Fifty years ago, a young woman was killed in Ilfracombe, stabbed through the heart by a sharp metal crucifix. The killer was sent to jail and Ruth Lyle was buried and mostly forgotten about.

Exactly fifty years later, in the same location, an elderly woman is found dead. She had been stabbed through the heart by the same metal crucifix. And even more strangely, the woman’s name was Ruth Lyle.

DI Jan Talantire is faced with the most baffling case of her career – how can a woman be murdered twice in exactly the same way?

A new author to me, Nick Louth has written 12 books in the DCI Craig Gillard series, along with some standalone thrillers, but this is the start of a new series set in Devon, another contribution to making Devon the fictional crime capital of England. It’s a police procedural, with a refreshing lack of unpleasant characters in Jan – sorry, Talantire’s department. It’s an interesting choice that the narrative refers to her mostly by her surname, something not that common for female police characters in crime fiction to the best of my recall, so it’s good to have things on an even footing.

I suppose that I should mention the “impossible crime” tag on the front cover, as it’s not really such a thing. There’s a revelation relatively early on that moves it from “impossible” to “just a bit weird”, but that’s not a criticism of the book. It’s a good example of the genre and manages to frame it around a more imaginative concept than you’d usually find.

Add in an interesting lead character, mostly free from nightmarish flaws which I always like to see, and a strong team supporting her. The suspects and obstacles are well fashioned, and while the overall villain did seem to come out of the blue a tad, there are some good surprises along the way.

All in all, I look forward to reading more from the series – definitely one for fans of police procedurals with protagonists who aren’t scarred by dark secrets.

The Two Deaths Of Ruth Lyle is out from Canelo Crime in paperback and ebook on May 2^nd. Many thanks to the publisher for the review copy.