The Serpent Pool Martin Edwards
Dea Parkin

The Serpent Pool is the fourth in Martin Edwards' acclaimed Lake District series starring DCI Hannah Scarlett and historian Daniel Kind.

This series has become a gem in thoughtful, contemporary crime novels. For readers who enjoy a strong sense of place with the past a location in its own right, and who seek interesting, clearly drawn characters as much as a gripping story, these books tick all the boxes.

The Serpent Pool sees the two main protagonists more definite about their feelings for each other than in previous novels. Hannah, in particular, is struggling to contain her emotions as she tries to reconcile herself to life in a newly purchased, spectacularly spartan house with partner Marc. This will-they-won't-they dilemma has become the fulcrum for the series, adding spice and flavour to the murder mystery driving each book.

The key murder in The Serpent Pool, which raises the curtain in a sinister and attention-grabbing opener, proves not to be the last, while a six-year-old suspicious death which Hannah is working on – she's in charge of Cumbria's cold case review team – has overlapping dramatis personae which might suggest a connection. The personalities – such as Wanda the frosty sex goddess, Fern the irreverent, greedy DCI – who inhabit the novel are fascinating and offer glimpses into intriguing lives. This is one of Edwards' great strengths: he is not afraid to set his novels very much in the now and unlike some more reclusive writers is immersed in modern culture. This extends to an understanding of business and institutional politics; Edwards' unambiguous exposition of which provides yet another facet to this appealing, fast-paced book.

However, one of the novel's main protagonists is a historian and Edwards also delights in revealing the past. As always, it is the past which Daniel Kind is researching which supplies the underlying theme. In The Serpent Pool, this is murder as a fine art, as expounded by Victorian essayist and opium addict Thomas de Quincey. If that sounds grotesque, it's not a false lead, and there are powerful elements of Gothic horror at work in this book. The Serpent Pool is the darkest of the four Lakes novels and possibly the most rewarding.

The Serpent Pool is published by Allison & Busby

Posted at 9:55AM Friday 29 Jan 2010