A Body Of Water by Rhys Dylan
Publisher: Wyrmwood Books
Genre: Contemporary, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller
Rating: 3 stars
Reviewed by FernThe egg man cometh…
When a delivery driver stumbles across the dead body of a reclusive author in a remote area within a stone’s throw of the Llyn Brianne dam, his first thoughts are that the elderly man has had a heart attack.
But the knife sticking out of the corpse’s chest tells a different story.
Dial in some missing walkers, a secretive cult, and the unwelcome presence of paranormal-hunting podcasters and DCI Warlow has his work cut out getting to the rotten heart of the case.
DCI Evan Warlow and his team are called in when a delivery man stumbles across the dead body of an elderly man stabbed to dead out front of his home in the isolated far northern reaches of Wales. Even though the area is extremely hard to reach and very isolated, the few neighbors on offer are somewhat questionable and as Evan and his team dig deeper into the victim’s previous life more and more questions appear. Can they work out what elements are really at play here?
I am really enjoying this Welsh police procedural series. I feel these are just a little bit darker and grittier than the usual British police procedural books I read. I really enjoy the Welsh elements to this story – the different landscape, the few Welsh words and colloquiums thrown in and the different atmosphere to the writing itself. While I find there are a number of British and Scottish series out there this remains the only Welsh series, I’m aware of and I really enjoy it.
I found the pace of this book just slightly slower than some other mysteries out there. I didn’t mind that but know it might not appeal to all readers. There were also clearly a few different sub plots rolling around and I couldn’t help but feel the two kidnapped girls plot could have potentially moved at a slightly faster pace since it wasn’t clear even by the half-way mark into the book exactly what was going on with them.
I absolutely love the main characters in the team. They all work together really cohesively and it’s clear how much they value and support one another. I also enjoy that they are all quite individual characters and watching them mesh together and interact is a real pleasure. I am really enjoying this series as a whole and can’t wait to read the next coming along.
A solid and well written Welsh police procedural, this book is worth giving a try.
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