Lake District Mysteries Books in Order: How to read Martin Edwards’s series?

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Cold Case murder mysteries.

What is the Lake District Mystery series about?

Martin Edwards is a British novelist, an ex-solicitor who published his first book in 1991, launching the Harry Devlin series. He is a member of the Murder Squad and the Detection Club, and consultant to the British Library’s Crime Classics.

But this article is not about that but about The Lake District Mysteries a series about Cold Case crimes.

The series is about Hannah Scarlett, Detective Chief Inspector in the Cumbria Constabulary who heads the Cold Case Review Team. With the historian Daniel Kind, they work together to solve murder mysteries.

Lake District Mysteries Books in Order:

Every book in the Lake District Mysteries works as a standalone story, but the lives of the different characters evolve from one novel to the other.

  1. The Coffin Trail (2004)
  2. The Cipher Garden (2005)
  3. The Arsenic Labyrinth (2007)
  4. The Serpent Pool (2010)
  5. The Hanging Wood (2011)
  6. The Frozen Shroud (2013)
  7. The Dungeon House (2015)
  8. The Crooked Shore (2021)

What is the plot of the Lake District stories?

For more information about the books in the Lake District series by Martin Edwards, you’ll find below the official synopsis for all the books:

The Coffin Trail – Oxford historian Daniel Kind and his partner Miranda both want to escape to a new life. On impulse they buy a cottage in Brackdale, an idyllic valley in the Lake District. Tarn Cottage was once home to Barrie Gilpin, suspected of a savage murder. A young woman’s body was found on the Sacrifice Stone, an ancient pagan site up on the fell, but Barrie died before he could be arrested. Daniel has personal reasons for becoming fascinated by the case and for believing in Barrie’s innocence. When the police launch a cold case review, Brackdale’s skeletons begin to rattle and the lives of Daniel and DCI Hannah Scarlett become strangely entwined.

The Cipher Garden – In the peaceful village of Old Sawrey, set in the idyllic Lake District, a murderer strikes. Warren Howe, a husband and father of two, is brutally slaughtered with his own scythe by a mysterious hooded figure. The police manage to identify several suspects, but due to the lack of evidence they fail to make an arrest. Years later an anonymous tip-off sparks the interest of DCI Hannah Scarlett, who heads the local Cold Case Review Team. Scarlett’s investigations lead her to suspect Howe’s widow, Tina. Meanwhile, someone is sending vicious poison pen letters to Tina and her two children.

The Arsenic Labyrinth – Daniel Kind’s relationship with Miranda is on the rocks. After the bright lights of London, Miranda feels isolated in the Lake District and Daniel fears that she will just up and leave. And Miranda wouldn’t be the first: ten years ago Emma Bestwick left her cottage and never returned. Her disappearance went unaccounted for, much to the chagrin of DCI Hannah Scarlett, head of the local Cold Case Review Team. But in a small, rural community, someone is bound to know something.

The Serpent Pool – The Lake District’s cold case specialist, DCI Hannah Scarlett, is determined to uncover the truth behind Bethany Friend’s apparent suicide in the Serpent Pool. 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.

The Hanging Wood – Twenty years after her brother Callum mysteriously vanished, Orla Payne is still haunted by his disappearance. The case was closed after her uncle’s suicide – the police believed he killed himself in the Hanging Wood out of guilt over murdering the boy, even though no body was ever found. Daniel Kind recommends Orla contact DCI Hannah Scarlett, head of the Lake District’s Cold Case Review Team, to see if she can discover the truth about what really happened all those years ago.

The Frozen Shroud – Death has come twice to Ravenbank, a remote community in England’s Lake District, each time on Hallowe’en. In 1914, a young woman’s corpse was found, with a makeshift shroud frozen to her battered face. Her ghost – the Faceless Woman – is said to walk through Ravenbank on Hallowe’en. Five years ago, another woman was murdered, and again her face was covered to hide her injuries. Daniel Kind becomes fascinated by the old cases, and wonders whether the obvious suspects really did commit the crimes.

The Dungeon House – Twenty years ago, Malcolm Whiteley discovers his attractive wife Lysette is having an affair. The Whiteleys are wealthy, and live with their 16-year-old daughter Amber in the magnificent Dungeon House, overlooking Cumbria’s remote western coast. But Malcolm is under financial and emotional pressure, and he begins to disintegrate psychologically, suspecting the men in their circle of being Lysette’s lover. When Lysette tells Malcolm their marriage is over, he snaps, and takes out the old Winchester rifle he has been hiding from Lysette…

The Crooked Shore – DCI Hannah Scarlett is an acknowledged expert in solving cold cases, but she is struggling under the weight of bureaucracy when Ramona Smith’s disappearance from Bowness more than twenty years ago crosses her desk. The prime suspect was charged but found not guilty. Now the case comes back into the public eye as the result of a shocking tragedy on the Crooked Shore, the fount of dark legends in the south of the Lake District.

What should you read if you like the Lake District Mysteries?

If you like reading the Lake District novels, you may be interested in the Harry Devlin series, in Ann Cleeves‘ Books (the author of Vera and Shetland).

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