Death Toll
A Peter Shaw Mystery by Jim Kelly
Review: Detective Inspector Peter Shaw and his partner, Detective Sergeant George Valentine, investigate a decades old murder when the body of a young man is found buried atop a coffin in Death Toll, the third mystery in this series by Jim Kelly.
In 1982, Nora Tilden was killed by her husband, who threw her down the stairs. She was buried in the Fleming Meadow Cemetery in rural King Lynn, which is now being relocated due to repeated flooding. But when her grave is opened, there is the body of a black man, his head bashed in. Though badly decomposed, his identity is almost certainly that of Pat Garrison, who disappeared the night of Nora's wake. And there's a connection between them: Pat was Nora's nephew, the son of her sister and a black GI. But why would someone kill Pat? But soon Shaw and Valentine discover yet another connection between the families, one that may have been a motive for murder … then and now. But after all these years, will it be possible to find any evidence to convict a killer?
Separately, the police partners take on another cold case, this one related to an investigation that Valentine worked on with Shaw's father when they were partners twelve years ago, involving the murder of a 15-year-old boy.
Death Toll is a multi-layered mystery, and every aspect of it is handled extraordinarily well. There's a simmering tension between Shaw and Valentine, ready to erupt at the slightest provocation, that makes for uneasy relationship between the two as they investigate their cases. The murder mysteries themselves are nicely plotted, intricately devised without being overly complicated. This is a fine example of the books in this series, one that should have a long run ahead of it.
Special thanks to guest reviewer Betty of The Betz Review for contributing her review of Death Toll.
Acknowledgment: Minotaur Books provided a copy of Death Toll for this review.
Review Copyright © 2011 — Hidden Staircase Mystery Books — All Rights Reserved
Selected reviews of other mysteries by this author …
Death Watch
Minotaur Books (Hardcover), May 2010
ISBN-13: 9780312644901; ISBN-10: 0312644906
Location(s) referenced in Death Toll: England
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Death Toll by Jim Kelly
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Format: Hardcover
ISBN-10: 0-312-57352-9
ISBN-13: 978-0-312-57352-2
Publication Date: June 2011
List Price: $25.99
Synopsis (from the publisher): Bodies are being exhumed at King's Lynn's cemetery, the bones moved to higher ground to avoid flooding. But when the coffin of murdered pub landlady Nora Tilden is hauled up into the light there's a grim discovery: the twisted corpse of a young black man, killed by a billhook blow to the head, and dumped in the grave on the night Nora was buried twenty-eight years earlier. The police are baffled by a bewildering and brutal murder.
Who was this young man? Was he the victim of a racist crime? When DI Peter Shaw, DS George Valentine and their team are put on the case their investigation first leads them to The Flask, Nora's pub just along the riverbank, where her family hides more than one dark secret and it's soon clear no one can be trusted. Will Shaw and Valentine be able to get to the shocking truth behind the murder before it's too late and the ghosts from the past claim another victim?