BUTCHER'S WOOD

British author Guttridge returns to Brighton in his continued exploration of love, hate, and crime.

Guttridge first introduced actress Nimue Grace in The Lady of the Lake (2020), when DI Sarah Gilchrist and erudite DS Bellamy Heap investigated a dead body found in her lake along with money from a bank robbery that had been sealed in plastic containers. Nimue, who’s hidden some of the loot, is trying to figure out a safe way to use it to enhance her depleted fortune when she gets a note from the original thief demanding its return. That thief has friends in high places, including bored police commissioner Bob Watts, who’s still trying to take down crooked businessman William Simpson, the father of Heap’s girlfriend. Gilchrist is attending a play with pathologist Frank Bilson when actress Elvira Wright is fatally bashed with a stage weight and another cast member is accidentally killed before their eyes. As Gilchrist and Heap search for a motive, they interview Nimue’s friend Billie Grahame, another actress from the play, who suggests Cat Pinter, the director, as a source of information on the mysterious Elvira. Unfortunately, Cat has disappeared. Tangled romances and past cases come to the fore as Gilchrist and Heap struggle to solve a complex mystery.

Though the series repays reading from the beginning for its complex relationships, this new entry succeeds as a stand-alone.