A man with apparently no concerns in the world leaps to his death from a cliff-top – in Hemlock Bay.

Rachel Savernake is fascinated by a surrealist painting which seems to show a broken body at the bottom of a cliff – and it was painted in Hemlock Bay.

Journalist Jacob Flint is told by a psychic that he has predicted that a murder is will happen on Midsummer’s Day – in Hemlock Bay.

Basil Palmer is determined to kill a man he knows nothing about, a man called Louis Carson. He traces Carson to his home town – Hemlock Bay.

All roads lead to Hemlock Bay and murder is heading there too,,,

The fifth Rachel Savernake book, following Gallows Court, Mortmain Hall, Blackstone Fell and Sepulchre Street, all of which were intricately plotted homages to the Golden Age of Detection. And to be clear, when I say homages, I don’t mean something set amongst the elites of the 1920s with a bright young socialite tripping over the killer at the end of the book.

No, what I mean is that the books are carefully constructed, many-layered mysteries which may have one or two aspects that rarely appeared at the time, and are determined to do something a little differently but could sit proudly alongside the best of the era. And this one is exactly the same – a masterclass that modern day mystery writers would do well to pay attention to.

One of the hooks here is the potential for four distinct crimes to be investigated, even though two of them haven’t happened yet. The murder (sorry, the first murder) occurs just before the halfway point and until it happened, I genuinely had no idea who the victim was going to be. The mystery is an impressive piece of plotting and despite the clues detailed in the cluefinder at the end, I defy anyone to see the complete picture.

Add in the sleuthing team of Rachel Savernake and her entourage and it’s a book to savour. One note – I would like to see a little more of the Rachel – Jacob – Martha triangle that gets a vague hint or two but never gets really developed. There is a little more of Jacob being  jealous of Rachel flirting with the police, and Martha does get a bit of development here, but I do like a bit of romance.

If this isn’t a series that you’ve sampled, you really, really should. It’s a series that people should be shouting about and you can guarantee that I will be again in the future.

Many thanks to Aries Books for the review copy. Hemlock Bay is out now in hardback and ebook.