The Killing Place (2023) by Kate Ellis

November in South Devon. The tourists have gone and life in South Devon and there is every hope that the rest of the year will be a peaceful one for DI Wesley Peterson and the local CID. So needless to say, it’s not long before a dead body is found in the grounds of Nesbarton Hall. Patrick North was a tutor for the son of the family, but they are on holiday in Scotland. So what made North return to the grounds – and who shot him in the chest?

Meanwhile Dr Neil Watson, Wes’ archaeologist friend discovers a body in a grotto on land that formally belonged to the hall – but while the body is not what it seems, subsequent digging begins to reveal a dark history of rituals on the site. But how does that relate to the modern day killing – and the killings that are to come?

Sometimes, I wonder. On the app formerly known as Twitter, certain book releases, well, you can’t avoid them. Whether it’s a new author or the latest from an author who’s been around awhile, my feed seems awash with news about them. But other authors, even award winning authors like Kate, there seems nary a whisper when a new book comes out.

It’s a regular ritual of mine that when I get wind of a new release of Kate’s, a message is sent from me asking for a review copy. Well, for the first time in an age, I didn’t do that, basically because I missed the fact that this had come out. But clearly I have trained the publishers into a Pavlovian reaction because the other day, a copy of The Killing Place arrived anyway. It was like a little bonus birthday!

Oh, the book? Sorry, almost forgot. If you’re unfamiliar with Kate’s work, the Wesley Peterson series is a police procedural focussing on Wes, with plenty of suspects, most of whom have secrets to hide which are revealed as the narrative progresses. There will also be a brief historical tale that runs parallel to the story which will be related in some way to the murder case.

It really feels odd to say that this book is more of the same. The sounds like faint praise – almost criticism – but it really isn’t. The characters, Wes, his family, his colleagues, the victims, the suspects are all fleshed out. Not that they sit around for chapters on ending debating their own foibles with themselves, but they all have a life to them. The suspects are all distinctive too, so you never find yourself flicking backwards to try and remember who the heck they. And despite this being the twenty-seventh in the series, there’s no repetition of plot – twenty-seven distinct books in a series is quite some feat, but Kate seems to manage it with ease.

And the plot keeps the reader guessing – you know, I don’t think I’ve ever got to the end of one of Kate’s having figured out who the killer is. The identity of the killer always makes perfect sense, the victims all being killed for a reason. Even when the killer is a tad insane, there is still logic to what they do.

Still not being particularly specific to this book, am I? Well, the past story, of an out-of-luck actor being hired by the lord of the manor to play a wild man, living on a cave on the Nesbarton estate, is chilling as the truth slowly begins to be revealed as to what he is actually required to do. There is a similar chill to the resolution to the main plot, a plot that contains multiple murders, a kidnap plot, recent past crimes casting shadows on the present…

An excellent example of how this sort of thing should be done. Kate is at the top of the pile when it comes to modern police procedurals and this needs to be right at the top of people’s shopping/library lists.

The Wesley Peterson Series: