It was an easy read and I have a suspicion that Stig Abell could be a name to watch as his skill develops. The awkward stiffness between husband and wife who have run out of things to say to each other, and sit restless and aloof. In het begin moest ik even wennen aan de schrijfstijl, daar het niet als een thriller overkwam, maar meer als een roman die op gang moest komen.

He was formerly a fiction reviewer at The Spectator and reviewer at Telegraph Media Group as well as The Times Literary Supplement. Only what he finds is not the pretend bones put in the bag by the hunt's organizer, but real, very human bones. Though Jake comes across as a nervous amateur detective rather than someone with actual police experience (in a tense moment, he envisions what Jack Reacher would do), he is an engaging narrator. I enjoyed about two thirds of the book and the only parts I became bored with was the relationship between Jake and the local vet.A village tradition involves hunting for the 'bones' of a local Saint - the bones being a representative bag of sticks. This book is an account of Jakes move from the city to the country after inheriting a property from his uncle.

I’m a bit of a newbie to the crime detective genre and the pace was a slow burn, but I can confirm I was satisfied with how the plot escalates as the case draws to a head, the last few chapters had me gripped and the realisation over what’s been happening in the calm, cosy, peaceful village is unsettling to say the least! Before that he was a regular presenter on Radio 4’s Front Row and was the editor and publisher of the Times Literary Supplement. A solid attempt for a debut detective novel, but unfortunately it fell a little short as there were just too few suspects. Jake leaves for a fresh start, but everything isn’t quite as beautiful as it seems following the annual treasure hunt and he winds up pulled into old boots to assist with solving the mystery of an uncovered death! Arthur‘s final letter to Jake is very telling about Jake‘s state of mind, so his bequest of Little Sky and all the surrounding land will be his place of renunciation with no distractions such as the Internet.It transpires there is a very definite black hole lurking at the heart of this picture perfect place. It is quite a journey to get to his new home and finds that there is no shower or bathroom but the nearby lake to wash in and the only entertainment he has is the several bookcases of books mainly crime novels and classical music to entertain him. Meanwhile, in Bristol, Livvy Nicholson has a six-month-old son, a loving new husband, Dominic, and a yearning to get back to work that is being inadvertently thwarted by Dominic’s plans for his own career. I enjoyed getting to know Jake, his unfolding relationships with the other villagers and following his investigation. There seemed to be no issue with vehicles travelling across anybody’s land (and the locals are hardly amenable.

Without rancour, he and his wife separate and Jake goes off to start anew, living almost as a hermit and learning the skills of self-sufficiency. It’s not long before he finds that a woman died in the small village a decade earlier under mysterious circumstances. Sometimes the sound of his own voice surprises him, scraped from his throat, out of use like an old piece of machinery pulled from storage.I love the cover of this book and with Stig's creative writing it sets the scene and landscape of Little Sky. There is a nice concept here, the detective living virtually off-grid in a house not accessible by road, the cast of locals with secrets etc.

Wel is er direct heel beeldend geschreven, waardoor je het idee hebt dat je in het verhaal aanwezig bent. There is the mention of so many mystery authors and the hero’s home has a 5000 book library which all just puts me in my happy place. The pace here is very pedestrian due partly I feel to the thriller element not having much meat on the bone. Gloriously atmospheric and masterfully plotted with such a strong sense of place, this is a huge treat for crime fiction lovers.This cozy-ish novel, British media personality Abell’s first, boasts a familiar but niftily handled plot enhanced by poetic descriptions of the surroundings. The mounting evidence of ever more and ever worse skulduggery will pull Tempe deeper and deeper down what even she sees as a rabbit hole before she confronts a ringleader implicated in “Drugs. Set in the depths of the English countryside, it’s about a detective whose marriage has failed and who leaves the city to get back to nature and solitude. His job as a detective investigating cold cases gives him satisfaction and he’s good at it, but perhaps he cares too much about the victims and the horrors he has seen have just about drained him. Abell educated at Loughborough Grammar School, and went on to graduate with a double first in English from Emmanuel College, Cambridge.