Peter Turnbull

An under-gardener arrives at work only to find a window kept open and the front door unlocked, both highly unusual considering the habits of the owner of the house. Upon investigation, he indeed discovers the owner - dead, a bullet hole in his forehead. This discovery sets into motion the detective skills of DCI Hennessey and his team, carrying them all the way from York to London, and the unsavory world of career villains in the Big Smoke…. The most recent Hennessey and Yellich story is quite short, but complete with the usual characteristics of Mr. Turnbull’s writing, which exemplifies the solid, step-by-step nature of police work. There’s a bit to be learned here, too: for example, that a “cut throat” defense is one in which two or more people are accused of a crime, but only one could have actually committed the crime and as long as each person denies doing the deed and points the finger at someone else, no one will be convicted for fear of convicting an innocent person. Interesting, no? As usual, recommended!… (more)

When a middle-aged man comes across a familiar antique in a store window, he sets in motion a re-examination of a cold case: the murder of three family members 20 years earlier, apparently in the course of a robbery but never solved. DCI Hennessey and his team are interested to discover that a distant neighbor who had not been interviewed at the time of the crime recalls seeing a group of four people standing by the home where the murders occurred the day after the event - and also a day or two *before* it. This in turn leads them to discover a string of crimes not previously connected, and when a fresh murder occurs, they know that they are on the right track finally…. One of the long-running Hennessey and Yellich series, “A Dreadful Past” continues with the laying out of careful police work, where there are not a lot of thrilling chases or intuitive leaps, but instead it’s a matter of seeing how part A joins to part B and C and so on; not glamorous, but effective nonetheless. I like this series for that reason, although some repetition between one book and the next does get tiresome; still, I think the reader can pick up this series at any point and find it enjoyable. Recommended.… (more)

DCI George Hennessey and his team are given a puzzle to solve: a middle-class woman who volunteers at a drop-in center brings them a series of postcards, all sent from the same resort town and each including one word in various languages, that word being “murder,” along with a string of numbers that the woman helpfully suggests provide a specific geographic location. Of course they must investigate and sure enough, a skeleton is found buried at the site. The team soon ascertains the name of the deceased and starts trawling back through his life to determine who might have wanted him dead, in the process uncovering another murder, and then another…. The Hennessey and Yellich police procedurals, set in the Vale of York in Northern England, provide the reader with an enjoyable few hours as we follow along with the main characters while they go about the step by step business of unraveling crime. I do get tired of the repetition, in each book, of certain events and circumstances amongst the main characters, but the solidity of the writing and the way in which the characters interact are enough to offset that small annoyance for me. I’m pretty sure that one could jump into the series at any point (this particular book being the 23rd - the series has been going a long time!) and the reader will either appreciate Mr. Turnbull’s prose style, or not. I like it a lot, so - recommended!… (more)

DCI Hennessey and his team are called in when two middle-aged men recall having seen disturbed earth in a field some 30 years earlier and their recollection leads to the recovery of five skeletons, four of which are related. Their investigation leads to London and to history lessons, along with an eccentric family, the English Civil War and the vagaries of the foster system in London…. I’ve been enjoying the Hennessey and Yellich series, of which this is the twenty-second; I like the portrayal of police work as being, basically, a matter of observation, swotting through records dating back decades, and talking with various individuals who may or may not hold a piece of the puzzle that they are trying to solve. In this particular novel, the background of the 1600s comes into play too, which is fun for someone like me who enjoys history; recommended.… (more)