attached to his investigation, but at the same time they are drawn to each other romantically. Harri Evans is not a man to outwardly display heroics and theatrical gestures, but he is a hardened Welsh rock when needed. He and Mallory Dawson make a powerful duo, where she is the lead character at all times.
