The Serpent Pool
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'Evocative descriptions, expert plotting, an engaging protagonist and strongly delineated characters...the denouement will have you choking on your Kendal mint cake' The Guardian
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They halted close to the water's edge. This was their destination. This was the Serpent Pool. And here, six years ago, Bethany Friend's body had been found. The Lake District's cold case specialist, DCI Hannah Scarlett, is determined to uncover the truth behind an apparent suicide in the Serpent Pool some years ago. Why would Bethany, so afraid of water, drown herself? Hannah fears that her partner, bookseller Marc Amos, is keeping dark secrets. Does he hold the key to Bethany's past - and why was his best customer burnt to death in an Ullswater boathouse? Hannah still carries a torch for Daniel Kind, who is researching Thomas De Quincey and the history of murder. Once Daniel and Hannah suspect connections between Bethany's drowning and a current sequence of killings, death comes dangerously close to home.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
19 of 19 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
DCI Hannah Scarlett is investigating the 6 year old murder of Bethany Friend who was found dead in the Serpent Pool not far from where she now lives. Was it murder or could it conceivably have been suicide? Her partner, rare book dealer Marc Amos, seems to think she is wasting her time re-opening the case, but Hannah doesn't think she is. The rest of Hannah's colleagues, meanwhile, are investigating the death of a local rare book collector - George Saffell - burned to death along with his valuable book collection.
Marc and Hannah are not getting on too well even though they have recently bought an old house with the intention of renovating it. I thought the scenes near the beginning of the book where Hannah is checking everything she says in order not to start a row were cleverly done and very true to life. Hannah is wondering whether Marc knows more about Bethany than he is saying and just how well he knows a new member of his staff, Cassie Weston.
I was hooked from the very first page of this complex mystery. It is well written and the characters are three dimensional and all too human. I enjoyed trying to work out in advance the links between people. I liked the way Hannah debates with herself about whether to contact Daniel Kind - the son of her former boss - again, even though she knows it might not be a good idea to do so. The rare books background is interesting as are the discussions about Thomas De Quincey - about whom Daniel is supposed to be writing a book. The Lake District in winter broods over the whole story like a character in its own right and the sense of place is very strong.
If you like your crime with not too much violence on the page, with believable characters and a mystery which is difficult to unravel then you will enjoy `The Serpent Pool'. In my opinion it is the best of the author's Lake District Series which started with `The Coffin Trail' and continued with `The Cipher Garden' and `The Arsenic Labyrinth'. I enjoyed it and found I had to keep reading once I'd started. I shall look forward to future additions to this series.
Marc and Hannah are not getting on too well even though they have recently bought an old house with the intention of renovating it. I thought the scenes near the beginning of the book where Hannah is checking everything she says in order not to start a row were cleverly done and very true to life. Hannah is wondering whether Marc knows more about Bethany than he is saying and just how well he knows a new member of his staff, Cassie Weston.
I was hooked from the very first page of this complex mystery. It is well written and the characters are three dimensional and all too human. I enjoyed trying to work out in advance the links between people. I liked the way Hannah debates with herself about whether to contact Daniel Kind - the son of her former boss - again, even though she knows it might not be a good idea to do so. The rare books background is interesting as are the discussions about Thomas De Quincey - about whom Daniel is supposed to be writing a book. The Lake District in winter broods over the whole story like a character in its own right and the sense of place is very strong.
If you like your crime with not too much violence on the page, with believable characters and a mystery which is difficult to unravel then you will enjoy `The Serpent Pool'. In my opinion it is the best of the author's Lake District Series which started with `The Coffin Trail' and continued with `The Cipher Garden' and `The Arsenic Labyrinth'. I enjoyed it and found I had to keep reading once I'd started. I shall look forward to future additions to this series.
16 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
New Year's Eve, and DCI Hannah Scarlett is reluctantly readying herself for a party hosted by rich lawyer Stuart Wagg, but anything she muses is an improvement after spending Christmas - seven claustrophobic days cheek by jowl with Marc's (her partner's) family. As Stuart is one of Marc's best customers, and having recently moved to a new house that needs a lot of work, they need all the money they can get. Marc Amos is a second hand book-seller, specializing in rare books, and with his best customer recently being found burnt to death along with all his books, Marc cannot afford to lose another customer.
Back at work Hannah Scarlett, head of the Cold Cases Division of the Cumbria Constabulary is currently looking into the death of Bethany Friend, who six years ago died from drowning in The Serpent's Pool. But was it suicide or murder? As Hannah interviews the people who knew Bethany she begins to suspect that Marc knew Bethany but if he did he has never mentioned it when the subject has come up - is Marc hiding something? And could it have anything to do with Bethany's death. The easiest thing would be to ask him, but the relationship between Hannah and Marc is already strained, and so she puts it off trying to find the right time.
Hannah and Marc have clearly moved apart in their relationship, and although their differences must have always been there they are now becoming more apparent as time passes. The relationship problems are handled well, with skill and sensitivity, and contribute much to the feel of the story. Marc is clearly very attractive and every so often does something that reminds Hannah why she fell in love with him, but there is no doubt that he gets petulant, when things don't go his way and that can be wearing
Meanwhile Daniel Kind, to whom Hannah was attracted, has now returned from his six month stint in the USA. Another death gives occasion for them to meet and the attraction resurfaces. But as Hannah begins to make links between the deaths, Marc is pursuing a line of enquiry of his own!
A past unsolved death - recent unexplained deaths, complex relationships, past and present make this is a page turner. Martin Edwards skillfully weaves all the past and present events into a fascinating story with a nail-biting climax.
I have enjoyed all the books in this series but this it the best to date. Once I started it I couldn't put it down. Highly recommended.
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Lizzie Hayes
Back at work Hannah Scarlett, head of the Cold Cases Division of the Cumbria Constabulary is currently looking into the death of Bethany Friend, who six years ago died from drowning in The Serpent's Pool. But was it suicide or murder? As Hannah interviews the people who knew Bethany she begins to suspect that Marc knew Bethany but if he did he has never mentioned it when the subject has come up - is Marc hiding something? And could it have anything to do with Bethany's death. The easiest thing would be to ask him, but the relationship between Hannah and Marc is already strained, and so she puts it off trying to find the right time.
Hannah and Marc have clearly moved apart in their relationship, and although their differences must have always been there they are now becoming more apparent as time passes. The relationship problems are handled well, with skill and sensitivity, and contribute much to the feel of the story. Marc is clearly very attractive and every so often does something that reminds Hannah why she fell in love with him, but there is no doubt that he gets petulant, when things don't go his way and that can be wearing
Meanwhile Daniel Kind, to whom Hannah was attracted, has now returned from his six month stint in the USA. Another death gives occasion for them to meet and the attraction resurfaces. But as Hannah begins to make links between the deaths, Marc is pursuing a line of enquiry of his own!
A past unsolved death - recent unexplained deaths, complex relationships, past and present make this is a page turner. Martin Edwards skillfully weaves all the past and present events into a fascinating story with a nail-biting climax.
I have enjoyed all the books in this series but this it the best to date. Once I started it I couldn't put it down. Highly recommended.
------
Lizzie Hayes
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Martin Edwards' Lake District series has become a gem in thoughtful, contemporary crime novels. They check all the boxes 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.
The Serpent Pool sees the two main protagonists, cold case expert DCI Hannah Scarlett and historian Daniel Kind, more definite about their feelings for each other than in previous novels. The sexual tension between them has become the fulcrum for the series and it adds extra spice to the murder mystery.
The key murder in The Serpent Pool, which forms an attention-grabbing opener, proves not to be the last, while a six-year-old suspicious death which Hannah is working on has an overlapping cast of characters. These personalities are intriguing and offer fascinating glimpses into unusual lives. This is one aspect I especially enjoy about Martin Edwards' books; they're set very much in the now and they gently expose and question the unpleasant reality of modern day business and politics.
However, one of the novel's main protagonists is a historian and Edwards also delights in revealing the past. As with previous books, 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. Grotesque? Definitely. There are elements of Gothic horror at work in this fast-paced and rewarding book.
The Serpent Pool sees the two main protagonists, cold case expert DCI Hannah Scarlett and historian Daniel Kind, more definite about their feelings for each other than in previous novels. The sexual tension between them has become the fulcrum for the series and it adds extra spice to the murder mystery.
The key murder in The Serpent Pool, which forms an attention-grabbing opener, proves not to be the last, while a six-year-old suspicious death which Hannah is working on has an overlapping cast of characters. These personalities are intriguing and offer fascinating glimpses into unusual lives. This is one aspect I especially enjoy about Martin Edwards' books; they're set very much in the now and they gently expose and question the unpleasant reality of modern day business and politics.
However, one of the novel's main protagonists is a historian and Edwards also delights in revealing the past. As with previous books, 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. Grotesque? Definitely. There are elements of Gothic horror at work in this fast-paced and rewarding book.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
The best one yet
I was really looking forward to reading the fourth in this series and I only wish I'd warned everyone that I was starting it because once started it's absolutely impossible to put... Read more
Published 3 months ago by EZW
More, please, from a Crime buff
I must write to congratulate the publishers of the Lake District Mysteries by Martin Edwards. Each of the four that I have read so far are stand-alone mysteries but read as a... Read more
Published 5 months ago by John Fordyce
The Serpent Pool
The story is fair although there is little tension or excitement. It was difficult to care about the characters who did not come across as real people. Overall disappointing.
Published 8 months ago by T. King
Brilliant read!
Absolutely wonderful book, beautifully written and a complete page turner from the first page to the last. Read more
Published 9 months ago by JessicaJayne
Serpent Pool
Being an avid reader of adventure and mystery novels I was intrigued to explore a new author. I was not disappointed, the book was well written, the atmosphere generated was superb... Read more
Published 11 months ago by MJE
Strength of characters and plot makes this book shine out
I really enjoyed this book. Knowing the Lake District I felt The Serpent Pool really evoked and understood its people and the landscape as much as Edinburgh and Rankin. Read more
Published 14 months ago by Zuma
Twists and turns aplenty
Intelligently written with believable characters, The Serpent Pool takes the reader into the worlds of rare books, obsession and murder, all against a carefully painted backdrop of... Read more
Published 17 months ago by Polton
Formulaic and unconvincing
Six years ago a girl drowned herself - but was it really murder? Now two book collectors have been killed in mysterious circumstances and Hannah Scarlet has to work out the... Read more
Published 21 months ago by Roman Clodia
A hugely satisfying read
In The Serpent Pool, Martin Edwards combines a clever plot, the richly atmospheric setting of the Lake District, and complex characters to create a deeply satisfying rural... Read more
Published 24 months ago by Margaret Murphy
My poor dog.
I love a book that you can get completely lost in and The Serpent Pool certainly fits the bill.The reader is again transported to the beautiful Lake District wonderfuly described... Read more
Published 24 months ago by E Spencer
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