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Martin Edwards

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The Coffin Trail: A Lake District Mystery (Lake District Mysteries Book 1) Kindle Edition

by Martin Edwards (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.0 2,014 ratings

Book 1 of 8: Lake District Mysteries

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"...a beautifully-evoked sense of the Lake District and an interesting and diverse group of characters. Martin Edwards got plenty of kudos for his Harry Devlin series, and he should get even more for this one. His DCI Hannah Scarlett is a fine creation." —Peter Robinson, New York Times bestselling author

Oxford historian and TV personality Daniel Kind and his new lover, Miranda, both want to escape to a new life. On impulse they buy Tarn Cottage in Brackdale, an idyllic valley in the Lake District that Daniel knew as a boy, a place so remote that the dead had to be carried out over the peaks on pack animals along the ancient Coffin Trail.

Tarn Cottage was once home to Barrie Gilpin, an autistic youth suspected of a savage murder. A young woman visitor to the valley had been found laid out on the Sacrifice Stone, an ancient pagan site up on the fell. Barrie fell to his death near the crime scene before he could be questioned. All these years later, Daniel retains his belief in Barrie's innocence and questions his own policeman father's handling of the case. When DCI Hannah Scarlett and her squad launch a cold case review, Brackdale's skeletons begin to rattle.

The wild geography of the Lakes District plays against local literary references, all backdrop to the lives of villagers and outsiders drawn to this beautiful spot—but for what reasons? The Coffin Trail launches a new series by a master British hand.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this well-crafted whodunit from veteran British crime writer Edwards (All the Lonely People), Daniel Kind, a popular historian best known for a TV series that tries to solve historical mysteries using classic Holmesian deductive methods, decides to retreat from Oxford academia with his new love, Miranda. By chance, Miranda falls for a cottage in the Lake District that had once been the home of Kind's late friend Barrie Gilpin, a young sufferer of Asperger's syndrome. Gilpin was suspected of the gory ritualistic murder of an attractive woman on the Sacrifice Stone, a local landmark, but fell to his death before the police could question him. By yet another coincidence, Kind's late father was the senior investigating officer involved. Thanks to an anonymous informant, the father's protégé, DCI Hannah Scarlett, is about to reopen the old case. The renewed inquiry stirs up a hornet's nest and foments resentment toward Kind, whose amateur sleuthing is aimed at exonerating Gilpin. Despite the implausible setup and thin characterizations, Edwards's book is an interesting fair-play puzzler that will engage fans who like their contemporary crime in an English village setting.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

In Brackdale, a small town in England's Lake District, a woman is murdered, and the prime suspect, an autistic young man, dies before he can be questioned. Years later, Oxford history professor Daniel Kind and his lover, Miranda, buy a cottage in Brackdale, hoping to simplify their lives. But that's not going to happen. The local constabulary has established a cold-case squad, and one of the cases is the woman's murder. And Daniel, who vacationed in Brackdale with his family when he was younger and befriended the autistic boy, has never believed his friend was capable of murder. Can Daniel keep his memories from consuming him and resolve his confusion over the way his father, the detective on the original case, handled the investigation? The author, either moving on or taking a break from his successful Harry Devlin series, has crafted a poignant mystery: atmospheric, haunting, and so tactile you can almost smell the moist air. David Pitt
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B07VQJS7JR
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Poisoned Pen Press; Reprint edition (September 30, 2011)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ September 30, 2011
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 1882 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 301 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #234,415 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #1,972 in Traditional Detective Mysteries (Kindle Store)
- #3,219 in Serial Killer Thrillers
- #3,276 in Murder

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4.0 2,014 ratings

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Martin Edwards

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Martin Edwards has received the CWA Diamond Dagger, the highest honour in British crime writing, given for the sustained excellence of his contribution to the genre. His recent novels include Mortmain Hall and Gallows Court, which was nominated for two awards including the CWA Historical Dagger. British librarians awarded him the CWA Dagger in the Library in 2018 in recognition of his body of work. His eight and latest Lake District Mystery is The Crooked Shore and earlier books in the series include The Coffin Trail, short-listed for the Theakston's prize for best British crime novel. Seven books in his first series, featuring Liverpool lawyer Harry Devlin, starting with the CWA John Creasey Dagger-nominated All the Lonely People, have been reissued by Acorn in new editions with introductions by leading writers including Ann Cleeves and Val McDermid.

Martin is a well-known crime fiction critic, and series consultant to the British Library's Crime Classics. His ground-breaking study of the genre between the wars, The Golden Age of Murder won the Edgar, Agatha, H.R.F. Keating and Macavity awards. The Story of Classic Crime in 100 Books won the Macavity and was nominated for four other awards, while Howdunit, a masterclass in crime writing by members of the Detection Club, won the H.R.F. Keating prize and was nominated for five other awards. His long-awaited history of the genre, The Life of Crime, will be published in May 2022.

In addition Martin has written a stand-alone novel of psychological suspense, Take My Breath Away, and a much acclaimed novel featuring Dr Crippen, Dancing for the Hangman. He also completed Bill Knox's last book, The Lazarus Widow. He has published many short stories, including the ebooks The New Mysteries of Sherlock Holmes and Acknowledgments and other stories. 'The Bookbinder's Apprentice' won the CWA Short Story Dagger, for which he has been nominated for three other stories.

He has edited over 40 anthologies and published diverse non-fiction books, including a study of homicide investigation, Urge to Kill. An expert on crime fiction history, he is archivist of both the Crime Writers' Association and the Detection Club. He was elected eighth President of the Detection Club in 2015, spent two years as Chair of the CWA, and posts regularly to his blog, 'Do You Write Under Your Own Name?'

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lostintheswamp

More Please!

Reviewed in the United States on March 20, 2015

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I completely enjoyed this book written in, what seemed to me, a more traditional approach to a whodunnit. I know England well and I enjoyed the beautiful descriptions of the Lake District. I don't think the author explained well enough why Daniel Kind, a well known author and historian, who decides, with his girfriend, Miranda, to leave Oxford and move to the Lake District, was so positive that Barrie Gilpin was not the murderer of a young woman, many years ago. Kind only knew Gilpin briefly from a long ago summer. That said, this was a good, solid murder mystery. It's beautifully written, and, in the typical British way,develops slowly and descriptively. This is not for slash and burn and guns blazing fans, nor does it have the humour of a Dalziel and Pascoe mystery. But, I have to say that I enjoyed it thoroughly. There is no cliff hanger in the ending, but I had a sense that, maybe, there's more to come with David Kind and his girlfriend Miranda because there was something about Miranda that I just didn't quite trust and it seemed as if there should be more to come. I could be wrong about that but I'd be very happy if there was a follow up book - maybe there already is since I haven't checked. This is a modern day mystery with a very traditional feel and certainly much better than some of the contemporary British mystery writers I have read recently. I'll be looking for some of this author's other works.

One person found this helpful

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L. Brannel

Writing is great, setting wonderful, mystery satisfying...

Reviewed in the United States on February 17, 2016

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The title is not that appealing but the book is! Set in the Lake District in northwest England, the mystery features two detectives working in tandem but not in a collaboration--one is an Oxford historian who has thrown over his academic life for a cottage, the other is a female police datective. Both are looking into a cold case--seemingly ritualistic murder of a beautiful woman by an boy who never fit in (probably autistic before that diagnosis was so widely used). The setting is so wonderfully evoked! The two detectives are well-developed characters linked by an association: The historian is the son of a police detective father who was the partner of the female detective. The son barely knew his father and so is learning about him through his conversations with her. Both have partners but are also attracted to each other. But romance is on the back burner and there are lots of clues and relationships to unravel before the case becomes clear. I have discovered a new author and will read all in this series!

2 people found this helpful

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RMitra, mystery writer

Well written but Old Hat

Reviewed in the United States on March 26, 2005

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Starts off with a young Oxford Historian and his girl friend getting fed up and 'retiring' to live at a place where Daniel Kind, the historian, lived and remembers a brutal murder. His father, the policeman was never convinced of the guilt of the man presumed to have committed the crime, but who died-accidentally or by suicide. He left our hero and his family and Daniel exhibits the usual angst of sons in this situation.

One of his father's old flames, Hannah Scarlett, now is in charge of 'cold crimes' and reopens the case. She has a relationship which began at the time of the murder.

Nicely written, very atmospheric, and lyrical language which enhances the Cumbrian landscape. But the characters behave in predictable ways, the domestic squabbles of Daniel and Miranda are hackneyed. The usual village gossipers want to let well alone. 'No good will come out of digging into the past,' etc.

It actually reads like Christie's Hercule Poirot tackling old mysteries. Unfortunately for the author, while Mrs. Christie's books ran to about two hundred pages, this one, at twice the length, fails to totally snare the readers' attention. But in the end, it is a solid mystery, none too distinguished but then everyone cannot be another Reginal Hill.

28 people found this helpful

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CC vdM

Historical research vs police detection.. are they really that different

Reviewed in the United States on January 22, 2018

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Oxford history professor celeb gives it all up to move to lake country with his girlfriend to "get away from it all". But history has a way of catching up with you. First of all They buy the home of his former boyhood pal who has since been accused of murder. Not only that but his father that abandoned him and his family when he was a child set up shop in the local police station and although now dead, Dan some holes he needs resolved. Ever curious as a history researcher tends to be here opens some wounds asking his questions both about his father and his boyhood pal. The story twists about with a few more bodies and skeletons uncovered. Interested me enough to look into next books of series....

2 people found this helpful

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Connie

likable characters

Reviewed in the United States on April 21, 2019

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I bought this book because--in a few weeks--I'm taking a whodunit cruise followed by time in Oxford--and Martin Edwards is the guest lecturer. (If I've piqued your interest, check out Road Scholar.org.)

To get ready for this trip, I've been reading lots of mysteries--all on my reading list--but I liked this one enough to buy the next 2 because Edwards continued to use 2 interesting characters, Daniel Kind, a former Oxford don, and Hannah Scarlett, a detective who's heading a squad focusing on cold cases.

If you like British mysteries, you might want to check out this one....

7 people found this helpful

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Thomas D Wittenberg

familiar place names

Reviewed in the United States on March 26, 2022

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I bought this book because I have travelled in the Lake District, so the place names are familiar. But I found the story itself disappointing.

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Rain H

Great Tale of 13th century CSI inventor: Ci

Reviewed in the United States on June 5, 2013

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I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book - which I "borrowed".
The tale was very exciting and had a LOT of historical detail of the Tson period.
It is just such an unbelievable and far-out tale, that was carefully researched and very well-written, but with my knowledge and background of China, such things as the Emperor of China being almost attacked by Judge Feng in the final scene of the book would not be possible as the Son of Heaven would not be allowed to do any of the things described in the book, being tied day and night to rituals,sacrificesand court protocol.

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Paola

noia mortale

Reviewed in Italy on October 2, 2017

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i libri gialli non devono, non possono essere noiosi, possono essere scritti in maniera mediocre, puoi dimenticare di averli letti dopo poche ore dalla fine, ma ti devono tenere incollato alle loro pagine con la smania di finirli..ecco questo libro, oltre ad essere scritto in maniera mediocre era di una noia mortale !!

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Cleopatra

A solid and enjoyable start to a series.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 4, 2016

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The title has been chosen for the name given to the tracks which were used to transport bodies from the remote village to one with a graveyard. The symbolism of bodies being strapped to the horses for their final journey is one that resonates throughout this book.

As the book opens we meet Daniel Heard and his girlfriend Miranda buying Tarn Cottage in the fictional village of Brackdale on a whim while visiting the area for a short break. Daniel has tired in his role at Oxford University but it is Miranda who is the driving force behind the move, after all as a freelance journalist she can submit her copy from anywhere. Daniel has visited the area before, the last holiday before his policeman father left home to be with another woman and while there he met, and became friends with, Barrie Gilpin who lived in Tarn Cottage. The cottage is being sold for a song because Barrie Gilpin was widely suspected by police and villagers alike to have murdered a young woman. He died of an accident before the murder was discovered and his poor mother was shunned by the locals.

Meanwhile DI Hannah Scarlett is wondering if she can get her career back on track after a disastrous collapse of a trial compounded by even more disastrous public relations. She finds herself leading a new team set up to examine whether advances in forensics can solve any of the old cases. With a retired detective to assist and her trusty partner they begin leafing through the old files.

As Daniel probes the villager’s memories about Barrie, treating this personal quest he begins to ruffle a few feathers to say the least and Miranda is none too pleased. With some loose ends to tie up about his father, who died without Daniel ever making peace, who was on the original investigation the claustrophobic nature of life in a remote village becomes ever more apparent.

I enjoyed The Coffin Trail which was first published in 2004 for being a ‘real’ police procedural series. There were no clever tricks but straightforward investigations by both Daniel and Hannah Scarlet into what happened to the young woman who was laid out on Sacrifice Stone, it can’t be accidental that this was the place for pagan rituals. There are lots of characters within this book and of course being the first in the series, more time is spent giving these a background to be built on later, this gave the first section of the book quite a slow feel, but with solid writing and the fabulous scenery that Martin Edwards captures, keeping me entertained, I certainly didn’t have a chance to become bored.

Once the investigation gets underway it appears that the crux of the matter is going to be examining those old alibis rather than the more straightforward DNA results that DI Hannah Scarlett’s bosses were hoping for. And we all know what that means, yes my favourite, old secrets and lies will be exposed! There is no doubt at all that plenty of skeletons, of the kind that hide in cupboards, are rattled. As secret after secret is revealed the inhabitants of Brackdale will most likely never be the same again.

After really enjoying the characters of historian Daniel Head and the fairly level-headed and yet not to be pushed around, DI Hannah Scarlett I am now looking forward to reading the second in this series, The Cipher Garden

4 people found this helpful

Maxine Clarke

Highly promising start to crime-fiction series set in Lake District

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 30, 2010

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Daniel Kind, an Oxford history don, and his girlfriend Miranda, a "lifestyle" journalist, decide to leave the rat-race and escape to an idyllic cottage in the Lake District. As well as being tired by a diet of university politics and teaching, Daniel is recovering from the death of his previous girlfriend, Aimee (we are not told how she died until near the end of the book). He has met Miranda only recently, and is both pleased and slightly worried by her impulsive enthusiasm for starting a new life in the remote Tarn Cottage.
The delightfully named DCI Hannah Scarlett is put in charge of a new police team to investigate cold cases, a current fashion in the light of developments in forensic science unavailable to contemporary investigations. How Daniel's local dicoveries around his new house,and a case of Hannah's gradually converge, is the main plot of THE COFFIN TRAIL, which is an absorbing read, full of local detail and vignettes of Lake District life. Hannah and Daniel are plausible characters, and if the hints here are carried forward, they are surely destined to become more closely involved with each other in future books. The central mystery is satisfyingly resolved, with a clever twist in the tale.

A full version of this review is at the Euro Crime website.

3 people found this helpful

DTJ

Excellent setting, engaging characters, straightforward plot

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 4, 2022

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The storyline keeps moving in this novel, with good exploration of the central protagonists. Some of the minor characters verge on the stereotypical but there are enough hints and twists in the plot to maintain interest through to the end. I found it largely enjoyable but spoilt by a couple of continuity/editing errors.

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The Coffin Trail: A Lake District Mystery (Lake District Mysteries Book 1) Kindle Edition

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