Winter's Grip

Winter’s Grip is akin to a cosy conversation in the best parts of Plymouth in public house dining rooms, good beers, very fine wines, a blazing log-fire in the corner and all with the security of a church vestry or a cathedral sacristy; except the chat is about a missing woman, a thirty-year-old skeleton, sorcery, witches and sex abuse. Does crime meet Christianity?

A much-loved wife disappears suddenly. Thirty years later, the still-grieving husband, asks a private detective to help. At the same time, a skeleton is found under the body of a savagely slaughtered sheep.

Are they connected is the obvious question?

This is the fifth in the John Tedesco Cathedral Murder Mystery series, allowing his readers to snuggle up to their well-known characters: retired former solicitor and legal adviser to churches John Tedesco; his partner in detection Jos Elsted and police investigator DCI Julia Tagg.

The author offers almost a tourist guide to Plymouth and the surrounding countryside, villages and the churches and those who administrate them. Whilst Tedesco enquires about the long-missing wife, the police investigation centres on the bloody sheep-covered skeleton. As the plot progresses witchcraft, child sex abuse and the constant fear of unknown villains rear their ugly heads.

Throughout the book readers are invited into locations including large dining rooms where the multi-diner table is stocked with very fine wines and conversations one would expect from such gatherings. I have never before read so many references to such frequent everyday matters as tea, coffee, vintage wines of different types, and even toilet breaks!

The pace is restrained by politeness and respect which gradually accelerates until the investigations into the missing wife and the skeleton collide, shifting gears, thus propelling the story forward to its climax.

Winter’s Grip is an interesting take on crime fiction with a clerical angle which the author’s background provides effortlessly.